“Straight back and straight through.” These are words you often hear with regards to a “good” putting stroke. The Putt Right training aid helps teach you a straight back and straight through stroke.
How it works
The Putt Right is essentially a Bullseye (Brassmaster to be exact) type putter head with two holes in the face for the training rails to be inserted into. The rails give you a visual representation of the target line. More importantly for the Putt Right concept, the rails give you feedback and knock the ball off line if your putter face isn’t square.
Fine tune the rails
I wondered at first why the rails were bent at the end. I figured it was because the end of them may dig into the ground due to the angle of the face at the peak of the back swing. That may be. But the main reason is to give the player the ability to fine tune the opening between the rails.
The more grooved you get your putting stroke, the more you can bend the rails into a “closed” position where the opening is smaller. If you are able to keep the ball on line and prevent it from hitting the rails in the more closed positions, the better your putter is going straight back and straight through.
Right or left
Being a Bullseye style putter and since the holes for the rails go all the way through, a person could mount the rails on either side of the face. Therefore this putting aid can be for right or left handed players.
Practiced enough with the rails? When you’re confident in your putting stroke, you can take out the rails and bring the putter onto the course.
Critic’s corner
You have to be of the belief that the “straight back and straight through” theory is the way to putt if you want to use this aid. Many great putters however, do not employ this theory. Ben Crenshaw, one of the greatest putters ever, does not have a straight back straight through stroke. Crenshaw and many other great putters employ the “swinging gate” style putting stroke, where your putter rotates like the a door on hinges. I tried the swinging gate stroke with the Putt Right and that’s a fun way of playing golf ball pinball.
Conclusion
It can be quite shocking to see how far off line or how far from square your putter face is when you try the Putt Right for the first time. If you have a hard time keeping your putter on the right line, the Putt Right may be a good tool for you to try.
HOGWire – Golf Industry News
