Any PGA professional able to attend the Trade Show, the TCC and the Congress, will arrive at the end of this appetising new season with enough golf educational information to fill a small encyclopaedia.

I know I’ve pontificated at some length in these columns, previously, about the depth of knowledge and information taken on board by PGA pros when they undergo their three-year training course, and maybe progress into further education, but I make no apology for repeating that viewpoint.

The range of subjects covered by speakers about golf in these advanced times is quite extraordinary. Over and above the obvious topics of the golf swing, and pro shop merchandising, there are all of the sports sciences, golf course maintenance, tournament administration, environmental concerns and, more recently, child care.



I find myself fascinated by listening to all of them. Well, OK, most of them. But, one particular area where my mind rebels, is when experts write or talk, sometimes for hours, on the subject of... putting.

Back some 20 or 30 years ago, most golf professionals would dismiss the subject as ‘purely a personal’ choice, and that there was no one reliable teaching formula because ‘what suits one doesn’t suit another.’ We all have a great deal of evidence to support this attitude having seen Old Jack, the oldest member, with a swing like a lumberjack and the stance of a hop-picker who take a piece of metal on the end of a hickory stick out of his bag and rattles in putts like we used to shell peas.

Now, with all the wisdom of an 18-handicapper, and expressing merely a personal point of view, (not necessarily those of the PGAs of Europe Education Committee), let me suggest that the more advice one receives about putting techniques, and the problems therein, the more we can become a candidate for the dreaded yips or even the men in white coats…

Let me quote from a recent article I read in a golf magazine about putting surfaces: “The grain indicates the direction in which the grass is lying, and the ball will always try to follow the grain. Very often the grain will follow a particular pattern depending on where you are in the world. “Sometimes the grass will grow to where the sun is predominant in the day, so when you’re on a Bermuda grass golf course, orient yourself to the East and West. Knowing that the grain generally goes west, you’ll find it much easier to putt. Other times the grain will favour a nearby body of water, be it a river, lake or the sea...”

Crickey...

Elsewhere in the same publication I read more putting advice to add to the store. “Flex your knees. Your leg muscles are strong and can play a key role in keeping you balanced. Fire them up by flexing your knees evenly until the caps are over the balls of your feet. Feel your weight solidly under the middle of your feet.”

Gosh...

OK, so I know all about the mystifying properties of grass, (of which the earlier article informed us that there are some 10,000 species) and I know how to stand ...so what about selecting an implement for propelling the ball?

Same magazine, another article: here I learn that ‘weight-adjustable putters are back in fashion...’ “When considering the wisdom of having fiddled about with the balance of your putter, two lines of defence emerge. The first is that because the greens we play on are hugely inconsistent –occasionally fast, sometimes medium and, more often that not in a British winter, sluggishly slow- it stands to reason that we should attack such unpredictable surfaces with more versatile weaponry...”

Stands to reason...

This article discussed the merits of weight-adjustable ‘weaponry’ of which one of them offered ‘three weights for the head but you can add anything from 15 to 100 grams to the handle. This, when tallied up, means that you have a remarkable 18 different ways to set up the balance and feel of the putter.

Yeah, right... I’m standing over a ten foot putt on the 18th. There’s the sea on the left, a river on the right, and a lake beside the green. It’s Bermuda grass and the sun is high in the sky. The grain is running this way. Or is it that way? I’ve got my kneecaps over the balls of my feet and I can feel my weight solidly under the middle of my feet.

My weaponry is taken care of, too. I’ve selected one of three weights for the head of my adjustable putter, I’ve added 100 grams to the handle... and I NEED this friggin’ putt to stop my handicap going up to 19. Can anybody tell me what to do next...? Old Jack would probably know the answer!