The Putting Challenge

[dAS0]

Finished the book the other day and got home from my trip yesterday, so today I got the PuttOut mat, trainer and mirror and tried rolling some putts with the Lean Lock mallet. Rolled about 30-40 putts and tried to be really meticulous about setting up like Brian teaches in the book. A few things jumped out at me from that first session:

-The grip and setup routine felt ultra weird at first, but after a few times it settled right in. I did notice my initial tendency was to grip too far down the grip, and then my lead elbow wasn't bent enough and not really tucked into the side. I've had to consciously adjust a little further up closer to my body to really get tucked in there on the lead elbow. It does feel really secure once you get the setup in though.
-Like @Ludin, I initially found my eyes to be way inside the target line when using the mirror. Not sure if this is an artifact of the new style or a feature of my putting in general, but it's good that I'm thinking about it and correcting it now.
-Brian's counsel to take a slow, long takeaway and transition and to stop the putter head soon after the ball is very counterintuitive to me. I've been told by multiple good putters and instructors to do a "pop" type stroke, so this comes across as the opposite of what I've traditionally been told. I have to really think about it.
-Using the trail hand to control things with my "natural touch", as Brian puts it, is also a little tough for me as I'm used to being told to kinda rock the shoulders. Initially it seems to be producing good results though.

All that said though, initial results seemed very solid. Of all the putts I rolled, I think only one was really off the line (pushed) and it was because I got quick. I essentially "made" every one (by PuttOut trainer standards) except for that one pushed putt. It's very early but the setup is definitely starting to make sense to me and it does seem very reliable to getting the ball on the intended line and rolling effectively with less opportunity to let the wrists take the ball off that line, which is really what Brian pushes as the key benefit of the method.

Any questions guys, let me know! I plan to roll some again tomorrow.

View attachment 9229424

Would the speed of your takeaway translate to a traditional grip/putter? Getting quick can be an issue of mine and I wonder if some of the tips and drills would work for non-leanlock putters. More superficially, what drills or set up have helped you make square/clean contact to prevent hitting up on the ball? That is another area I can get lazy with and hit a poor putt.

 

[SkiBumGolfer]

Would the speed of your takeaway translate to a traditional grip/putter? Getting quick can be an issue of mine and I wonder if some of the tips and drills would work for non-leanlock putters. More superficially, what drills or set up have helped you make square/clean contact to prevent hitting up on the ball? That is another area I can get lazy with and hit a poor putt.

I believe a fair amount of this is transferable to a more traditional setup, in particular the idea of setting up slightly open to stay more SBSF in your stroke and consciously thinking about taking it away low, slow and long.

Also, to be clear, according to Brian you DO want to hit slightly up on the ball, around 2*, in order to get the ball rolling immediately rather than skidding initially. Hit setup routines encourage a slight upward strike. I have definitely seen purer initial rolls as a result of that with the Lean Lock, and even fiddling around with my conventional putters, adopting that idea has improved roll quality and line maintenance on my 6' practice mat.

 

[SkiBumGolfer]

I got my feedback from Brian yesterday, and to my eternal surprise, he actually said it is evident that I have read the book and watched his videos because he believes I am very much on track technique wise...

The only tweak he wants to make, after hearing my feedback that I tend to miss right more than left, is to slightly "strengthen" (in terms of position) my right hand. He said that can tend to lead to excess clubhead rotation and potentially cause more misses in either direction. So I'll be working on that here coming up.

Played a sim round yesterday, and generally the line was good with the exception of a couple odd pushes and pulls so I think Brian's feedback is topical here. Otherwise, speed continues to be a challenge. I've got the speed figured inside about 10-15' pretty well, but outside of that I just don't have the reps in yet. There's some decent weather here coming up this weekend hopefully, so I'm planning to get outside and try to spend some real time on a real green practicing some putts in the 20-40' range to get a feel on speed.

As @1860VS said, I feel like I am putting a VERY pure roll on the ball, purer than ever before, and my line misses are much smaller thus far. So I'm definitely seeing promise here!

 

[Ludin]

I believe a fair amount of this is transferable to a more traditional setup, in particular the idea of setting up slightly open to stay more SBSF in your stroke and consciously thinking about taking it away low, slow and long.

Also, to be clear, according to Brian you DO want to hit slightly up on the ball, around 2*, in order to get the ball rolling immediately rather than skidding initially. Hit setup routines encourage a slight upward strike. I have definitely seen purer initial rolls as a result of that with the Lean Lock, and even fiddling around with my conventional putters, adopting that idea has improved roll quality and line maintenance on my 6' practice mat.

The first part of Brian's book is very transferrable to putting in general. Really breaks it down in an easy to understand way. Worth picking up and reading even if you are on the fence about the putter.

