Hi guys it's Rick Shields and this is an exclusive video just. For the rickshaws Golf Show podcast Channel now you've heard recently I did a podcast with Brad Faxon now Brad is an incredible x-tor player multiple wins on tour. And now he is kind of diverted into more of a coaching role. And he coaches Rory McIlroy on his putting now Brad Faxon in his day was known as the best putter in the entire world. And it's clear to see why his knowledge in putting is fantastic. And if you've heard the podcast we've just re released which was filmed at Old Marsh Golf Club in Jupiter Florida you'll understand why straight off that podcast I had the pleasure. And the honor of receiving a potting lesson from the man himself I mean this is this start stuff is bucket list experience. And we filmed it I'm gonna release it right now now here on the rickshaws Golf Show podcast Channel sit back and enjoy me receiving a putting lesson from one of the world's best putters enjoy [Music] [Music] yeah thank you. For this out of all the things that I've managed to do on YouTube this is one of the probably will be a highlight. For me so I've put in less than a few is incredible. So thank you for your time my pleasure thank you and I think I need it well you're not talking like it's a strength right now it's not a strength right now all my listeners will be behind the screen going yeah it's not this is this is his weakest fight he needs to learn something all your listeners would know all right. So let me let me ask a question you have your under 75 right that's a good score for you shoot 72 you've played well yeah. And you're putting is there a part of putting that's your worst short putts medium putts distance control longer puts I don't think a whole enough of those kind of outside three foot right to 15 feet now when you if you're assessing your own game because I always like to hear what people think of their own game do you think your problems are mechanically related. Or is it how you think do you make more long putts. Or those 10 Footers for a par for bogey or for birdie I would make more of those kind of clutch distances for par rather than rather than for birdie so why do you think I think there's um that's a great question possibly I I want the birdie puts more I don't feel like I ever make enough birdies. And I always have a different mindset over a birdie put I think I. And again just diagnosing what I do I get a lot of lip out birdies. And I think that's me forcing the birdie in right where. For a parpot I'm like well we can't afford to make a double here I can't go hitting this three foot pass so I'll Dolly it down to the hole a little bit more I'll play it at a softer pay so at least if it drops in a par Bogey's not the end of the world for me yeah you know I almost don't feel like it's that bad if I make a boat. Yet but you feel differently or worse after you miss a birdie putt much worse you beat yourself up it's interesting it's probably because I don't give myself enough opportunities yeah. So because maybe I don't hit into that range that often I put more pressure on that part on the birdie pump um I try not to and I thought this has worked well for me for a long time to evaluate the putt for its difficulty its length or um yeah important. So I try to make every putt the same because if you and I are just out here putting. For fun I mean I think that's when most people do their best I would agree. And when they get into competition something changes almost everyone that comes for a putting lesson like you would say I putt better when nobody's watching I putt better when it doesn't count I put better in a scramble yeah when I'm just trying to make it correct. So I'm trying to get people to feel more like that when they're on the course playing in a tournament so I try to give something for you to walk away from at the end of this you know little half an hour lessons what can I do that's gonna make me feel better when I go out to play my next.
Time okay foreign who you are. And you came to me for a lesson I would start off by I would measure your Putter and I would look at the lies The Lofts was a swing weight. And we don't have all that stuff here but I would want to say and and this is good. For your listener because I said to you before on the podcast most players that I see amateur golfers don't have a putter that's even close to the right link. So here's something that it's general rule of thumb I've got a I don't know it's kind of some device that has a yardstick on it you can barely see the numbers. So so I can measure your putter here um. And say that that's just over 34 inches from The Sweet Spot yeah to right there now if you stand straight up. And down and look straight ahead and I go to your wrist joint here and I measure how far is your wrist joint from the ground you're just about 34. And a half inches okay. So if it's within a half an inch to an inch I'm okay with that okay if it starts getting different. So if you're at home and you just stand there find that little wrist joint there get a yardstick or a you know a club that you know is the right distance. And see are you close to that because you know a lot of women that are getting new to the game that are married. And you know their husband might be six eight inches taller they get that that guy's Putter and their arms get apart and everything doesn't look right so that would be one thing I also like to start off with basic stuff on setup because I think it's hard to make a golfer worse if their setup gets better right yeah. But in putting I I say there's skills of reading the green what's the skill you need to have unless you just rely on a caddy all the time starting the ball on your line which you say sometimes you did. And then.
