Putting Technique: Feel the Weight of the Pendulum

The concept of finding the correct “weight” for a shot is inconceivable for many amateur players.  They are so used to pushing and efforting with the club through the bottom of the arc that they can only really relate to the force of gravity making their manipulation or pushing/flipping motion harder to control on a bigger swing. 

If, in contrast, you feel like you are cradling the club from underneath, you can feel like you are catching the club in your hands with your shoulders down in the sockets at the bottom of the arc.  This catching sensation puts the focus on the force of gravity or the weight of the pendulum instead of how much to flip or push.

A small arc will produce a smaller amount of gravity or weight at the bottom of the arc.  A big arc (pendulum) will produce a greater amount of gravity at the bottom, without any help from us to add any additional speed to it. 

If your shoulder and arm muscles are relaxed, they can be great instruments of sensing the correct amount of gravity in a shot.  When they are tense and set up to push through the bottom, the concept of feeling the weight of the shot will be very difficult to grasp.

A pendulum always moves the fastest at the bottom of the arc.  Therefore, if we have good fundamentals, we will be set up to be naturally accelerating into the ball at impact.  Many amateurs give the arc too much distance to swing and they instinctively slow down at the bottom.  We call this decelerating into the ball.  One constant in golf is that we always want to let the pendulum swing naturally.  If we do this, and get better and better and judging how much space is required to produce a certain weight at the bottom of the arc, we will always be accelerating into the ball at a very reliable and constant rate.

Putting Drill – Feeling the Weight

Put on some music that fits the tempo of your ideal golf game

Get in the solid fundamental position discussed in earlier sections

Without a ball, start swinging the putter back and forth, just using the big muscles in the shoulders, focusing on keeping the head centered and still and the lower body quiet.  Start with small swings.  See if you can get the sensation that the club is dropping into your fingers underneath the club at the bottom.  If you notice flipping in your wrists (forearm to back of hand angle in the top hand), you are stopping rotation and adding “hit” to the bottom of the arc.  See if you can keep the top wrist flat through impact to the end of the swing.   This will require relaxation and rotation in the shoulders through the bottom of the arc.

As you find the shoulder pendulum that produces a catching feeling underneath the club at the bottom of the arc, begin to slowly add more rotation to the arc.  Make sure you are continuing to stay centered with the head and quiet with the lower body and that you are able to keep the top wrist flat (forearm to back of hand) throughout the stroke.  See if you can notice a change in the amount of weight you are catching at the bottom of the arc.