 

[SkiBumGolfer]

3 in a row in the little PuttOut cup yesterday from 3' with the Lean Lock, and even 1 from the full 6' I'm starting to really feel good about the shorter range. I really need to get out on a real putting green this weekend and start getting a feel for the longer stuff though. Hoping for putting practice Saturday and maybe a round Sunday if weather works out.

 

[Ludin]

3 in a row in the little PuttOut cup yesterday from 3' with the Lean Lock, and even 1 from the full 6' I'm starting to really feel good about the shorter range. I really need to get out on a real putting green this weekend and start getting a feel for the longer stuff though. Hoping for putting practice Saturday and maybe a round Sunday if weather works out.

Awesome to hear. I hit a couple the other night from including one from 6'. Exciting to hear my young daughter chear for daddy making it. That was pretty rare with my other putters.

 

[Slowmo]

3 in a row in the little PuttOut cup yesterday from 3' with the Lean Lock, and even 1 from the full 6' I'm starting to really feel good about the shorter range. I really need to get out on a real putting green this weekend and start getting a feel for the longer stuff though. Hoping for putting practice Saturday and maybe a round Sunday if weather works out.

I really need to find a better place to set up my puttout cup. Mine ha a 3inch break in the last 12 inches of the putt, think there's an uneven grout line in the tile right at that spot.

 

[SkiBumGolfer]

I really need to find a better place to set up my puttout cup. Mine ha a 3inch break in the last 12 inches of the putt, think there's an uneven grout line in the tile right at that spot.

Yeah that's a pain. I'm pretty sure mine isn't perfectly flat either, but inside of 4' it doesn't seem to affect things significantly. The 6' ones I do see some movement though.

Are you using a mat or just a rug/carpet?

 

[Slowmo]

Yeah that's a pain. I'm pretty sure mine isn't perfectly flat either, but inside of 4' it doesn't seem to affect things significantly. The 6' ones I do see some movement though.

Are you using a mat or just a rug/carpet?

I have an explanar mat. I really like the mat and the puttout cup, just need a better place to put it.

 

[Ludin]

I really need to find a better place to set up my puttout cup. Mine ha a 3inch break in the last 12 inches of the putt, think there's an uneven grout line in the tile right at that spot.

I think the break builds character. I aim 2 balls right of the cup on 6' putts.

 

[Slowmo]

I think the break builds character. I aim 2 balls right of the cup on 6' putts.

like I said I think I just have a corner of a tile that sticks up a little. If the ball is headed center of the cup the last foot it breaks right and misses the cup by a good 3 inches, if it's headed inside left it will hit the cup (but not the little puttout thingy), if it's headed left lip it will miss the cup by 2 inches. I need like a sheet of plywood to put it on or something.

 

[Slowmo]

so one of the big feedback points Brian sent me was that my follow through is WAY too long. I kind of knew that was coming as I know I had too long of a follow through and he wants more of a hit at the ball. I need to set up the drill with 2 teepegs just in front of the ball to stop the putter head. Anyway, I went and played the executive course that just opened up after work yesterday and tried to put this into play. I'm really going to have to get on a practice green and work on this as it's such a strange feeling to me. It worked very well yesterday with short putts but anything over about 15 ft I either left way short or just hammered it 15 ft past.

 

[Slowmo]

struggled mightily today on the greens today with 5 3putts. I seem to be having a lot of trouble with those 3-6footers for some reason. Today I would blow one by, then be scared of the next one. Longer putts the distance control feels fairly good but the shorter ones I"m all over the place. I know it's in my head and I need to just be sure and putt the ball. The greens were pretty tough for everyone today but I missed so many little 3-6ft putts after making an incredible chip shot. Today was just one of those days were several facets of my game were off and putting was one of them.

 

[MWard]

struggled mightily today on the greens today with 5 3putts. I seem to be having a lot of trouble with those 3-6footers for some reason. Today I would blow one by, then be scared of the next one. Longer putts the distance control feels fairly good but the shorter ones I"m all over the place. I know it's in my head and I need to just be sure and putt the ball. The greens were pretty tough for everyone today but I missed so many little 3-6ft putts after making an incredible chip shot. Today was just one of those days were several facets of my game were off and putting was one of them.

With the ball coming off faster, I’m not super surprised on the shorties. That does take getting used to.

My round yesterday had two holes where I think I ran it by 9-10ft. It was bizarre and not at all useful. On super fast greens, I’ve found it tough to figure out the touch needed to be good with this one :/

 

[1860VS]

Sim today. I started out with a case of the hooks. Gave me plenty of opportunity to hit really long putts with the Lean Lock. It was really, really good, leaving me inside our 8' gimme circle time after time, often very close to going in. Mid range putts were also very good, I made a couple in the 15-20' range. Most of the putts I missed inside of 20' were misreads, great pace, I just played the break wrong. This is going to be an interesting summer..........

