The Putting and Chipping Strokes are fundamentally the same! If you are a great ‘Chipper’ see if you can replicate that ‘Pre Shot Routine’ for your ‘Putting’, or vice versa. ‘A Chip Is A Putt With A Hop’ created by factory ‘Loft’. I generally prefer my #8 Iron for this procedure. Not much ‘Hop’ is usually required. If you need more ‘Trajectory’, pull more! Do you use your ‘8 Step Putting & Chipping Pre Shot Rouine’?
Remember, both these procedures are based on our ‘Set-Up Criteria’ … Posture, Grip, Stance, Ball Location & Alignment. Posture is the bedrock of any and all golf swings, Putter to Driver. If you have ANY questions or doubts, “AskUs!” Your ‘555 Team’ will be happy to discuss anything ‘Golf’ with you … any time. It is the reason for our professional being!
We are not meant to be totally, plumb/vertical or completely ‘Horizontal to the Ground’ in order to make efficient ‘Putting Procedures’. It is reasonable to strive to find comfort in a Spine Angle that is about 45 degrees to the ground. In this manner our ‘Golf Club Shaft’ can be about 90 degrees to the ‘Spinal Crankshaft’ and make solid or pure ‘Center Face Contact’. If you cannot get the ball to repeatedly come off the ‘Sweet Spot’, you are in deep ‘Dance Floor Do Do’!
Whatever you decide upon as “Connected”, the entire package MUST BE ‘Brace, Connected Address … Comfortable & Repeatable’. We MUST be able to manage ourselves into a successful ‘Motion Machine’. The Sweet Spot or Center Of Mass (COM) of the Clubhead must easily get back and through the ball with precision and predictability. Once you establish your ‘Lever Triangles’, no lines or angles change!
It is this experienced Country Gentleman Golf Teacher’s authority that the ‘Lever Assemblies’ (Hands, Wrists, Forearms, Elbows, Upper Arms and Shoulder Sockets’) must be firmly in place relevant to the Lateral Abdomen, Chest and Armpits. In this manner, the simplest of actions, ‘The Rocking Chair Shoulders’, can accommodate the need for simplicity of back and forth ‘Gravitational Pendular’ motion.
Grip is usually slightly different for Putting Than Chipping and Pitching. Make them mechanically efficient, reliable and repeatable. Stance is really quite ‘Universal’ in width and Foot Aim. Get that consistent as well. The ‘555 Team’ refers to a ‘Universal Ball Location’ It is your ‘1 Inch Inside the Target Foot Heel’ location for ‘Putting’. That means the back side of the ball is between 2 and 2.5 inches aft of the Target Heel. Chipping is a little more Aft. Alignment for ‘Putting & Chipping’ can functionally be between ‘Parallel and Open’. A conversation for another day and page?
