Putter Release'Putter Release' is a term that refers to the way a putter swings along a natural inside-to-square-to-inside arc. It derives from the belief that the best putter path moves inside the target line on the backstroke, is square at impact and then returns inside again on the through stroke. When you don't let your putter track back inside in its forward arc, you are supposedly not releasing your putter. But does this really matter? Surely the accuracy of any putt is largely determined by one thing – how square your putterface is to the target line at impact. What happens afterwards in your follow-through is largely academic.
In March 2003 Hank Haney wrote an article in Golf Digest entitled 'Roll it like a pro: the key is learning how to release the putterhead'. He observed that there was a lack of stiffness in the left wrists of Mark O'Meara and Tiger Woods as their putter swung through the ball. From this he concluded that they were releasing the putterhead through impact. And consequently that was why they got such a great roll on their putts. In evaluating this notion, consider for a moment the dynamics of the putterface and ball contact. The dwell time or contact duration of colliding objects is well understood by scientists. You can read about it on Dr Norman Lindsay's web site at lindsayputters.com. In golf the impact duration for a gentle tap-in is 0.85 milliseconds and slightly less for a 10 foot putt. After that brief moment in time, your ball is gone. What you do with your putter post-impact is irrelevant because it is not going to influence your ball's path.
What is far more important is what you do prior to impact in order to square your putterface. At this stage you can influence its orientation. We know from the research of Dave Pelz in his Putting Bible that face angle errors at impact transfer 83 per cent to the ball line. Terms like 'putter release' and 'toe flow' are the creation of golf coaches and putter manufacturers. Great putters in the past got by with less sophisticated imagery, and as long as they squared their blade to the line they chose, they improved their chances of sinking the putt. I may be missing something, but I believe that events leading up to the contact of the golf ball on the putting green have far greater significance than events that take place after the ball has departed. Even Hank Haney is quoted as saying that 'if you get the putter face square at impact you’re gonna be a good putter'. To my mind excellence in putting comes not from 'putter release' to the inside, but when you can pick the right line and then consistently deliver your putterface square to your target line at the right speed.
Image Source Return from Putter Release to Ezines
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