Whenever I see him with a 6' or less put these days, I expect him to miss. How can such a great player not recognize the STUPIDITY of "opening and closing" the putter face? In spite of his great career, Tiger has 3 MAJOR FLAWS in his game. 1. Tries to hit the driver too hard such that it takes him out of rhythm and makes him miss too many fairways. 2. Tries to "work" the ball on every approach... that is, he plays off the pin and expects his "work/curve" to bring the shot in towards the pin. Great idea, but he miss-executes the "work" part much of the time... and doesn't get many short/reasonable shots at birdie.... leaves himself 40 ft+ puts for birdie (or worse) when they should have been 20 ft. (Nicklaus often said he "aimed for the middle of the green and tried to work the ball towards the pin"... Great approach... IF YOU CAN EXECUTE IT... which Woods does it poorly enough that it shouldn't be his routine strategy... IMO) 3. "Opens-then-closes" the putter face. COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS. Not only is he (and everyone else) required to figure out the initial trajectory and speed, he ALSO has to execute the proper "open, then close-to-square" of the putter face. Chrises Jeest! Doesn't he know any physicists?? (So, what do I know? I didn't play much golf, but I was a professional bowler... more similarities in bowling to the golf swing than you might think.) Too bad Woods didn't have me as his psycho coach... he'd have 100+ wins already (assuming he heeded my advice, of course.)
In stages I and II of his career, Woods was one of the best clutch putters in the history of the game. Now, something is missing. It's an interesting question if we are seeing a reversion to the long term mean or if he has lost his touch or age has dulled his eye/hand coordination. A company that sells some sort of system for evaluating putting, I forgot their name, measured a lot of pros and said Woods had the best ability to get the putter face back to square at impact. That said, most pros these days use some variation of straight back, straight through, rather than Woods' arc stroke.
1. The notion of "opening the putter face, then closing square at impact" has ALWAYS BEEN RIDICULOUS. Woods may have been successful in spite of his flawed putting approach, but apparently no longer... yeah, he has his moments and good rounds... but basically he now putts like a donkey, "scared to lose". 2. There is no inherent benefit to adding "open the putter face, closing to square" the complications of putting. The putter should be taken back and stroked forward on the initial chosen line.... "straight back, straight through"... like stroking a putt with a pool cue (I know something of THAT, too.) So... what do I care about Woods' putting woes? I'm a sports fan. I like to see records broken... all records... all sports. Woods is pissing away his opportunity to establish Cy Young-like career records because his brain is apparently locked in low gear.
He's far from the only pro who uses the arc technique, and he was incredibly successful with it. Many, indeed most, of the best putters in history have used it. All of the guys using long putters or anchored putting are using some variation of it. There is a rule limiting how vertical the shaft can be, so you can't just have a 90* angle swing it like a true pendulum. The straight back, straight through technique is not as simple as it sounds. There either has to be some wrist manipulation or you have to move the handle, hands etc back as a unit, which can be challenging under extreme pressure. I think SBST is the better technique, particularly on the greens the pros play on, but I don't think dubious putting technique accounts for Woods recent troubles.
I'd argue that it has more to do with the changes that he's done to his full swing that have crept into his short game. The chipping and pitching troubles he had for a few years were affected by the long swing changes, and it stands to reason that it could have affected either his allignment or takeaway on the putting stroke. More than anything, he's missed more short putts in the past 3-4 years than he probably missed in the previous ten years. I'd argue that it's a combination of speed and allignment, but it's a chicken and egg argument since a player will take more speed out of the short putts once they lack confidence that they can consistently strike it on the correct line.
That's a great point. Tiger was always fearless on those short testers and would ram them in. I don't know if he still does that.
I don't know if that's true... seems to me, not. For years I used to play a lot of Putt-Putt... I know, not real golf... but the physics of putts are the same... you're trying to "get the ball on your intended line". "Straight back and through" is the easiest and least complicated way, as the face is ALWAYS square to the intended line as best you can execute. The arc method, regardless of how many use it, is RIDICULOUS. To get the ball on the intended line, the face must be square at impact. With the arc, you open the face on the back swing... then if on the forward stroke you get the toe a bit ahead of the heel, that's an instant pull. If you get the heel ahead of the toe, that's an instant push... the ball is off line immediately at impact. Why induce that extra complication into the play? How does HAVING to get the "squaring" correct add to the process? It doesn't... only detracts and should be eliminated.
Of course. On short puts, speed isn't an issue. Line is barely an issue as the ball usually can't break much over a short distance. Tiger appears to have a lack of confidence on the short ones... he often sees the ball off line immediately so hits them with less pace than before. (If I tried to "open, then close" the putter, I think I'd be jittery over the short ones, too.)