Posture and a radical thought

Posture in setting up for a golf shot is important - shoulder alignment is usually poor (usually wide open to the aim path) with most casual players - but keeping that posture during the swing is critical.

Too often we try to swing so hard or with such anxiety that we lose our posture at the start or during the downswing. That is, we lose our bend, alignment, balance - everything we have, hopefully correctly, set up beforehand.

There is of course some room for lateral and vertical movement. Usually the head moves back a few inches on the backswing. There might also be a slight dip or lowering coming into impact, provided this is prepared for in the set up.

However, any serious swaying or lunging or lifting up prior to impact leads to inconsistency. Mishits with fairway woods and all irons will result from such moves. It is important to maintain the positions we have pre-set. A natural, controlled move to the front foot is what we are looking for, together with good body rotation.

Anyway, this is not my radical thought for the day although it is somewhat relevant to the issue of most concern to me at present - putting consistency.

I have thought about, researched and tried just about everything to try to improve my putting - both lag and short putting. So far I seem to be getting worse. Three putts are ten times more likely than one putts. I am leaving nearly every putt short. Any three footers are a nightmare.

So, I've first of all established that any head or body movement during the putting stroke is bad. Hence the link with the above posture discussion. It is important to stay still over putts, whatever method is being employed.

But this is not enough - how do you judge how hard to hit putts (all those short putts that can never ever go in)? I've concluded that I need to putt as I throw, that is, with my dominant right hand.

One handed putting is not new and has been utilised most recently, quite famously, or infamously, by a certain Mr Poulter in competition, and used by others in practise. In these cases it is probably most likely used to help improve rhythm or something of that kind. Not so for me.

My hope is that I will not only improve my rhythm, but actually start to hole a few putts or at least get the long putts up to the hole. I will follow the principle outlined by Cahill and others, using the right shoulder joint (check out the videos), while just lightly resting the left hand (flat and open) opposite the right hand.

My objective will be to stay quite still and use a rhythmic, quasi-throwing action, and try to feel the distance, like I was throwing a ball of paper into a bin or a dart at a dartboard. The length of the stroke will determine the distance the ball will go - a very short stroke (with minimal movement) for those pesky little putts.

I don't know if this will work, but it's worth a try. I really cannot putt any worse - seriously. It's time for radical though and radical action.