Distance control so I look at those three things are you good at those how can we get better. And then.
There's the other stuff that I like the most is pre-shot routine what do you do before you go to hit a putt is it something that's giving you a better chance to make a butterhola putt because you can look at a pre-shot routine. And see this guy's got one or two Waggles he looks and goes but it needs to be effective so that it's giving you some more confidence or better chance lent I I would start off by I like to watch a player hit a 15-footer and one of the tests I do is I want you to pick out a putt 15 feet to this cup that's right here yeah 15 footer I'd like it to be uphill. And I'd like to be as straight as you can find this putt. So I'm going to test you like how confident are you when you put this ball down. And hit your first putt have you got to 15 feet is it fairly straight while we're doing all these things. And and you're using your feet to help you line up I as a rough guess I would say that's fairly straight yep I don't know if I'm 15 feet away that's just me kind of roughly guessing Okay. So five pesos would be about 15 feet but I think you're pretty close. So let me see you hit one putt from here so you use a line on the ball when you're and we will you use just where it says Pro V1. Or will you draw a line I've done both okay are you committed to that like when you putt on the course no I'll sometimes question it okay we got a lot of questioning going on we want this to be with more certainty I just you know I'd love to see like on this first putt if you can tell if we can tell if this is straight. Or not how's he done as a reed so what did that do moved muscle to the right okay. So it moved a foot to the right oh that was. So now here's the lesson in green reading so if this putt is moved to the right which direction do you have to move this ball now to make it straight correct you did that quickly yeah um you took a little while longer than some of the best players were to feel confident with a straight putt. So that skill of green reading could be better in my opinion but you easily knew that if this moved over you've gone a couple of feet from where you were let's see if this one's straight. And Rick we know from tour data and if you're pretty close to 15 one two three four yeah. So we're probably right about 14 or 15 feet okay um let's see what this one does. For straight still went a hair to the right so now we're moving over here right so that's probably close so I've used this exercise I call it fine straight yeah because if you can find you know Johnny Miller the great announcer. For NBC called that the fall line yeah if you can find straight you're on your way to being become a better reader. And you knew instinctively when you were over here if this is six o'clock. And that's 12 yeah you might have started at 7. Or 7 30. now we're at the at the bottom all the listeners should know that as they move this way now it becomes right to left and that putts made putts from four to eight on the clock uphill get way more made than putts from ten to two yeah from the same distance. And why um the speed control is much harder from uphill to downhill right. So let's just say this break a lot more correct from downhill put will break more. So let's just call this a consistent two percent slope from from six to up where the camera would be is 12. yeah now we know Rick I don't know if you've heard this before. But if this green is let's call this 11 on the stint meter yeah if we tilt it two percent now you know this putt is not 11 on the stint meter it might be 14 does it go slow a pill oh sorry the other one maybe. So this might be eight so on two percent yes this is 11 of his flat goes to eight wow on the downhill it goes to 19. no way yep in 19s on. So that's how much difference the so when you have a putt from two you nailed it you have to hit it much softer so the putt from Two and the butt from four break it breaks a lot more on the down and it and at the end of the putt is when it really dies yeah. So that's important to know now here's another quiz you can ask all all your listeners let's say you're going to put this one from the same distance I'm going to be up the top of the hole. And we putt at the same time right on the same green I'm putting the downhill putt you're putting the uphill but whose ball gets to the hole first if we hit at the same time I would guess the downhill one who has to hit the putt harder oh yeah okay it makes sense when you think about it because you're going to hit this with more miles per hour I suppose a little yeah correct. So if a car was driving uphill it's going to put more gas down correct. And therefore. it's going to create momentum right. So I can just almost Glide. So like when I have this conversation with somebody I've never seen before kind of putting IQ right just to understand a little bit of that more and make you realize that hey maybe when I have a chip if I can get it by the hole. And Putt back up the hill I have a better chance of making these uphill but sometimes players Strokes get exposed on slower greens if you were playing. And you were going to a course where the greens were slower. Or faster which one do you like better. For you every time you like slower every day see that's different than most of the good players I see as they say when they go from America to the Open Championship those greens are typically slower. And they have trouble hitting it hard you think it's because obviously I'm from the UK. And I'm used to playing on green yes. So when you slide into a fast screen so these I might scared of them I almost can't I can't ever quite fully adjust to them I get it where I feel like here I could easily hit a port six foot past comfortably okay over here yeah over in the UK either that's a really hit it hard because of the difference in speed it hits it six foot past Okay. So we've covered some basics of green reading I mean I think a lot of times I would tell people when they go out. And play if you want to become better at reading greens there's a couple easy things to do when you're playing with your if you're playing with your friends can you ask them do you mind if I stand behind you when you putt because I want you to be able to watch what a ball does the whole watch the ball roll you know it's not etiquette right. But that's one thing and the other thing when you're playing I'm sure if you're giving a lesson to someone or you're playing in a Pro-Am and you're off to the side you're not even behind the player you can tell from the side when they hit the putt oh he's hit it way too hard. So so I think predicting as as the putter leaves as the ball leaves the putter is a good way to work on your touch. And feel and get acclimated to the green speeds that day I'm a little bit annoyed myself because I almost felt like I was very good on the straight folks knowing straight. But I was a bit annoyed myself I was. So far off I think I hit the first put badly. And it moved quite a bit but that's almost shocked and it's almost a bit of an eye opener to go oh my spirit level my internal spirit level wasn't right all right so so I want to do a little video of your stroke. And I like to do one from down the line. And then.
