Putting posture

jph100

hi

just noticed in the mirror earlier that my putting stance doesnt look too brilliant. i seem to be too bendy.

just looking at the posture of someone like donald/woods/mcilroy they look so comfortable over the ball. how wud they setup to the ball

anyone any tips?

i know posture isnt too important when putting but id still like to improve it

bitemybanger

Your eyes should be directly over the ball. Poor, bent-over posture increases the possibility that you will set your head and eyes behind the ball. From that position, you tend to look out to the right of the intended line. That forces your brain and body to make a compensation during the stroke to get the ball on line. Just as in the full swing, the more such variables, the less chance of making a repeating stroke.
Standing taller also creates a more upright, less rounded spine angle and frees space for your arms and hands to make the stroke. The result: less tension and greater feel.

ShriekingSheet

There's a few little things you can do to get yourself into a more professional looking shape.

Firstly, if you're very tall or very short it's best to get a putter length to suit. You'll see why that's important below.

The toe of your putter is probably up and there's probably too much of a slant on the shaft. If you take your putter and stand it up by itself in a door frame you can adjust it and see how perpendicular, or upright the shaft should be for the putter head to be parallel to the ground and not toe'd up.

You can take the putter then and try to mirror the upright shaft angle within your actual set-up. If you were to keep your old posture, you'll have to bend your elbows more to accomodate the taller standing putter. But instead of bending your elbows, straighten your back and make yourself taller until your arms hang down to the height of the putter grip.

Note that if you let your arms hang with your previous posture they would've hung lower than the grip of the correctly standing putter so in the past, you were slanting the shaft more and toeing up the putter head to make the grip lower.

Long story short, you're standing taller with the putter more upright. The last thing this is going to be is comfortable - but that's golf - you need to work at it to make it comfortable.


Now for ball positioning in releation to your eye-line etc - this bits easy!
Take your new improved stance with a ball in your hand (holding the putter isn't important here). Take the ball up between your eyes and drop it.

Where it strikes the ground is where the ball should be at address.

jph100

so shud my legs be as straight as possible?

thanks

ShriekingSheet

slight bend - never dead straigh

if there's a full length mirror in your house, line up as if you're putting to it. Then fix yourself into a position, as per above, that looks to you more like what you see on TV.