Putter Technology

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• Main Menu
• Putter Design Evolution
• Moment of Inertia and Center of Gravity
• Sole Design and Lie Angle
• Putter Balance and Weight
• Putter Grip
• Putter Shape and Face Treatment
• Putter Shaft Location and Offset
• Putter Styles
• Rules Governing Putters
• Impact: Ball Launch
• Face Angle at Impact
• Face Loft and Horizontal Head Path
• Forward Press Effect On Impact
• ASSESSMENT

Forward Press Effect on Impact

Many golfers believe that a forward press will induce top spin. This is not true.

What a forward press will do – if you hold the press throughout the stroke – is decrease the loft at impact. A reduced loft of more than 2 degrees (on a 4-degree lofted putter) will tend to drive the ball into the side of the depression in which it is sitting and cause it to jump differently each time depending on the size of the depression and the length of the grass. A ball will settle more on a slow green than a fast green.

A forward press – if not too severe – is often used as a trigger to start the stroke. Many times golfers have a problem in starting the stroke and need a trigger to do so. But it must be made clear that a forward press is more beneficial psychologically than mechanically.

Golfers do sometimes add or subtract loft by having the hands ahead of the putter head during impact. This is seldom because the arc is in a downward direction at impact but rather that the hands are leading the head. This takes on the same result as a forward press, but it has been set sometime during the back stroke or returning forward stroke.