helps him swing the putter on the right arc. By placing the right hand parallel to the target line on the
grip, instead of with the palm square to the target, you’re locking the right wrist in a consistent
position, and taking excess hand action out of the stroke. In Craig’s case, the claw really frees him up
to move the putter in a nice arc around his body. Like the cross-handed technique, the claw also keeps
you from getting too much shoulder tilt at address, which lets you swing around your spine instead of
rocking the shoulders.
(ABOVE) The principles I teach are the same even when the hands are reversed on the putter. I’m still maintaining the grip up the lifelines, and the hands are neutral.
(RIGHT) My setup with a cross-handed grip is basically identical to what I would do with a standard grip. The cross-handed grip keeps your left wrist flat to the target through the stroke.
Longer-length putters are also becoming more common these days. You can use them to make the
stroke I teach, as long as you follow a few fundamentals when you set up. With the long putter, you
still need to pay close attention to your alignment at address, with the feet, knees, hips and shoulders
all square to the target line. The arc of your stroke, which I will go into detail about later, may be less
since the shaft angle is very upright because the putter is anchored in the chest. Just make sure that you
don’t move anything in your body above where the putter is anchored in your chest. Just swing the
putter with your right arm, allowing your elbow to hinge, and make the stroke. Take advantage of the
consistency of the anchored putter by staying quiet with your shoulders.
The left-hand grip is the same as the conventional grip I teach, but the right-hand grip is pivoted so that the hand runs parallel to the target line. The biggest benefit of the claw is that it completely removes the hinge in your right wrist.
The belly putter comes closer to a conventional stroke, with some of the same advantages of a
long putter. I like it because it’s really hard not to swing on an arc with it. It’s got an anchor, but you
can still swing both arms like you would with a normal-length putter. The only difference between it
and a conventional putter is that it’s harder to feel the natural hit and release that comes pretty easily
in a stroke with a conventional-length putter. To get the putter to release the way I teach, the left wrist
and arm have to break down and bend toward the target. That’s not something you’d teach in a
conventional stroke, but with the belly putter, it’s not wrong. Just look at how Stewart Cink has
adapted. You have to do it because the club is anchored. Just keep in mind that the USGA is thinking
about banning belly putters because of the way they’re anchored to the body during the stroke. If that
happens, you’ll be forced to go back to something more conventional, so you might not want to get too
attached to it.
CHAPTER 3
FINDING THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT
Your putting stroke obviously has to be sound if you want to roll the ball consistently. Learning the
basics of grip, stance and setup will help you make a consistent stroke, but if you want to take
advantage of that stroke, you have to have equipment that’s going to let it happen.
I agree with the general idea that a player should use a putter that feels good and sets up in a way
that’s attractive to the eye. But all putters are not created equal. If you believe that the putter should
swing on an arc, like I do, that means you should pick a putter that has certain physical characteristics
that make it easy for that to happen. In general, a putter that is more heel-shafted versus center-
shafted, and weighted with toe hang versus face balanced, will give you a more effective putter for
the job. It’s important to understand that face-balanced putters are best suited for players who choose
the straight-back-and-straight-through method. You’re going to have a hard time getting the stroke I
teach to work for you if you’re doing it with a face-balanced putter. To determine how your putter is
weighted, balance it across your index finger. The face-balanced putter’s face will point squarely at
I use a modified Scotty Cameron Newport model now, and I’ve always used a putter with that
style head, ever since Mr. Lanning gave me my first Ping Anser putter in 1982.
I like my putters to have “toe hang,” which means weight is moved toward the toe of the putter, to promote a swing that moves on an arc. On a face-balanced putter, the face of the putter points straight up in the air when I balance it on my finger.
A putter has four measurements that are really important to get right if you want to putt well:
shaft length, weight, lie angle and loft. A player can certainly adapt his or her stroke to the putter by
making a setup change, or by changing the way he or she hits the ball, but to me, adding
compensations like that means adding the potential for inconsistency.
The whole idea behind the way I teach people to set up for a putt is to get the body in a neutral
position. What I mean by neutral is simply having your body lined up squarely, your weight
distributed evenly on your feet, your hands on the club square, your arms relaxed to your sides and
your upper body tilted properly from the hips. I know what is simple often has many aspects, but the
key is to find a comfortable, neutral setup position and fit the putter to you, not fit your stroke to a
putter that isn’t right for you.
If you play with a putter that is too short, or has a lie angle that’s too flat or too upright, you’re
probably going to have to change out of one of the nice, neutral setup positions we’ve been working
on. That doesn’t mean you won’t be able to make a putt—the human brain is pretty smart, and it’ll do
its darnedest to subconsciously get the ball back on line—but you’re going to have a whole lot more
trouble aiming consistently from a non-neutral position.