One from face on and what I usually ask somebody to do is I want to see what your pre-shot routine is. So if I'm going to video you coming in I want to see what do you do. For your practice strokes I'd like to see that ball down the way you want it to go we're pretty sure we're in a an area where this ball is pretty straight I like to I'll use a Sharpie. So we go with it same spot each time and this discussion on on the line so a lot of the players now on the PGA tour using the line to help them with their start line maybe with alignment with the face would you say more players are now using way more are using than that. But it twists people up to Rick some people get so annoyed by the line so I'd have a quick check you know now that we've re we've hit a few putts so you know this is pretty straight putt would you typically go to the other side of the hole I'd sometimes come to the side correct. And do you go to the low side of the break. So if this were a right to left putt yes right some here's a good example. So let's say I'm reading my iPad I would always tilt it towards me right you would get a better read on a right to left or if you're under the line yeah um. And you read greens better from down low yeah. And from farther away so from back here you're going to have a better chance of reading the green more accurately. And here's one other thing for the listeners you know a lot of times I know more in in the UK people walk they might pull their car or trolley um it's time to start reading green when you're walking up to the green you know in America when they have golf carts and the cart path goes to the side they're not even paying attention to the green until they get on the green you need to start paying attention as you're walking yeah that's a good point the first few putts I've seen your putter has aimed to the right that's something I see Justin Rose kind of Plum bobbing with the shaft your start line which I like I must admit again going I wouldn't have spent that much time doing it right I think I would be quite down marker line hit. But do you think spending a little more time would help definitely right definitely I think quite like a little practice put next.
To the ball yep predominantly looking at the hole I like that I really try. And be very diligent with my club face alignment now that ball looked like it broke a little to the right still so we could move this spot over a little bit more tiny bit yeah okay. So I I've just learned a lot in a few seconds and I think there's a lot here to say. So I'm going to move the the spot over here about a foot. So this could be the straight putt but you said a couple things to me that I want your listeners to hear especially if you're a little bit fearful. Or indecisive when you putt I love the practice of looking at the holder in your practice strokes I like the practice of your practice stroke being important to feel what you want to feel on your actual stroke yeah if you're going to err on that err on the side of exaggerated with long. And speed so most people get short and quick um or bad transition I like looking at the hole not looking at your stroke while you do it not being ball conscious. And letting that practice stroke and you had continuous motion with that you did two. Or three or four in a row I like that okay okay what I didn't like was that looked free-flowing. And once you got over the ball everything kind of got like more stagnated like you were reading a manual 100 do you feel like that. So much so okay I I sometimes mom stood over the putter I not that I I I'm froze. And I'm sometimes like when should I start this stroke how should I start it what you know it doesn't it never quite feels like I try not to try not to spend too much time over the ball because that's when you know real bad thoughts that's coming to place but I look I look back and sometimes I'm looking back and going okay we all ready we're all set yep like tick if we look tick like it's almost like you had a checklist that I call it going through the checklist. Or the owner's manual yeah you have to hit like four boxes before that Putter's going away yeah it ruins anything that should be instinctive. And athletic yeah which people sometimes I think they remove that from putting. And it gets too much science so I like this idea or thought of continuous motion okay. So once you walk up to the ball you make your couple practice strokes look into the hole the putter sits down and then.
