Putting Advice

By David J Bodner, Sr

No matter how good or poor the golfer's game is from tee to green, the green is, alas, another world!!!
In PUTTING ADVICE advice is given; ...techniques are explored and explained; and confusing types of putters are clarified.
You may, with this book's logic, decide for yourself just what choices to make on those threatening and sometimes unforgiving, yet spectacular, green grounds.
Whether you are new to the game, an advanced player with impressive powers, or someone in-between, let PUTTING ADVICE work for you.

David J. Bodner Sr., also author of GOLF: LEARN TO PLAY AND HAVE FUN provides detailed and yet clear advice and information for golfers. His book PUTTING ADVICE is a revealing and refreshing book helping the reader by providing: helpful knowledge explaining types of putters; and information on the types of strokes effective for particular putters.
The type of putter you choose to use, associated with the type of stroke you desire and feel comfortable to use will make a difference in your Putting success on the greens. Understanding the details and choosing the particular ones suited for "YOUR STYLE" of putting will make you a better Golfer!!!

THIS BOOK IS AN EXCELLENT PRESENT FOR THAT SERIOUS AND NOT SO SERIOUS GOLFER looking for some salvation on the greens.......!

• Language: English
• Publisher: David J Bodner, Sr
• Release date: Oct 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370847334

David J Bodner, Sr

David J. Bodner Sr. : As a young lad from upstate New York, David's father gave him a set of Hickory-shafted clubs.He had learned his game from the ground-up practicing at the near-by Mechanicville Golf Club. David has designed, developed and presently manufactures - on a small scale - the American-Made "Loft Below Equator" putter (LBE). The web site is: lbeputters.com.He has also authored the book "Golf: Learn to Play and Have Fun" in order to fill in and clarify the void of the many confusing details for golfers wanting to learn and play the game of golf. As a fellow golfer he has found that there is a dearth of instruction that can be overwhelming, confusing and yet compatible all at the same time.Instructors of the past and present are often saying the same things and, at the same time, different things to describe individual techniques that David attempts to clarify.As a teacher for 34 years in Amsterdam, NY his talents to describe and explain difficult details qualify him as a good source of information and a man who wants golf to be enjoyed by all.David's current home is in Pass Christian, Mississippi where he and his wife enjoy the Mississippi Coast and many days of golf year-round.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

PUTTING ADVICE

A putter in the United States is a tool made in accordance to USGA Rules, and used by golfers to create a repeatable and correct stroke at the golf ball, ultimately to sink the ball in as few strokes as possible.

The person wielding a putter is, however, far more important than any tool.

A person’s putting talents are: eyes, hands, stature, and mind.

The mind is underrated in that it magnificently corresponds to the person’s body in such a way that it can be trained to observe and perform delicate and/or rough tasks while compensating for varied environments.

Consistent and proper manipulation of a putter by a golfer (person wielding a putter) will provide the accuracy of a technician who knows how to diagnose situations; and effectively use the chosen putter.

Understanding the construction and limitations of a putter is important. However, the more important techniques and talents of the person ought to be paramount.

Proper knowledge obtained and assimilated is the person’s toolbox from which ideas and theories may be drawn for the correct, and appropriate swing methods, and for a particular environment.

Companies do all they can to tout their tool’s advantages over another’s. Indeed, some putters may suit one person’s ideal more than another. In the end, the golfer wielding the putter must know what he or she is doing!

Therefore, when it comes to putting your best, the golfer needs to strive to be oneself; search for the best, and most comfortable method, as opposed to buying into that method with another putting device.

Furthermore, this game is based on tradition, and fairness, and ought not to be subject to outlandish claims from technical spaceship devices that may electronically zero in on the hole, and with the push of a button whisk the ball into the hole.

Where is the time-honored sport in that? Don’t be fooled by the latest putter designs!

The greatest obstacle one has, then, is in understanding the type of stroke or strokes your inner self prefers. If you like them, you will repeat them.

Excellent golfers throughout history have employed various set-ups and multiple strokes with great accuracy, dependability, and with a variety of putter types: One stroke for this situation, another for that, and one old-reliable stroke.

Finding your best set-up and swing is the daunting task and one that opens many possibilities and controversies.

I suggest that a thorough understanding of the physics and feels are involved. The concepts and theories the golfer chooses will eliminate the doubt that may cause errant and inconsistent results.

