Myth-busting the straight-back-straight-through putting technique

By: Emily Haas May 6, 2020

Amateur golfers are full of myths about putting.

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Amateur golfers hear lots of misconceptions about the golf swing. Just like you shouldn’t believe everything you read, you should be wary of taking advice from the average Joe in your regular Saturday foursome. One of the most common myths relates to putting: the putter should move straight back and straight through, like a pendulum. If you’re putting that way, it’s so much more difficult to maintain a consistent putting stroke.

Phil Kenyon created this great video to demonstrate the putting arc and influence the perception of good putting for many amateurs. If you’re out there thinking you need to take the putter straight back, it might help to totally scrap that idea and rethink the entire concept of the putting stroke in your mind.

In this clip, Phil breaks out a handy-dandy hula-hoop to demonstrate the inclined circle along which you should imagine your putter moving. To get your putter moving along this perceived arc, your upper body is going to need to move that way too. Check out the video to see the hula-hoop in action and change the way you think about putting!

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I see a lot of golfers that have poor concepts when it comes to putting. Having a poor concept or picture of how the stroke should be constructed can really create many issues. For example thinking the stroke should be straight back and through will actually require a more complex motion in terms of coordination. We will also often go about trying to achieve this in a less than optimal way also. So what’s a good concept for the putting stroke? A good simple concept for the average golfer is to think of the club as moving along part of an inclined circle. To achieve that, the different segments of the upper body need to do the same. As a concept this will give you the best chance of achieving the most efficient motion #philkenyon #mikekanski #puttingsolutions #puttingelements #instagolf #instaputting

A post shared by Phil Kenyon (@philkenyonputting) on May 3, 2020 at 1:36pm PDT