You you made a quote when you were putting over you were you were trying to make sure you were a little bit more diligent you said in aligning the face now. And I want you almost to hear what you said I was listening wasn't I you're right I don't want you to be diligent imagine if you were going to hit a bunker shot. Or a lob shot when you put your sandwich down you know you'd open the face a certain amount but you wouldn't measure that right I think the most overrated thing I see especially with better golfers is Club face alignment at address I think where it is it impacts crucial. But there are a lot of great Putters like Tiger Woods that face was open players bounce the putter a lot they might before they take it back they might have a little forward press that could open. Or close the face I want you to disregard that as something that should be on the list of things that are important does that make sense to you million percent. And I I think I give now hearing you say that I give far too much importance on on face address. And address okay. So I'd like you to feel a couple putts like that oh where you're not looking at the club face so I want to see if there's a little bit more flow to that and one of my favorite little skill development exercises that I would give I did it with Juniors. And I'm thinking you know why don't I do this to you know golfers. So they can get better. So I love and this is a drill you can bring home it's easy to six putts from six feet with six different clubs okay. And if you think about you've probably bladed a sand wedge before yeah maybe put it from The Fringe with a hybrid. So if you get six clubs and they should all be different put them down and say all right I'm gonna make six putts in a row from six feet Market with a sharpie see how many you can make pick yourself a challenge point at the beginning I'm gonna make five out of six before I end my practice. And then.
The psychology of this so you usually putter first or last I want it to be last I want it to putter now I want the pressure to be on you if you had to make five a six or six or six to be with your putter but I also want you and this is where I think good golfers can sense this I want you to be able to feel what it's like when you putt with the sandwich in your belly maybe when you're having your hybrid you can have all different stances there's no all of a sudden correct way to putt with that club is there no. And I want you to feel this is there something liberating about that do you stop worrying about the result uh does that putter flow easily I don't expect to hold it to some degree. And if we throw away expectations would we be better yeah definitely. So think about that when you walk up seeing the line you want the ball to go on yeah on your practice strokes you like looking at the holes. So you did that. And once your eyes are back to the hole from that final time let's go okay okay not a race. But just make it a little bit more fluid so I'm getting a line we we know this has to be straight and I like I don't mind you taking time here to make sure that this is where you want it yeah I don't want you stepping up to this thing thinking all the lines off. But I don't want to bother my partners I don't want to change it I want you to be selfish right now okay I'm really happy with that a plus please go in all right listen if I showed you the difference between these first two putts I felt really nice now does that feel like you were in a race it felt like I was at a race once I'd done my practice yep once had literally finished my two practice puts looking at the hole yep as I allowed my putter to go behind the wall yeah. And that's how I'm going to explain that all I did was let my putter go behind the ball. And I was off I didn't I didn't think where it was I wasn't concentrating on the on the perfect right angle to my line right. So you just allowed it to go down and hit it was it was like it just fell there didn't it it didn't get placed. Or measured and if I showed this to you the flow here was. So much better so here you go you're going to take your two practice strokes three practice strokes looking at the hole Now watch how you're continuous in your motion here right when you're looking at this there's your head back to the ball a little forward press a little bit of a trigger all right well to me that was that's that's all you need to do. For the rest of your life right and if you can do that I guarantee you that anything we can measure your stroke with is going to look better when you do that it felt it felt less. And manufactured right and if you took this video and put it out on on your channel not one person in the world is going to go look at boy he putts too fast that doesn't look right it looks beautiful doesn't it. And I bet you hit that more in the center of the face and you weren't worrying about controlling the the putter on the backstroke as soon as that came off the putter face it I knew it was going in the hole you knew it I knew it it had a nice sound to it. And you know what you state you said to me sometimes