What Jay was going through is really common for talented players who haven’t had a lot of
instruction over the years. He is basically a natural and a hard worker, and he visited with a teacher
only for his full swing or when something was broken and he couldn’t fix it. I don’t think he ever
thought about putting mechanics his entire career, and I think his whole game was deteriorating
because he was losing confidence in his putting. You really put a tremendous amount of pressure on
your driving and iron play when you don’t feel like you’re going to make putts, and it’s easy for your
whole game to spiral out of control when that happens. Jay figured he should do something about that,
especially with the Champions Tour coming up soon. He was just looking for some logic that he could
apply to his putting game. He needed a little bit of direction and some basics that made sense to him.
The message I was telling him was pretty simple, too. Then, he could go watch Tiger Woods and Brad
Faxon and say, hey, this is what they do.
We started by addressing his grip, turning his left hand from a weak position to a neutral
position, and adjusting his setup so that his elbows were softer and more to his sides. We talked a lot
about the fundamentals of swinging the club on plane, and how that creates an arc with the putter as
much as it does with an iron. The final piece of the puzzle was for him to get his shoulders working
around his spine, not tilting back and forth. In this whole process, his goal was to get his ball rolling
end over end. Instead of letting his shoulders move up and down like a seesaw in the stroke, I wanted
him to focus on getting his left shoulder to feel low at address and stay level during the stroke. The
next thing we wanted to do was to get him feeling softer over his putts. He had a really rigid setup
through his legs, and his arms were pretty tense. I wanted him to feel taller in his upper body at
address, tilted more from the hips and with a more athletic flex in his knees. Instead of tightening his
arms, I wanted him to get them to feel softer and more connected to his body. For him, the feel was
almost that his elbows were in front of his body at address, instead of stiff and off to the sides. Then,
with the slight shoulder turn on the backswing, he’d feel like the putting stroke was one fluid
movement, not a disconnected series of mechanical moves.
By improving his putting consistency, Jay Haas earned more than $2 million in both 2003 and 2004—the first two times in his twenty-eight-year career that he broke the $1 million mark in earnings.
Jay’s tendency was to really shift the grip end of the putter back on the backswing, which created
a lot of extra wrist action in his swing and sucked the energy out of the putterhead end of the club. He
had to work pretty hard to hit putts solid, and even harder to get the ball moving on long putts. By
turning his shoulders and letting the putter work on an arc, he immediately started getting more
consistent results with a lot less effort, and the difference between a really hot putting week—like the
one he had at the 2003 Bob Hope, when he shot 28 under par and finished second—and an average
week wasn’t as great. The toughest part for Jay now is knowing what great putting feels like. He
wants to stay there all the time.
DARREN CLARKE
Darren and I finally met at the PGA Championship in 2004, after I had been hearing from Jay Haas for
a year that Darren was interested in a lesson. Darren’s a great guy to deal with because he really
wants to get better and he is willing to commit himself to what you teach him. I think he also knew that
his ball-striking was good enough to compete with anybody in the world. It was only some putting and
short-game stuff that was keeping him from contending for and winning major championships.
I liked a lot of what Darren did with his putting stroke—it had a nice swing on a good arc—but
we needed to do some work on his grip. He tended to let the handle of the putter move down into his
fingers, like a full-swing grip. Then, he’d let his shoulders rock a little bit, and the face of his putter
would open and lift through impact, instead of releasing and staying low. Most of what I did was
remind him to keep the grip in the lifeline of his left hand and to finish low. I also wanted him to feel
like his left elbow stayed soft and close to his left side throughout the stroke, so he could get the
putter swinging instead of rocking his shoulders through to the finish.
Of course, we all like to go back to what feels good—but that’s not necessarily what is
fundamentally correct. Now, when Darren struggles with his putter, it’s because he lets his right
shoulder work up and not around on the backswing. If it were a full swing, you could say he’d almost
be coming over the top of the putt. That causes him to either hit a pull, or block it a little bit in an
attempt to save it. All it takes is a little reminder to get his left shoulder working toward his chin, and
all of a sudden his path is back to perfect and he has putting rounds like he did on Thursday at
Whistling Straits. The next step is working on consistency in his setup, so he can have more good
weeks.
Darren Clarke made some changes to his putting stroke and short game before the 2004 PGA and went out and led the tournament after the first round. He’s ready to make the next step and win a major.
I can’t emphasize enough that you have to constantly monitor your setup and grip fundamentals.
