Putting Setup
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Learn the proper setup for putting left hand low.
One of the important aspects of putting left-hand low is getting your setup right.
We've already talked about alignment, getting everything square, that's easy-peasy.
But one of the things that's confusing to people is where the ball should be.
And ball position is huge in any golf stroke because when we're letting Sir Isaac Newton get in the driver's seat, We have to align ourselves with the laws of physics.
And the club wants to bottom out in a certain spot each time, based on the mechanics that we're employing in our stroke, and putting is no different.
In a full swing, we know where the bottom of the swing should be.
We've talked about that many times.
In putting, you're going to abide by many of the same laws.
Now, if we were just putting left-hand only, We would want that ball all the way up off our left shoulder.
Because that's where the bottom of the swing arc should be.
Because our left shoulder is acting as a pendulum during the stroke or as a pivot point, and the club is working as a pendulum.
But now, of course, once we put the right hand on there, the club has got to be pulled back in a little bit.
It's going to be really awkward to putt like this.
So, what we need is a putting stroke that's going to allow for this lead side to still be in the dominant position, but the right hand to still help stabilize the club.
And when we do those things, we put them together just like in a full swing, it moves the bottom of the swing arc back a little bit.
Now, how far back?
Well, with a slightly outside neutral stance, I use the ball, one width of the ball in my shoe, as the starting point.
So, that's where actually I'm going to put the ball in my setup.
So, you can see here that with the ball, basically the front of the ball off my instep in my shoe, that that's going to have the putter shaft in a vertical position, which is where we need it.
The left arm is still in a dominant position.
My left wrist is nice and flat.
The right wrist is arched back.
And that is going to allow me, when the putter reaches the bottom of its swing arc, for the putter to be neutral or even slightly on the upstroke.
And I mean very, very slightly.
We're talking about tenths of a degree.
You don't want to be hitting the ball up on the upswing three degrees like you do with a driver.
But you also don't want to be hitting down on the ball.
And that's a really important thing, because many golfers put the ball way back in their stance.
They get the putter shaft leaned way forward.
And not only is this taking a lot of loft off the ball, which is going to change the quality of the strike, and also change the angle of attack, which is going to push the ball down into the ground.
And the ground is kind of spongy.
You've got to keep these greens pretty wet to keep the grass healthy.
And because it's spongy, the ball is going to compress into the ground a little bit and then kind of bounce off in any direction, depending on the turf.
You don't want to rely on the turf.
So what you want is for the ball to basically skid along the ground without really rolling for that first foot.
And to do that, the putter needs to be neutral or slightly on the upstroke.
And that allows the ball to skid and then begin rolling.
If you hit down on it, it's going to start rolling and bouncing right away.
And more importantly, it's going to bounce.
And then you're going to rely on these imperfections in the green to dictate where your ball is going.
We don't want to do that, obviously.
So left hand low, the ball is going to be up in your stance.
So you can see from here, the ball is up off my left end step.
Putter shaft is vertical.
Now this gives you another side benefit of putting left hand low.
And that is because most of us are very right eye dominant.
This allows us to get our right eye a little bit more down the line.
So you can actually cock your head a little bit to see more down the line.
See, my head is turned here a little bit.
And that allows me to putt left hand low, but still be right eye dominant.
Many people who putt right hand, or excuse me, putt, yeah, putt conventional right hand, but are very right eye dominant, they like to set up like this or even kind of side saddle so they can get their right eye really down the line.
That's very awkward to putt like this.
You need a special putter to do it.
So if you don't want to be really unconventional and you want just a simple left hand low putting stroke, my right eye still gets a nice shot down the line.
And that helps me visualize the roll.
Remember we talked about visualizing the line that we want the ball to roll on.
And when your right eye, your dominant eye is on that line.
So ball position up in your stance, putting shaft vertical at address, and then simply pull your shoulder blades back and forth.
And the putter gives a nice smooth stroke and it helps you see the line with that right eye behind the ball.
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