when you're putting poorly you step up. And you you're out of your posture I hit it well yeah when I hit it bad right. So so I spent a lot of time with that sports psychologist Bob Rotella um and we talked about um all kinds of things to keep putting simpler keep it more athletic and he said I love the song you gain control by giving up control can you say that you're gain control by giving up control. And would that help you on your shorter putts big time I think it would help me on majority of my game I would say I'm the strongest of my driver yep okay I don't think of anything I know you mentioned that about Rory before I don't think of anything I put it down I don't really care if I put the club a little bit in the heel. Or if I open the face a little bit if my alignment there's more left or I just like well I know I know kind of what I'm doing here yeah. And I have a couple of Waggles and I'm off I don't think about it I don't think about it yeah it's nice as I put it I think it's because I've put. So much emphasis on it that this is the weaker part of my game. And and you probably I don't know I I've probably talk quite negatively about my putting and you know I do that to kind of paint the picture a little bit on YouTube. But it's something I'm much more like right okay we're on the putting green we have to now be sick we have to now be you change yeah in Rotel I use these words all the time you serious uptight. And heard yeah that's what you've become right yeah um I think you know if I was gonna let me grab my putter real quick um this is good this is good makes a lot of sense what Brad's saying yeah. So so when I walk up um to hit this putt that you just hit by the way is this your actual party this is yeah this is the putter I've been using. For like 25 or 30 years like um it's it's a Scotty Cameron I'm not even gonna touch it see the G right there yeah what's that from gamer nice he put Scotty uh the G in here back there in his office we've got a little Dash we call that the paint he calls dirty white. But here here's one thing I want you to notice like when I'm standing back here um and I my eyes are painting this picture I'm seeing the path that I want the ball to draw to draw I'd have my line on the ball up there. And as I'm walking up I really wanted to make this point to you that my eyes are spending more time looking out than down okay that ratio out at everything. So as I walk up to the side my eyes are still on this path that I want the ball to go on when I cut I call this coming around the corner when I'm coming around here the putters Loosely like this all the time. So I A lot of times I'm rubbing my fingers together a lot of players wipe the face of their putter when they go like that they're engaging right there some people would talk to some about their nervous system gets engaged so now my eyes are out. And when I put the putter down here my eyes aren't looking down I take a practice stroke when I'm not even in my full setup and it's it's to free my up or loose me up loosen me up it's longer than it's going to be. For my shot and once I put the putter down behind the ball I look once I set up I look twice and I go it would be nice see now I miss a new make I think that Rhythm. And that flow is a goal to get to um. And and I would say that one thing that I did consistently throughout my career that helped me when I went to go from the practice putting machine to the first tea to play I would take putts from three. Or four feet from around the clocks from three o'clock six o'clock nine o'clock and twelve and I would go through the routine you just did. And I would I called that my process I wanted to feel my process like you would be on the Range hitting a high shutter a low shot or a draw or a fake hit a few of those things hit those and make your process more important than the result so I just want to feel like when I get out to the first hole of the first green that that's not the first time I've gone through my routine I've done it a few times and I can be really accepting if the ball doesn't go in. But I did my process well yeah I love that you look. So comfortable yeah. So when you were saying you just look. So alive so so if a player's typical routine Tour player you know you have a nice putting green like this like they do at Old Marsh then.
The range is over there then.
The First Tee typically players will come hit a few putts in the putting green. And if you're going to do something use something like a device Rory likes to use a mirror you know. So he likes to check his eye alignment check that everything's Square hit a few putts gets a sense for what speed is he'll hit a few long ones then.
He'll go through his bag on the range. And then.
He'll come back out here in the last 10 minutes really start hitting putts with different brakes going through his routine. And then.
Feeling a few putts with some break but I think when you walk out to a putting green I always liked to throw three balls down. And hit a putt to the farthest hole away without really reading it and just see how's my senses today.