(ABOVE LEFT) Mr. Lanning gave me my first Ping Anser putter—just like this one that came out of his bag—when I was twenty. This was the putter he used to teach me the method I share with people now. It’s thirty-six inches long and has the flat lie angle and loft that I like.
(ABOVE CENTER) My dad gave me this Jerry Barber model putter when I was fourteen. The thing I remember most about it was that it had a sticker on the shaft that said WORLD’S GREATEST PUTTER. I thought that was supposed to be me.
(ABOVE RIGHT) This is the Anser putter I used to set the PGA Tour record—six putts in nine holes (more on that in a later chapter).
It’s built to fit me, and it’s almost identical to Mr. Lanning’s putter. The putters I’ve used since 1982 have all looked pretty much the same.
(LEFT) Any player who wins a PGA Tour event with a Ping putter receives a gold replica of the model from the company. It’s an amazing feeling when you open the box and see it for the first time. It’s an exclusive group of people that gets one of these. I’ve hit a putt with it, but it’s a little light to actually use.
Let’s start with shaft length. When you get fitted for irons, the clubfitter wants to give you clubs
that allow you to comfortably reach the ball from a good setup position. The same holds true for the
putter. Once you are set up in the neutral position we just talked about—a setup that establishes your
most comfortable tilt over the ball—I want the putter to be just long enough so that your arms hang
with a slig
ht bend in your elbows. Remember, the feel you’re looking for is soft arms close to the
sides. From this position, you’ve got to have a putter that’s long enough to reach the ground. For most
people, that means at least thirty-four to thirty-six inches. Again, using something shorter will force
you to make other compensations and get away from a neutral setup. If your putter is too short and you
have to extend your arms into a straight or locked position, it will encourage you to move your body
excessively in the stroke. Essentially, a short putter sets you up too close to the ball, which translates
into a more upright shaft angle. The heel of the putter will tend to lift off the ground, which causes the putter to aim right. You’ll need to compensate for that.
If the putter is too long—which I rarely see—your posture will likely be too tall, or your elbows
will be bent too much and you’ll lose the feel of the proper arm swing. You’ll be too far from the ball,
which lifts the toe of the putter off the ground. The short putter moves your aim to the right, while the
too-long putter does the opposite, with the lifted toe pushing your aim to the left.
Once you’ve established a good putter length for yourself, swingweight is another important
element to consider. This is very personal. My preference is a putter that has a swingweight similar to
my irons, which is D-2. It is very common today for players to prefer slightly heavier putters that
swing at D-6 or D-8, and most standard putters come in this weight. This is something you’ll have to
experiment with yourself. Just keep in mind that swingweight is going to have a significant impact on
your tempo and feel. A heavier putter wants to move in a longer, slower stroke, while a lighter putter
is better for a faster, more aggressive stroke. My advice about your stroke doesn’t change based on
how heavy your putter is, but the weight of the putter you pick should match your tempo and stroke
characteristics.
Lie angle works in a similar way to shaft length. From the neutral position we’ve been talking
about, you need to have a putter that not only reaches the ground, but sits flat on the ground at address.
If your putter has a lie angle that’s too upright, the toe of the putter will be coming off the ground at
address, and you’ll have a tendency to aim to the left of your target. If the lie angle is too flat, the toe
of the putter will be on the ground, but the heel will be up in the air. Having the correct lie angle will
give you the best chance to aim properly and make solid contact time after time.
The least understood putterhead measurement is loft. Everybody knows how loft works on a
driver or an iron: If you buy a driver with 9.5 degrees of loft to replace a driver with 8.5 degrees of
loft, and everything else is equal, you’re going to hit your tee shots higher in the air. A 4-iron has less
loft than a 6-iron, and so on. Even your putter has loft on it—usually three to four degrees when it
comes from the factory. Putters have loft because the ball sits down slightly in the turf, not like it
would on a hard surface like a tabletop. You need some loft to be able to get the ball out of that
depression and rolling on its way. If you don’t have enough loft on your putter at impact, you’ll be
hitting the ball into the side of its depression, and it’ll lose speed and bounce offline. If you have too
much loft, you’ll send the ball up into the air, almost like a little chip, with backspin. This is certainly
not how you want to roll your putts.
Now, you might not have been aware of the role that loft plays in your putter, but I bet you’ve
made subconscious adjustments to your stroke because of it, especially if you’re a pretty good putter.