One ought to be a master of a personalized set-up and swing so he or she can examine a particular situation, and decide exactly and confidently what plan to take. Once the plan is made, the execution needs to be corrected and maintained with practice.

Following is an incomplete listing of ideas and theories suggested for your consideration in developing a well-rounded and personalized swing.

Take them into consideration, but don’t let them dominate the way you decide to putt. Select those that help to produce a reliable and efficient technique that suits you – the golfer.

Do not be afraid to logically explore those of your own, or new ones that you’ve just found out about.

Do not deny the facts. Instead, realize them to make comfortable choices for your personalized game.

CHAPTER 2

GRIPS: PALM AND FINGERS AND TWISTING GRIP IN THE LEFT-HAND PALM:

Palm Grip

A grip in the palm will have the shaft running from the base joint of the left hand’s forefinger joint, or the middle joint of the left forefinger, or at the last joint of the left hand’s forefinger; and diagonally to touch the bottom of the left thumb pad. The shaft will be under the left thumb’s pad and will rest in the valley between the two meaty pads of the hand at a point where the wrists begin to hinge.

If the left-hand wrist joint is thought to be the fulcrum point for the end of the putter’s shaft, the tendency to flex the left wrist backward and forward will be lessened. The fingers will have less of a tendency to jerk the hands and change the angle of the clubface. The fingers may feel the shaft, but the wrist joint will take on the greater focus.

Because the base of the shaft is anchored at the point where the left wrist begins and ends, the left wrist cannot exert much of a swinging-action to the end of the grip. Therefore, the left wrist joint becomes the anchor point for the shaft.

This type of grip helps to lock the shaft against the left-hand wrist joint with the left thumb pad on top; and restricts wrist movement. It is still quite possible to use the wrists; but their movement will be lessened as the movement of the fingers, and wrists are largely taken out of the equation. The feeling will be of a firm left hand working off the base of the left wrist joint.

This restricted left wrist movement subsequently encourages the stroke to be initiated with a shoulder-turn around the spine. Your mind says: I can’t use the fingers, and my wrists are limited; so, I’ll move the handle with a rocking of my shoulders … and possibly the opening and closing of my elbows.

To further assist in this endeavor, one might arch the left wrist upward to lock any additional wrist movement. Locking this left wrist does not necessarily lock the left elbow, however!

Opening and closing the left elbow can now influence the putter’s face.

Locking the left elbow and left wrist, favorably, then sends the action to the shoulder-turn around the spine.

The right hand may further enhance this left-hand palm grip by allowing the right hand to feel the right hand’s pressure point at the base of its wrist joint, rather than at the fingers or at any other spot on the right hand.

Of course, allowing the right hand’s fingers and the flexing of the right hand’s wrist will feel natural, and actually subtract from the palm grip’s concept.

Protagonists will say the palm grip eliminates much wristiness and helps keep the clubface square through a largely shoulder-dominated stroke. Sensitivity can still be felt at the wrist joints, and the chances of opening and closing the putter’s face are lessened.

Recent instruction more often encourages rocking the shoulders around the spine with locked wrists and elbows, and arched wrists to control the stroke. It is suggested that greater consistency is better achieved with the larger muscles of the body.

Although the hands and wrists are sensitive, they all too often, can flip the clubface at an errant angle and spoil the intended stroke.

Antagonists of this palm-grip feel, oppositely, that there is a loss of feel to the shot, and estimating distance and accuracy will suffer because the more sensitive fingers, hands, wrists, and elbows are taken out of the shot.

It is the delicate hand and wrist actions that allow us to artistically write and paint. Surgeons do not rely on sensitive shoulders, nor do musicians; …rather the hands and fingers supply the delicate and skillful touch.

GRIP IN THE FINGERS OF THE LEFT HAND:

Finger Grip

Gripping in the fingers allows more freedom of wrist movement.

Gripping in the fingers requires that the shaft run more along the base of the fingers of the left hand where it touches the base of the palm where the fingers are.

This is the meaty portion along the little finger’s side of the left palm, as opposed to the meaty portion along the thumb’s side in the palm grip.

In the finger-grip, the shaft will not lie in the valley between the two pads. Rather, it will run diagonally from the forefinger’s first, second, or third joint. More along the base of every other finger to the pad just above the little finger’s joint.

Though the palm grip and the finger grip both run diagonally across the left