Guys like Darren hit dozens of practice putts every day, and they still can let ball position drift too far
forward, or get the shoulders rocking instead of pivoting around the spine. I like to use a mirror or
video to check my own setup, and I recommend you do the same. You could possibly be making some
significant changes to your setup and stroke if you embrace what I’m talking about in this book. Some
of the changes will feel strange, and it will be easy—and tempting—to drift back into old habits. Try
not to let that happen.
PETER JACOBSEN
I’ve had a lot of fun working with Peter Jacobsen because it turns out that we have a lot more in
common than I would have expected. The first time we worked together was the weekend of the San
Diego tournament in 2003. Peter missed the cut there playing two days with Jay, and after hearing
about what Jay had been working on with his putting, he called me on Friday night to see if he could
come and spend the day Saturday.
Peter works on his full swing with Jim Hardy, and Jim has definitely been emphasizing a one-
plane, swing-around-your-body move to Peter for his full swing. It was interesting, then, to see that
Peter came to me trying to swing his putter square-to-square, straight back and straight through. It ran
counter to what he was trying to do in his full swing, and it also led to him having some really
inconsistent putting weeks. He had his shaft leaned to the right at address, and he flipped his wrists
pretty significantly through impact. It’s safe to say that his putting was keeping him out of the winner’s
circle at this point—even though he was hitting the ball as well as he ever had.
Peter Jacobsen has been one of my favorite players to work with over the years. Not only was he nice enough to give me some credit when he won in Hartford in 2003—at the age of fifty—he also introduced me to Jim Hardy.
Before we even did any work on his stroke, Peter wa
s so encouraged by the idea that he could
swing his putter around his body, on an arc, just like he did in his full swing. We added loft to his
putter right away, and his hands immediately went into a more neutral position, with the shaft ninety
degrees at address.
Peter has dedicated a tremendous amount of effort to changing his stroke, and he’s really starting
to see benefits from it. He won on the regular tour as a senior, in Hartford in 2003, and he’s had a
great record in senior events, including multiple major championship wins. What really impresses me
about him is that he’s such a good ball-striker that he didn’t have to improve his putting that much to
see drastic improvement in his results, but he still spent the time to get the most out of his new stroke.
Peter has really had a tremendous career, and most of that success came because of how well he hit it.
Now he’s competitive on the PGA Tour because of how he can putt, and he’s a force on the
Champions Tour because of it. I always get a thrill out of seeing how happy a player can be about
making more putts—whether that player is a professional or a beginner. It’s also nice to see a guy go
out and make putts that earn him some big paychecks, like Peter has.
Peter was also instrumental in introducing me to Jim Hardy. I’ve been able to share my short-
game ideas with Jim, and he’s been helping me with my full swing. I think Jim and I teach the same
kind of information, just at different ends of the swing spectrum. I’ve never felt so good about how I
hit it, and I hope I’ve been able to help Jim a little bit with his stroke. I know having received Jim’s
blessing for the techniques I share has been a big encouragement to me. Thanks to Jim, I’ve got a
much clearer understanding of how the golf swing works and how the full swing and what I teach
work together. I’m also happy that Jim and Peter have the information they need to work on Peter’s
game independent of me and have great success.
CRAIG STADLER
Of all the tour players I’ve worked with, Craig came to me in the worst shape, by far. You’ve read a
lot up to this point about the swing arc I teach. Craig’s putting stroke actually arced the opposite way,
from outside the target line to outside the target line. He certainly wasn’t doing it on purpose. I had
seen enough of him winning tournaments on television over the years to know he wasn’t doing that
when he was making all those putts at Augusta. It was just something that had developed over time—
probably from overcooking some other kind of tip or stroke correction.
When I talked to him the first time, after the West Coast swing in 2003, he told me he was
literally four-putting, and he was worried it might be mental. He would go hit putts on the practice
green with this opposite-curving stroke and do okay with it, then play a tournament round and putt it
thirty-eight or forty times. I watched him hit four or five putts and immediately told him I had great
news. It wasn’t mental, and he didn’t have the yips. His stroke was terrible. I don’t have any doubt
that he was liberated by the knowledge that he could fix a big-time mechanical flaw and become a
great player again.
A big factor for Craig in getting better so quickly was that he had putted the way I teach for most
of his career. The problems had only crept in recently. We first talked about why the putterhead needs
to swing on plane, and the arc that it creates. I then attached a pen laser from the Scotty Cameron
putting studio to his shaft to give him a visual idea of where his stroke was traveling. When the laser
is pointed straight down the shaft and the putter is swinging on plane, the laser light will travel
straight along the target line. This visual allowed Craig to immediately grasp what his stroke needed
to do and to adapt quickly to the proper feels. For him, the laser went from making a U-shape to a
nice straight line.