I firmly believe most players don’t have enough loft on their putters, and it causes some serious
problems in the stroke. Once again, the better players can sense when there isn’t enough loft on the
putter. It’s really a subconscious thing. The natural reaction is exactly what you’d expect: When you
get to the ball in your putting stroke, you flip the wrists slightly to try to hit up on the ball and get it
rolling. It is very, very hard to putt consistently that way. By simply switching to a putter with more
loft—mine has a little over five degrees of loft, instead of three—you take away that subconscious
need to hit up on the putt to get it rolling, and your impact becomes much more pure. I’ve been using a
putter with at least five degrees of loft for almost twenty years, and I’ve never had a problem with the
ball shooting up in the air when I hit it. You won’t, either.
How does this relate to the average putter you buy off the rack from a golf shop? A standard
putter usually has a lie angle of seventy-one degrees, and about three degrees of loft. After I’ve spent
some time with a player and have had a chance to bend their putter with my lie-loft machine, most
people fall somewhere around sixty-nine degrees of lie angle and five degrees of loft. I’ve got sixty-
eight degrees of lie angle and five-and-a-quarter degrees of loft on my putter, which works well with
the forward press I use at the start of my stroke.
The goal in all of this is to produce enough loft at impact so that the ball rolls true. That can’t
happen if the shaft is leaning backward, away from the target, when you hit the putt. Even an
experienced putter might get the shaft leaning that way because his putter doesn’t have enough loft—
and he might not even know why he’s doing it. I see this happen all the time with tour players. I don’t
think a professional would intentionally putt with the shaft leaning backward, but if that’s what it took
to get the ball rolling, he would do it to try to get the ball rolling true.
Ever since I started out on tour, players of all skill levels—from beginner pro-am partners to
elite tour players—have always thought my putter looked and felt good. It’s because of the flatter lie
angle and extra loft I’ve always used. It just makes you feel like you don’t have to work as hard to get
the ball to roll nicely. But keep in mind that loft should be combined with a flatter lie angle. That’s
what makes my putter feel so good. Just jacking up the loft on your putter without addressing the lie
angle will give you problems. Add loft to a putter with an upright lie and the face will look hooked.
The point of all this is to reinforce the idea that it’s important to get a putter that fits you—just
like you’d get irons or a driver that fit. It’s very, very common for me to watch a player at the start of
a putting lesson and see that he or she is doing some things in the stroke to compensate for the putter. I
have one of Scotty Cameron’s portable lie-loft machines (it even fits in the back of the cart), and I can
measure and bend the putter right there on the practice green. It’s amazing how much better your
stroke can get just from that kind of adjustment. Again, you’re not working against your body, but with
it. For me, it’s so much fun to work with a guy who shows up with a putter he’s not really that in love
with, and after two minutes of me bending it up, he’s loving it. That’s a place we can go to work from.
(LEFT) I have one of Scotty Cameron’s lie-loft machines, which lets me bend putters to precise specifications in just a minute or two.
(RIGHT) The simple gauge tells me what lie angle the putter has. This one has seventy degrees—one
degree flatter than w
hat a standard putter comes with. I like putters to have between sixty-eight and
seventy, because it encourages the putter to move on an arc.
When it comes to the putter grip, I’m interested in getting maximum feel for what the putterhead
is doing, which means I want a grip that is relatively thin. I think people who have a lot of feel in their
fingers will want that kind of narrow grip. But a guy with big hands or long fingers is not going to
want to use a small grip. It has to be comfortable, as though the hands just want to go on there
naturally. The one key to a putter grip is to avoid getting one that’s too big. I think if you go too big, it
takes feel away. I’ve seen people go with a big grip because they think it takes the hands out of the
stroke. That’s the wrong way to go about it. You fix a handsy putting stroke by improving
fundamentals and understanding what the putter is supposed to do during the stroke, not by sticking a
big grip on there. Your fingers are the most sensitive part of your body. I’m not in favor of anything
that takes them out of the equation.
There are a lot of putters on the market today. You can spend $30 or $40 at the bargain rack in
your local shop and find something you love. A Scotty Cameron Newport like mine can run as much
as $300. Technology has certainly played a role in the design of new makes and models. Enlarging the
sweet spot, moving the center of gravity in the putterhead and even adding grooves to the face to
change the roll of the ball are all good advancements. You can miss the center of the face on some of
the new oversize putters by two inches and still get a reasonable roll. If you did that on the putters I
grew up on, the ball might go as much as a foot off line on a fifteen-foot putt. That’s like missing a
free throw by throwing the basketball into the stands. In the end, it’s still the person holding onto the
club who is responsible for how the ball rolls. When choosing your next putter, or to decide if you’ve