Dave Stockton - "Secrets of Putting" SHORT TRACK

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started to So let us in on the secret then.

Bruce Devlin 0:17

What's that? What were your what were your things that you worked on when you, you know, why you became such a very good putter?

Dave Stockton 0:25

I think putting is the simplest part of the game. I I don't think it relates at all to the rest of the game. Uh in fact, when you're working with people, uh the first thing I do is have them sign their signature for me. Um and so they sign Bruce Devil and they sign it. And now I say, okay, it took you about three seconds to do that. And okay, now I want you to take 20 seconds, but I want you to duplicate that first signature. I want the B to be the same height, the same width, you know, so on and so forth. And they won't be able to do the first letter. And I'll say, okay, now which one's the best? And they say, well, it's the first one. I said, why? And they go, Well, I guess I'm not thinking. So I say, Well, that's the first word you learn. You don't try. You you have you have to visualize. I mean, you seriously have to. So then we get on the green, and where most people's errors are in putting is they have no clue how to read a green, and they have no clue how to have a routine that just lets them get into it. And I have always I have always had an extremely fast routine because I figured how many people in the world didn't care if I missed or made the next putt. And so there is no wasted motion or time. I mean, my second major congressional on the 15-footer that I had to make to keep out of a playoff there with with Floyd in January. Um I I from the time I put the coin down to the ball being struck was 14 seconds. Yeah, I know. I watched it, it was quick, boy. Really? It's just well, it's either going to go in or it's not going to go in. So what I started the conversation answering your question is the fact that I ask people what's their direction hand, and they will I'll say, Tell me you got a direction hand and a field hand, it can be the same. And they'll automatically, if they're right-handed, say, Well, the feel is right-handed. I said, Yep, you're right. Okay. Now the question is, which is your direction hand? And if they tell me it's their right hand, then they got trouble. They seriously got trouble. And because I said, Okay, now what's your left doing? Well, the left's not doing anything. Okay, so I was taught that my left hand in low chip shuts and putting, the left hand's a dominant hand. And you tend, like uh Steve Stricker, you tend to stand fairly close to the ball unless you have an eye problem like Bob Murphy and you move the ball away from you or something. Again, everybody's different, but I want to be pretty much on top of the ball. So the left hand, and I have them practice with just their left hand. And like working with Tiger. Tiger adamantly thinks it's the right hand, and I he's probably one of the greatest putters I've ever seen. Especially if you're on the 18th at Orlando there at Palmer's course, and he has a highlight film for a hundred people wouldn't be able to do what he's done. And true. You know, he's made all these left or right putts that are almost impossible to make, and he made them dead center. And he believes the right hand, but there's no flip to it. And we see we see all these different grips now where you you got the saw grip and you got the left hand low. And it it you know, it's very few people are like speath that go left hand low and then can still keep the left hand going. I know what they're trying to do, but they can't accomplish it. So for me, it's a long answer to your question, but I I firmly believe the reason most people can't putt is the ball's too far away from them and they're rotating the putter and the right hand's flipping. And when I get through putting, my dad always taught me he wanted the back of my left hand to go to the hole, and that there's the the butt of the club stays vertical, it doesn't point back toward your belly button. Because if you do, and you'll hear the announcers say it, they're gonna say, Oh, he really released that putter. That was great. And I'm going, I no more want to release a putter than I could fly.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Yeah.

Dave Stockton 4:03

Because then I can't control the speed. So the the first word I told you I don't want him to use is try. The second word I don't want him to use is hit. I want him to roll the ball. Yeah. And yet you see people that try to smash the ball in the hole. They change Nicholson's loves to do this. He gets two or three feet and four feet, and he's gonna ram it in, which is all fine and good. Do you miss one? And it's, you know, it's it's not as hard as it's supposed to be. I've made a lot of money trying to teach people how to putt, and that that's been more satisfying to me than the days I played because of the record of the people we've worked with have been unbelievable. The success we've gotten.

Bruce Devlin 4:42

Well, that was the reason why I asked that question. I wanted to know what, you know, because that's that's you you recognize throughout the game as a wonderful teacher of the putting format. So thank you for your answer, David. That was great.

Dave Stockton 4:56

Yeah, I'll let me add just one quick note to that is the fact the other thing my dad told me, which if people think about it makes a lot of sense. When I get into the ball and I don't take a practice stroke unless I do it from behind the ball, I don't. But like Annika had to, she had to be looking down the line, looking at the hole. Makes because she had to have a practice stroke, but then when she walked into the ball, she just walks right into it. Well, my dad, well, when I when I put the putter down and I look at the hole and I'm setting my feet, I'm looking at the exact spot. It's coming in at four o'clock or eight o'clock or six o'clock on a clock, whatever it might be. But then I come back and I come back to an imaginary spot and I ask people, where how far out do you think I pick a spot? And they get apex of the break, third of the way to the hole, all these different things, and the answer is one inch. And it's the probably the best tip I ever got from my dad because he said, I want you to give me one inch of the putter going through the ball without any reaction to touching it. So you're not recoiling back, or like most people tend to come up on it, they come up and then make the ball bounce, and they don't get the roll that I get. Very good. Yeah, it makes sense.

Mike Gonzalez 6:07

It takes me back to a conversation we had with Steve Elkington a lot long ago. He says uh he worked with somebody, it might have been Dave Pell's, I don't know, but they uh they put a laser on him and they measured how well he aimed. And his aiming at five feet, ten feet, fifteen feet, twenty feet was absolutely terrible. And he got thinking about it, he says, wait a minute, put the put the put the laser back on, measure me at one inch. And he was dead nuts on, and so that's what he adopted.

Dave Stockton 6:33

Right? Was he curious? Do you remember if he was left or right with the laser? Probably left, I'd bet. Well, I I would hope so. I'm I'm I am never dead on. I am slightly left because I'm not letting my my left hand break down. My left hand, in fact, I'll put a T in the middle of the hole, somebody from four feet, and I say, okay, there's a dead straight butt. Where are you gonna aim? I said, I'm not gonna aim at that T. Do you think I'm aiming to the right of it or the left? And three out of four are gonna say that you'll you'll aim slightly right. And I said, No, I'm gonna aim slightly left because then my left hand can't possibly break down. There you go. And in you know what I'm saying? Great tip, great tip, Dave.

Mike Gonzalez 7:11

Yeah, let me ask a selfish question from a guy that's used a long putter for nearly 30 years. Uh, what do you do differently or teach differently to people that are using a long putter in terms of technique?

Dave Stockton 7:25

Um, try to get him in a short one.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

That's not gonna happen at my age. I figured that.

Mike Gonzalez 7:34

We hope you've enjoyed this short track of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 7:56

Smack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. And it's started just like just smack line. Mac head is as long as you're still in the state, you're okay. It went straight down the middle, file away.