When we look at the putter techniques on some of the great putters in history, you’d think that at least most of them have something in common. The only thing that could be done is that they all have incredible powers of concentration and of course they are a great putter that almost goes without saying. But as for a common putting technique, they are spread across the board in putting style.
When we look at great putters, we look at those that have done so over a period of many years. There are one-hit wonders that come and go; those golfers who go crazy for a year and then go back to normal. They should not be included among the greats. These include Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Billy Casper, and Ben Crenshaw, to name a few. But if you look at Tiger Woods’ throwing style, which many believe might be the greatest putter of all time, and compare him to Jack Nicklaus, the differences are almost night and day.
Take Wood’s putting style, for example. In his prime, his set-up was flawless and his putting stroke was solid. The putter blade moved through the ball almost as if the ball were invisible, and his mid-range putter was extraordinary. You could almost concede five to ten foot putts when Tiger was in his prime. Nicklaus looked completely different. He shrunk into a pronounced position, but that way he was able to eliminate a lot of moving body parts with this style. His head rarely moved at all and his arms were closed at his side. He was basically pushing the ball with his right palm and forearm into the hole, but it was a high pressure putter because there were fewer things that could go wrong.
Another great putter from a few years ago was Billy Casper. He basically used his left wrist as a hinge, brought the putter back and aggressively accelerated through it. Every style of all great putters is different, but they still succeeded.
What we can perhaps take away from this is that there is a lot of leeway when it comes to being a successful putter. All of these players developed a style that suited their body type, but also their mentality. Putting, as we mentioned earlier, is mental, so any putting stroke someone develops has to bring the feeling of confidence, which in turn helps the mental aspect of putting. That is probably why most of us end up modifying our putting game more than any part of our total golf game.