Can I get this putt to that far flag pretty close I watched it roll till it stopped I was in no hurry to do this because you want to get used to the conditions you want to feel it in your feet. And that's one of the things you did early read. And read in the greens so that's really important and a lot of times I have a couple things I think would be good. For you to practice and good for your listeners that are pretty easy. So we've talked about pre-shot routine finding straight knowing that downhill putts break more you don't hit them as hard so they're more exposed to the elements of maybe bad conditions grain wind especially as the ball slows down I have an alignment stick here and this is something that has I have two Sharpie marks on here that are two feet apart right. So if you're going to set up Rick to this hole here like you're going to hit it down here I got a great little because we talked about the skills reading the green we started with starting the ball online. So over here the smallest coin we have is a 10 cents a dime right. So if I put this down here this alignment stick and here's two feet away right yeah tiny bit more left probably right. So let's just say we're going to take this halfway to the green on the 15-footer. And that's eight feet away so I want you to practice five putts in a row that it just hit the dime and not go into a hole but just hitting it about the distance the steak is. So this is your simple way to hit your start I'm already copying you yeah. So yeah I love what you did before. So it just had flow to it yeah. So so let's see if you can hit this diamond what I like about a dime is it's in your peripheral vision. So when you're over you can see it if you hit the dime you can see it move. And you can hear it audible stuff's really important Nick fallow talked about that a lot. And it's not too tenuous right can you hit that five times in a row do my best just to the stake did you get it just huh just yeah. So just as good enough right the hole's a lot wider than the golf ball is isn't it yeah. And you hit it about the right distance so this is something that's it's an achievable goal. For almost every player yeah. And I still want you to feel the continuous motion you had when you made that putt once your eyes come back to the ball you had a little bit of a forward press which is your trigger. And that's what starts you know you ask me what starts your stroke I want this to be all in kind there you go and I'm sure you do that I'm sure you do that in your full swing in the better Parts your game yeah I missed that one only just out just to the left yeah. So this isn't hard no measuring with the putter just let it fall down yeah. And two things I've seen a difference to already look how good that distance control is that was right over it right in the middle of it um I look now at your posture. And you look softer to me I feel it do you know what I mean by that as in like it's not a sharp touch it maybe grip pressure. So hold on to your club for a sec like you were going to get ready to hit a putt. So that you know people ask how how tightly do I hold on the club. And you know if I squeeze as hard I can that's 10 Soft as one somewhere in between players say three four five I've had a few players like Stricker say I'm a six. Or a seven but here's the other thing that sometimes players never realize go ahead and put yourself in here just a quick question do you like grips like Claws. And things like that so I I've I've seen a lot of players get better from that I would probably be my weeks telling them what is right. For them because I can't feel what feels good but a lot of people they get Twitchy this seems to take a lot of that excess wristiness or early breakdown out of there sorry and there's so many versions of it of course we've seen that at work and I don't mind experimenting that so here's the other thing too that I that I noticeably saw different from you so go ahead and hold on to it like you're getting ready to put now place the putter head into my hand keep an eye on your grip pressure okay. So now I want to be able to when I pull and push the putter away and towards you I want your elbows to bend your joints to feel like there's flexing more and softer right so now that's a softer all of a sudden your arm pressure is softer isn't it yeah. So watch when I let go of this putter head see how it fell yeah I think the first putt you hit if I had asked you to hold that go ahead. And put it up here and if if I didn't if I hadn't done that to you before if I let go it would have stayed right there because this was too rigid yeah. So I like the feeling of Jim McLean the great instructor you say arms like rope I love a heavy feeling right and that way you can start to feel the weight of the putter head right right. So when we talk about Putters and swing weights and total weights there's a balance point right that would be in like a fulcrum my Putters on the swing weight scale d8 so if I made my putter longer or if I that would make the head heavier you have to have a certain amount of head weight that you can feel as it's swinging. And my putter hangs down we were talking about toe hangs. So my putter likes to open and close a little bit more than some other Putters if I took your putter so yours isn't quite face balanced and what I've learned that's kind of easy to show someone um if I take an alignment stick and go down the shaft you see how your my shaft goes almost to the sweet spot right there I got you so that's what's making it close to face balance that extra long hosel will help that to be more face bonds mine see how mine goes much more towards the heel of the putter here. So that makes the toe hang over now so when we were taught to putt when I was taught to putt it was an instructor named David pells. And Pell's had a theory that was incorrect that the putter went straight back. And straight through and the face was always Square to that line now we know because the shaft is on an inclined plane right it's bent over it has to be 80 degrees. Or under correct so now we're at we have an arc so the putter goes inside back to square and inside and as the putter swings back the face should stay relatively Square to the arc not to the Target line so there's this opening and closing of the face the toad so here the toe travels more than the heel and the backstroke gets back to square and then.
The toe travels more than the heel and what also happens at the same time is the head of the putter travels more than the butt end gets back to square. And then.
The head of the putter travels more than the butt end so it was a great putting instructor here named Marius filmelter a South African guy. So it's this opening and closing of the face is what he called the horizontal release of the putter head interesting yeah. And then.
There was a vertical release at the same time right now this is kind of maybe too technical. For people but the head of the putter has to travel farther than the grip in yeah. And the toe has to close yeah. And tiger talked about that all the time and that's one of the things I learned from Scotty Cameron he called it toe flow right opening the door and letting that door close when I played my best I was a right aimer my face was to the righted address. But I learned how to close it right and I I had a tendency would would you be able to tell me what your tendency is on this length. But would you miss right left short long you were a left misser almost always always now I was a right misser. And I started hating missing to the right and then.
