Putting
Triangle

A Putting Triangle is formed when you place

your hands on your putter at address.

IN SHORT

At the heart of a good putting stroke is the maintenance of the angles set by your shoulders, arms, wrists, and hands until contact is made with the ball.

Level Head – Keep head level with ground

Level Shoulders – Keep level with each other

Elbows – Keep your elbows within your body line

Hands – Set level or slightly ahead of ball

If you face a mirror, you will see this natural triangle (see picture opposite).

Maintaining the shape of this triangle is important to your putting stroke. If this triangle breaks down in your backstroke it will be more difficult for you to square the putterface through the contact area.

The advice to keep your putter low to the ground is poor advice as it changes the shape of the triangle. You should allow your putter to rise naturally in an arc as your backstroke progresses.

In the forward stroke you should hold the triangle keeping the putterface square to your aimline until the ball has completed at least 6 inches of its roll.

Level Head

Your head plays an important part in setting up your Putting Triangle correctly.

Your head should be aligned in such a way that your eye-line is level. In other words, if you were wearing glasses the upper rim of your glasses would be horizontal to the ground and parallel with your aimline.

Cocking your head to one side so that, for example, your right ear is lower than your left, can distort the shape of the triangle. A tilted head can also lead to aiming errors.

Level Shoulders

In the full swing a good setup require you to tilt your spine laterally so that your left shoulder is slightly higher than your right shoulder.

In your putting setup you don't want to do that. You should keep your shoulders as level as possible. The easiest way to do this is to place your hands on your putter so they are directly opposite each other.

Elbows

When you tip forward from the hips and let your arms hang down naturally with your palms together, your elbows will fall below your shoulders inside your body line. This is a good position.

Some teachers recommend: Tuck your elbows into your rib cage to gain greater control over your putting stroke. This is similar to the advice of keeping your elbows close to your body in the full swing.

Occasionally you will see golfers with one or both elbows pushed out from their side and pointing parallel to their aimline. I believe that this is a band-aid solution and would not recommend it.

Hands

Your hands should be centred on the grip and either level or slightly ahead of the ball.

It is generally recommended that you should avoid getting your hands behind the ball at address.

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