Mangum on Putter Fitting

Some interesting stuff as usual from Geoff Mangum on putter fitting. You can find this discussion on his forum. The link to the thread is here:

www.network54.com/Forum/52812/thread/1379107306/Are+These+Putter+Science+Claims+Valid-

Geoff's approach to putter fitting is a bit different from what we typically hear from instructors and golf magazines. For starters, most golfers are told that their eyes should be 'above the ball.



However, Mangum does not believe in that instruction. Instead, he feels that the direction of the face and the direction of where the eyes are looking should be the same. And the direction of the face and the eyes should be pointing at the ball. Sevam1 from Secret In The Dirt fame discussed this nicely with regards to the full golf swing:




So, if we look at the picture of the golfer with the 'eyes over the ball', we will see that his face is not pointing at the ball (yellow lines show where the face is directed):



From reading Geoff's work, he feels that the golfer should be able to bend over from the waist and neck 'naturally.' Then hand the arms naturally.

From there, the putter length should be about 2-inches above the wrist line of the hands as they are hanging. So the golfer will still be gripping down on the club. I measured myself on this and found that I needed a 35-inch putter to achieve this.

The other part that Geoff discusses in this thread is that the lie angle of putters are often too *flat*. He feels that the shaft of the putter should be as such where it is in line with the forearm. In TGM terms, this is often referred to as 'getting the right forearm on plane.'



Geoff discusses that with most putters being too flat, it creates a stroke that requires additional torque which is problematic.

In the end, Geoff has an illustration showing what it should look like:



So as we can see:

1. Waist Bent naturally

2. Neck Bent naturally

3. Arms hang naturally

4. Eyes and Face are pointing in the same direction

5. Eyes and Face are directed at the ball

6. Shaft on the same plane as the forearms I just thought this was interesting stuff for those interested in a different viewpoint on putter fitting.





3JACK