Case Study 1: Michael Lloyd

Fixing your weak spot

By Chuck Cook

Photos By Darren Carroll

July 2007

Michael came in with one goal: to get better feel for distance on his mid-range putts. (1) To diagnose those speed troubles, we started on the indoor putter- fitting system.

(2) A relay of cameras recorded his stroke from two angles, and a laser bouncing off an insert in the putterface gave us information about his alignment.

(3) The data showed us that Michael's putter had way too much loft--6 degrees, instead of 2--which was making the ball jump off the face instead of roll. Once we found a good putter setup for him (with interchangeable components from the Edel Golf putter cart, we can test unlimited hosel and putterhead combinations with a few turns of a wrench), we went outside to work on his fundamentals.

(4) Michael had too much play between his thumb and forefinger at the bottom of the grip, and he was changing his grip pressure during the stroke and losing control of the putterhead.

I asked Michael to "pinch" the end of the grip slightly with his forefinger and thumb, and keep the pressure the same throughout the stroke.

(5) After adding a slight forward press, Michael started to roll the ball very well.

(6) I had him groove distance control by knocking putts into the hole off a tee sticking out from the back edge of the cup. Only a putt with just the right speed will kiss off the tee and drop in.