Yes I know!!!
I had toyed around with it but couldn’t get the right loft/look on a few blade putters I messed with
Drewspin sent me a great looking putter with a round grip…no offset…heavy head and flat lie angle.
Was a totally different feel and experience.
My mate who I also played with said he had never seen me look like I was just going to pour putts in like that before. Like I was already going to make it before I hit it.
Was a bit reluctant to putt like I chip because my chipping has been ordinary…so maybe I should chip now like I putt
I just love the idea that I have a golf club in my hand on the green… not some completely foreign device that has nothing to do with anything else I do on the golf course. It’s a nice feeling to know I can now putt halfway decent with zero practicing. I can only imagine if I really put some hard hours into refining the technique rather than wasting my time inside metal rails and other training aids that assure you of a putter head path that would never look like so many of the greats like Locke, Crenshaw and others. I still feel I have a lot to discover about it… but I’m sure glad I figured out the basics of what those guys did. I should have some new stuff up in the putting module soon…
Well done Brad, I read on Clayt’s twitter, “Hughsie got all the money”. For those not following Mike Clayton on Twitter, he also said, “easiest 67 you ever saw”.
Bradley, would love to see some pics of that flat stick. If it don’t look too complicated, I might have to break out the forge and hammer one out on the anvil. Been thinking about making a niblick if I could find some hickory shafting. That’s how clubs were made in the day, forged by hand. Not 1,000 ton pressess with dies.
Here are some pics of the putter…thankyou to drewspin who had it made to how I wanted and sent it on to me.
Byron Morgan California Flatstick
Lie angle is close to my wedge
Length is about an inch shorter than my wedge
Deadweight is same as my wedge- heavy
Grip is quite close to a full rounded grip- like I would have on my wedge
So it is not 100% along what we have talked about as far as setup but close…and it worked a treat the two times I have used it on course.
TwoMasters, when you swing the putter, do you feel like it is a mini full swing since it is more set up like a wedge? If that makes sense.
I’ve been having some success at having the feeling that I am swinging flatter around myself like I’m hitting it as an iron rather than a putter. Instead of feeling like I’m hitting feet and inches, I mentally feel like I’m hitting it yards away from me with a wedge or iron. Kinda of like the green is now the fairway and the hole is the green. I seem to be able to have much more feel that way. I even have the toe of the putter sitting up a bit since it’s not flat enough as is. Been thinking about flattening it. I do have my irons about 6 degrees flatter thanks to the ABS forums. You would have thought that going 6 degrees flat with my irons would have been difficult. It wasn’t. It felt right from the start. The toe of my irons have always been up at address. Now they sit perfect and boy do they make pretty divots. I should do the same for my putter.
I’ve never been happy about the up/down pendulum swing they all talk about as the only way to putt.
Don’t get me started about those belly/broomsticks!!! Some day someone will figure out how to anchor a 6 foot driver to themselves and hit the ball 350 yds straight as an arrow. Maybe then they will finally say that anchoring is not a stroke. Either that or the manufacturers will just create a whole new market. $$$
Looks like you are getting the putter shaft more in line with the sweet spot of the putter. Makes perfect sense to me. I’ve never liked the heel shafted putters since they seem to make the COG towards the heel while the sweet spot is towards the middle. No wonder they always didn’t feel right when I tried em. I’ve always thought the shaft should be exactly in the middle of the putter to line COG and sweet spot up. By moving the shaft flatter, you have made them both line more up.
The huge thing is to have it set up similar in length / weight / lie / even grip to your wedge… so when you get on the green you have something closely match your set and not be putting a lighter more upright weapon in your mitts that alters the entire feel and even swing path that we are accustomed to.
I fell into trying to keep my eyes over the ball…using rail tracks and trying to stay inside them…and besides a few fleeting moments here and there it didn’t work. It was a free flowing natural motion like my swing is…PLUS… I had to continually practice on the rails and mirrors to keep the look and feel .
Now I can just putt like i have a normal club in my hand…void of mirrors, lines, putting tracks… just look, react and putt without the fear of losing it
You know it’s funny when you watch little kids putt. They putt without fear and they do seem to swing the putter around themselves more with the ball away from them like their irons than the unnatural pendulum, eyes over the ball stroke that most people are after. This is before they get “proper” instructions on putting.
It’s interesting how much more his torso rotates from impact to p4 in the bottom pictures. In the steep pictures it doesnt look like its rotated very much at all from impact to p4.
Thanks Paul
Felts did great. I didnt get to watch him Sunday as I had a massive 13 hour drive up to Queensland to play a pro am today and then spend the week up here with him for the final event The PGA.
Spoke with him last night and he said he hit 15 greens in that horrible weather which is a big plus for the trust he now has for what I have shown him and for his work ethic at implementing that stuff. He has worked very hard at it the past 6 weeks.
He still has some work to do (he said that himself) but we have basically eliminated the left shot which had been his nemesis. He dropped his clubs down 3 degrees (friday afternoon of Masters). We have worked the drills in sequence and ALL his old feels started coming back and he has a couple of specific ‘feels’ now for whatever shot he wants to play and just lets it flow and happen.
Apparently he hit every green on the back side (except the last) and had about 6 chances inside 15 feet but couldnt make them with the wind whipping around the greens. A little hotter putter on that back side and he would have finished at 3 or 4 under with the leaders still having 9 holes to play and trying to chase him down. He would have been your winner instead of Senior if he could have posted that number early. But great week for me and for Felts and of course for Senior.
Spoke with Pete on the range a few times during the week. Watched him hit some and he looked in good form and seemed very confident in his demeanour. Didnt surprise me at all that with the wind conditions and the tough course that he would come through. It all played right into his hands and when he gets a sniff of a win he is hard to beat
It was fun to see, and on that course, you need to drive the ball straight which Senior did as usual. Tough conditions and I know how hard it can blow down there. Having that more penetrating ball flight is a big advantage. Hard to believe it has been 23 years since he won the Open down there. I remember playing that week and how great he played then. After watching this week I took a look at some of the old footage I had of him winning back then. Much more dynamic back then… but just goes to show this kind of pivot driven strike can hold the test of time.
I heard them mention Bradley was working with Felts on the telecast. Nice to hear he is making some progress. I am sure good things will come from it. Onward and upward, and good job guys!
Some day someone will figure out how to anchor a 6 foot driver to themselves and hit the ball 350 yds straight as an arrow. Maybe then they will finally say that anchoring is not a stroke. Either that or the manufacturers will just create a whole new market. $$$
