During impact when the putter meets the ball,
the position of the ball on the ground relative
to your stance can have a huge impact on the
direction the ball comes off the putter face
and where the ball actually strikes on the
putter face (towards the heel or the toe).
The majority of golfers are completely unaware
of how extremely important having the ball in
the correct position in your setup is.
They usually just walk up to the ball, place
the putter behind the ball, adjust the rest of
their body, and take their stroke.
Then when the ball misses the hole they
automatically blame the putting stroke,
condition of the green, and even the putter
itself.
If the ball is just a fraction out of place in
your set up, you’ve already increased the
likelihood of missing the putt before you’ve
even struck the ball.
Whether the ball is too close to your body,
too far away, too far forward in your stance
(towards your front foot), or too far back
(towards your back foot), each one of these
errors, if even just a fraction off, can send
the ball as much as 6 inches offline in as
little as a 10 foot putt.
If you look at the best putters on the PGA
Tour right now you’ll notice that the position
of the ball in their setup never changes…
never.
It doesn’t matter what type of putt they face,
they know exactly where their ball needs to
be in their setup to assure that they leave
no margin for error in their set up so that
they have the best chance of successfully
making each putt.
Now you and I are no different.
We each require an ideal position for the
ball in our set ups in order for the putter
to strike the ball in the proper place on
the putter face and to strike it at the best
possible angle to achieve a pure “square to
the target” stroke.
So how do the rest of us weekend golfers find
our ideal position since we don’t have access
to $5000/day coaches, million dollar high
speed cameras and computer software?
Well, since every golfer is different and there
is no one single ideal position for everyone,
there are fundamentals that must be followed
to assure a proper ball position each time.
#1. The ball needs to be in a position forward
enough in your stance that the putter strikes
it in the first moment of the upswing while
the putter is in an ascending motion.
Catching the ball at this brief, ideal moment
will put the truest roll on the ball.
If the ball is too far back in your stance,
the putter will strike the ball while it’s
still in a descending motion, pushing it into
the ground and causing it too skip offline in
the first few inches of roll.
Too far forward and the putter catches it too
far into the upswing lifting it from the
ground.
#2. The ball must be out far enough away from
you to be in an ideal position for you to see
the line of the putt while standing over the
ball.
This also increases the chances of striking
the ball in the center of the putter face.
Striking the ball towards the heel or the toe
of the putter causes the putter to twist and
send the ball right or left of the target.
Now you see how important it is to have your
ball in this ideal position each and every
time you stand over a putt.
Since correct ball position has absolutely
nothing to so with your putting stroke, this
is one act you can do to help out your
putting that doesn’t even involve having a
putter in your hands.
Scott Myers
