If you carefully observe Tour Players' verses many amateurs' putting, one glaring difference is that tour players have developed a balanced stroke with smooth acceleration through impact. In a balanced stroke, the putterhead travels back and through the same distance give or take a few inches. Many amateurs might take the putter back eight inches, then follow through a couple of feet past the point of impact. The old saying, "follow through to the hole," has messed up a lot of putting strokes.

            A few weeks ago I worked with Jay Williamson at the US Bank Championship in Milwaukee. One of Jay's tendencies is to allow his putterhead to swing too far past the ball, which actually promotes deacceleration through impact. When we compared Jay's stroke to Tiger's, Jay's follow through was more than twice that of Tiger's on the same distance putt. Jay had been using a 32 ½ inch putter that was cut down from 35 inches, in effect the swing weight had become very light. When Jay tried a Coutour Tcu Dornoch at 365 grams he was able to feel the swing weight better and began to develop a shortened more accelerated stroke through impact. Jay opened in Milwaukee with 23 total putts on Thursday enabling him to shoot the low afternoon round of 65 in high winds. He also finished 3^rd in putting for the week.

            One of the drills I gave Jay to work on to  balance his stroke, is to put a couple of ball markers equal distance behind and in front of the ball to be able to visually see the putterhead travel equal back and through. I know this drill would also help many amateurs.

            Practicing equal back and through strokes on different length putts would help many players to improve their putting by balancing their stroke with smooth acceleration through impact.

We have used The Putting Arc as of the one training stations in our Scoring Zone Golf School over 5 years. I've always favored the putting arc because it helps students to realize that the putterhead does swing in a natural arc, because of the fact that the putter shaft has an angle and we stand to the side of the golf ball. I do always stress with students that the putterhead swings in a minimal and naturally created arc because of the angle of the putter shaft in relation to the ground. However, often when players try to swing the putterhead in an arc they can over do it making it very hard to be consistent. The putting arc helps to train people to master the natural arc without over doing it