When I started messing around too much then.
I missed both ways I loved having only one way to miss and I'm sure when you've played your best golf if you've been on like when you go to play the open course um at St Andrews it was nice to know my ball is not going left yeah right that's right it's a great feeling. And it was a great feeling to feel like I could release this putter as hard as I could. And it's not going over there I I feel that I go back an almost an almost shut the face. And then.
It and then.
It stays there that's what I feel I worry a little bit about the kind of toe flow yes it feels to me a little bit less predictable yep at the moment anyway that I'm gonna I'm gonna square up at the right time yeah I'd like to get to that. But I want to show if we if you just face the camera here for one second so get set up like you're gonna hit a putt that way so here's some of the keys that I look at when I have a student and you do it really well. So if I can look at the logo on his hat. Or his nose uh the button it's unassured of the zipper and then.
The zip around is on his trousers I like those to be pretty much in a straight line. And look how the shaft on this putter is kind of pointing right in the center like we would see the grandfather clock right. So that would be standard for me and what I also look at is hip width knees. And ankles are pretty close to the same width. So you're stacked on top of each other that's what the best players in the world look like what we teach at Jupiter Hills is if you have it you don't have to be athletic to have a great setup anybody can do this. And you it's hard to make yourself worse by making your setup better in putting most players have more weight on their Lead Foot their left foot if they're right right-handed so slightly you know 55 53 something like that and that weight doesn't move a lot but I don't want you to feel rigid I don't want you to lose the personality or stroke and now if you were going to turn around. And Putt this direction as you're standing up to it and one of the things that you're doing nicely I I have a preference for seeing the plane of the shaft and your forearm your right forearm your forearms are pretty parallel to where you want the ball to go. And those are nice. And together now we look at things like distance from the ball eye line you know if we had a ball down here I'd like your eyes to be on the Inside Edge of the golf ball and that allows for that path to be slightly to the inside and to be open your arms look comfortable they look soft right there and to me I get I give you an a you have a pretty straight lower back which I like to see and then.
When you get up to the upper back to the to the thoracic spine here he's soft between his shoulder blades and then.
His neck is almost parallel to the ground where the visor on his hat. Or his cap is pointing down when players get too erect. And look out it's hard to be relaxed I like these um your shoulders to feel like they're in front of you a little bit your arms are hanging softly. And that gives yourself the best chance to make that free practice stroke a little bit of knee Flex the weight would be kind of in the balls of your feet where you feel like you can bounce a little bit feels. And and this whole idea of of staying in motion begins with maybe some re-gripping on the um the grip moving your feet so I would practice things that engage your body like I'm going to move my toes I'm going to let my heels. And my toes lift while I'm hitting some putts see what that feels like because if you watch great players when they're setting up to it their feet are moving clubs are moving right yeah. So that's the little waggle on a full swing can you feel a little bit of that stuff when you hit a pot you know what I love about everything that you've said there Brad. And and I'm going to take this honestly I'm going to be. So um I'm gonna watch this video back my own right and I'm going to make sure that I do everything you've said because like I say not many people get advice from you. So it's amazing I think the big things I've picked up on is when I put the best when I really think about it is exactly a state of mind that you've talked about today.
It's relaxed it's chilled. And when I think about when I potted my best probably when I was a kid I was I had no tension it was just like I just looked. And I just rolled it and I wasn't bothered about exactly where my face was aiming. Or anything else like that I looked I looked back and I hit with list with less kind of less cares less worries you know it's it's like to me when I walked you watched you walk up the first time you you were carrying this like it was a delicate instrument I wanted to feel more like it's a jump rope. Or something like you know twist it around a little bit get a little bit more happy with it right and I think it starts at the beginning I love that Brad that was amazing Rick thank you. For your time nice putt you made there too that's all that matters and if you saw that I hold it Brad didn't I'm joking I missed my mind amazing thank you so much I really appreciate it like I said the podcast was amazing this little this little teaser here oh this little taster here from Bradford lesson was amazing. And uh you your work is still. And regarded to be so powerful in the work you're doing with Rory and everything else I can't wait to see what the future holds so thank you so much good to see you and the fact that you've brought the Potter today.
The putter the gamer is also pretty special awesome guys thanks. For watching stay tuned Lots come we'll see you next.
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