The Square Putting Stroke

• Tweet
• Email

• Tweet
• Email

For years, it was taught that during the putting stroke, the face of the putter should open on the backswing, return to square at impact, then close during the follow through.

In his Putting Bible, scientist turned short game guru, Dave Pelz advocates what he calls the pure in line square (pils) putting stroke. In reality, he’s been advocating it for a long time, but he gives it a lot of coverage in his Putting Bible.

Through testing, he has discovered that the putter face being square at impact is about four times more important than the path, or arc, that the putter takes during the stroke. This means that if you don’t keep the face square then the opening and closing of the face must be precisely timed to have any chance of starting on line.

With the putter face remaining square throughout the stroke, the margin of error of trying to square the face at impact is eliminated.

The basics of his pils stroke are:

• Keep the putter face square during the stroke.
• Keep the putter head moving along the target line.
• Use a simple pendulum stroke, originating at the shoulders. This takes the forearms, wrists, and hands out of the equation. The hands should hang freely below the shoulders, so that the “pendulum” formed by the shoulders and hands is perfectly vertical.
• Grip the putter with a “dead hands” grip, so as to keep tension out of the hands and arms.
• The shoulders must be aimed square to the target (but parallel left).

I find it interesting that he also points out that people claim that the greats have used the screen door approach (as he calls it, referring to the putter face swinging open and closed like a screen door). They point to photos that supposedly show this happening.

However, Pelz used his putting robot, called “Perfy”, to show that when photographs of the putting stroke are taken, because of the perspective an optical illusion is created, making it appear that the putter face is opening and closing when it isn’t.

In fact, if you putt with a pendulum motion originating in your shoulders (with a properly vertical “pendulum” formed by hands directly under the shoulders) and take the putter back and through on the target line, then the only way for the putter face to open is by rolling your hands and forearms open and closed. And if you don’t do that, the only other way to get the face to open is by rotating your shoulders and torso.

I can’t think of any tour pro that putts like that.

If you have trouble consistently starting putts on line, give it a try. I’ve been employing the pils stroke for about 6 years and have to say that I’m a big fan. The stroke is quite simple to use and the results are definitely positive.