How many times have you heard that the putting stroke should be like a pendulum and wondered just exactly what that means?

In it's simplest terms, think about the "pendulum" aspect of the putting stroke meaning that the radius of the arc remains constant throughout the stroke.

In laymen's terms, that means that the distance from your sternum to the sweetspot on the putter never changes.

Imagine a grandfather clock with its pendulum swinging and you get the idea. But more importantly, WHY do we want a pendulum type stroke?

Putting requires a phenomenal amount of precision because being off only one or two degrees from 10 feet can cause you to completely miss the hole on a short putt. The need to be this precise means that we need to eliminate as many extraneous moving parts as possible or our stroke can break down and introduce inconsistencies.

One of those inconsistencies that is detrimental to putting is the quality of contact with the ball. If you catch the ball too much on the upstroke you will hit the ball "thin" and the putt can come up short. This often happens from three different causes.

First, the golfer is over useing their hands and their wrists break down in the stroke. This "flipping" motion will cause the radius of the stroke to shorten and the Pendulum Putting Rod used in this video will give you a gentle reminder jab in the chest. Problem 1 fixed.

The second most common problem is that the golfer doesn't place the ball in the same place at address or the putter is not in the same alignment each time. Using the Putting Rod you can see that my putter shaft is perfectly parallel to the Putting Rod which is anchored to my sternum in the picture to the left.

This fixes both problems because the putter shaft will now always be in the same position at address, as will the ball when practicing with the Putting Rod. These two simple fixes make up the majority of putting problems that one will often see.

The third very common problem is the stroke itself. Golfers who don't know how to "swing" the putter will often move it all over the place without ever realizing it. A very common fault is for the putter head to move too far to the inside during the takeaway.

This leads to pushed putts and inconsistent contact. With the Putting Rod, if you take the club too far to the inside, you will feel increased pressure where it is anchored to your chest, reminding you to keep the radius consistent throughout the stroke. This is basically the same principle that the long putters work on, but allowing you to use a conventional length putter.

Once you learn to take the putter back on the proper path, you need to now bring it back through on the proper path and keeping the Putting Rod in place with constant pressure in your sternum ensures that you will bring the putter through impact the same way every time and release the putter the same way every time.

This simple device is fixing a lot of putting problems and is a lot cheaper than a lesson with an instructor who is only going to try and get you to do the things that great little training aid teaches you by itself!

I have been using the Pendulum Putting Rod in my lessons for months now and it has made an immediate impact on how my students swing the putter. Watch the video to learn more about the proper pendulum putting stroke.

Numerous PGA Tour professionals are already using the Pendulum Putting Rod, some of which have included Charles Howell III, Mike Weir and Masters Champion Trevor Immelman.

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