Craig Stadler is a testament to the fact that you don’t need to use a conventional putting grip to take advantage of the techniques I teach.
His stroke looks great, and he’s winning everything on the Champions Tour.
The fixes were pretty simple. He got his shoulders working around his spine and his forearms
rotating, and he really just clicked in to what he used to do. Craig went to the claw grip shortly after
we worked together, not because I suggested it, but because it really helped him turn his shoulders
and keep the putter on plane. I’m all for anything that helps you make a nice swing arc and keep the
putter on plane.
Believe it or not, that one visit—and a quick checkup at the Masters three weeks later—are the
only visits Craig and I have had. I can’t take credit for all the wins he’s had on the Champions Tour
since then, but I know he’s swinging his putter completely differently now than he was before. In
2004, he was first in birdies, scoring and money on the Champions Tour, and third in putting.
ROCCO MEDIATE
Rocco’s story is an interesting one. He played on tour for a long time with a long putter, not so much
because of his stroke, but because of his back. He was a below-average putter, but his back wouldn’t
let him spend much time on the practice green if he had to do it while bent over a standard-length
putter. So he soldiered along with the long putter, having mixed success—and the good weeks almost
always came because of how he was hitting the ball, not how he was putting it.
We hooked up early in 2005 because his back felt better and he wanted to get back to a
Working with Rocco has been a lot of fun because what I’m sharing with him is stuff he’s really
hearing for the first time. His putting stroke with the conventional putter was really different from
what I teach—handsy, with the grip end shifting a lot back and forth in the stroke. The result for him
was something really mechanical-feeling, which is pretty much the opposite of his full-swing game.
He’s a graceful, fluid player with his long clubs, and I wanted to get some of that fluidness and
athleticism into his putting game.
We started by making some big changes to his putter, making it thirty-six inches long instead of
thirty-four, flattening the lie angle and giving it more loft. We got his hands on the putter with a
reverse overlap grip, and his left hand in a position where it would match the way it hangs naturally
—neutral instead of weak. Next, we turned his elbows more toward his sides, so they were pointing
to his hips. This allowed his forearms and the putter shaft to align. These changes—and having him
get the putterhead moving back first instead of the grip end—have given him an enthusiasm about
putting that he’s never had before. He’s really swinging his arms now and letting them flow like they
do in his long game. Although he’s still learning his new stroke, he’s seen flashes of how well he can
really putt, and I think he’s excited. He called the 67 he shot in the first round at the 2005 U.S. Open
one of the best putting rounds of his life. The best part for him—and for me—is that he’s just getting
started.
PAUL MCGINLEY
Paul and Darren Clarke are buddies, and my association with both of them came from a generous
recommendation from Butch Harmon. He’s been great to work with
because he’s so dedicated, going
through a lot of effort to visit me in Scottsdale when he feels like he needs some work. Paul swings
very “around,” with a flatter swing plane, and what I teach in putting and the short game really goes
with the way Paul hits the golf ball.
A big piece of his putting is that he’s a fast-twitch muscle kind of guy. He likes to feel a very
aggressive hit on the ball. A big key for him is to keep his right elbow not only soft but close to his
right side on the takeaway, versus swinging away and down the target line. When he keeps his right
elbow soft like that, it makes the putterhead swing first and foremost. For him, it feels soft and wristy
in the backswing, but that’s not what it looks like in real life. What it does is let him load the putter
and then release it on a nice arc. When the grip end floats away on the backswing, he doesn’t really
swing the clubhead back, and he ends up throwing the putterhead with his wrists to generate enough
energy to hit the putt. His release is really different and less consistent that way. He really likes one
of the drills I’m going to show you in the next chapter—hitting putts with just the right hand, with the
left hand touching the right bicep during the stroke. That forces his right elbow to stay close and not
float. His right forearm also tended to get high in his address, which caused him to aim to the left.
Helping him with that softer right-arm position at address also got his forearms to align with his
target.
The biggest shot in McGinley’s life was the putt he made to win the 2002 Ryder Cup for Europe. Still, he wanted to improve that part of his game, and we’ve been working on just that—he won the European Tour Championship at the end of 2005.
SHIGEKI MARUYAMA
I gave Shigeki a lesson at the Phoenix Open in 2005 through an interpreter—which wasn’t as
complicated as I expected it to be. He said he really struggled on putts from ten to fifteen feet that
broke just a little bit. For whatever reason, I think I asked a perfect question: When that is happening,
what happens on your straight putts? He said he made every one of them. It turns out that he was
focusing on the hole during his setup. His eyes were looking back and forth at the hole, instead of at