This is a great putter, but this entire thing is a system, not just a magic wand. And the system works. Many of the concepts translate to regular putters as well, but the Lean Lock putter makes them that much better.....

 

[Slowmo]

I have thoughts on using the Lean lock putter but in a different way than the putter is designed. I will save those ideas to test out later but I may have accidentally stumbled on something

 

[Ludin]

Putting today was all over the place. I lacked green reading and speed control across the board which resulted in 3 3-putts. This was night and day verse last time out so I am going to strike this one up to growing pains. Also with the rest of my game off today as well I may have put to much pressure on my putting as well.

 

[SkiBumGolfer]

Little late in posting this because my Shot Scope app was acting up, but here are my results from my first outdoor round with the Lean Lock putter on Xmas Eve. I had two 3-putts, which resulted from hitting a lag putt either too hard or too soft and leaving myself a tough one coming back. Not terribly surprising overall, considering I haven't had a lot of opportunity to practice speed. But overall it was more intuitive than I expected it to be, and my speed was good more than it was bad.

The nice surprise (or maybe it shouldn't be a surprise) is that my short putting (inside 6 feet) was better than my historical, especially on the "knee knocker" range of 3-6 feet. I only missed one putt in this range, and did better than your average 10 hcp in this area - which if you look back at my first post in this thread, is a definite improvement for me. Historically, I only make 60% of these. I also made 2 birdie putts, one from 5 feet and one from about 10 feet - these are historically putts which have plagued me, so it was a real confidence builder to see them go in.

Excited to see what more reps will do. I'm starting to get very confident on burying those short ones with my putting mat practice.

 

[Slowmo]

that is awesome!

 

[Coloradomrg]

Got a round in today. Frost delay, and 34 degrees moved us from 10:00 to 10:30. Freaking cold. The greens knew it. I’ve never hit so many greens and watch the ball bounce off as I did today.

Putting was a strength with the lean lock again. Due to the wicked hard greens, pin hunting was not a thing today. First putts were long, like 15’+ in nearly every case. On 12 holes I left the ball within 3” of the cup with my first putt. Mostly on line but short, with a few right or left. The frozen and the partially thawing greens were really hard to get the speed right on. My playing partner couldn’t believe how good I was hitting the lines.

So it’s good to see my initial aim improving, but I have some work to do on speed control. Now if the rest of my game would catch up.

Going to get a little lead tape to cover the mirrored logo and add a little weight before my next round.

 

[Ludin]

Decided to have a bit of a challenge today with the weather being 35 degrees and the greens being rock hard. Decided to put my previous gamer up against the Lean Lock. Some interesting takeaways come out of it. 5 feet and in the comfort with the Lean Lock is so much higher. Putting from off the green through a couple feet of fringe is tougher with the Lean Lock for me. Pace from 20 feet and beyond is still a learning curve for me with the Lean Lock.

Will need to send Brian some updated videos this week as I have been using the PuttOut devil ball with practice and struggle to get it rolling on line. Something is off and I can't pinpoint it.

 

[1860VS]

Played a sim last night with the LeanLock. I putted pretty darn well, but the 8' gimmes don't give me a chance to test the short ones. I event sent a video yet, next time we are on the outdoor practice green I'll be sending one. Videos at the sim just dont seem to be lit well.....

 

[TJRyska]

 

[Slowmo]

Doh I’m an idiot. I’m visiting my mother for a few days and she lives like 3 miles from the new PGA HQ in Frisco. I should have brought the putter and taken it over to the HUGE putting green one afternoon

 

[SkiBumGolfer]

Got a surprise round in on Saturday since the weather turned out a little better than expected, and this was a bit of a lightbulb round with the Lean Lock putter. I haven't really had much of a chance to practice speed outside, but it felt really intuitive this time, and the short ones I still felt super confident in just like last round

-31 putts, with NO 3-putts (HUGE for me)
-0.81 strokes gained with the putter - VERY uncommon for me
-Speed was absolutely solid all day - never blew one significantly by or left one way short, even with one from about 40 feet
-Made every putt inside 6 feet (including one birdie) - should note a few gimmes were awarded here, but I still hit several of them and buried them
-Made 2 putts in the 12-18 foot range (one for a birdie and the other for a big par save)
-Misses were 77% long, which is great because almost everything had a chance to go in

Starting to become a believer in this method! If there's any issue I need to work on (other than additional work on ingraining speed control), it's a slight tendency to pull the longer putts left of the line, and the short ones sometimes show a little push. Planning to send an update video to Brian within the next week or so.