Article #38
Featured Teacher: Charlie Rucker
To meet this week's teacher, or to purchase a copy of MUNIE ~ The Jitterbug Collection, go to www.bobbysteiner.com
I got a friend at Munie-they call him Hang Time-who can perform magic with a wedge, but who might be the sorriest lag-putter I ever saw.
Now, mind you, I ain't sneakin' in licks behind his back, because he'll be the first to admit he's been a lousy long putter. In fact, he said so one day when he called me on the phone beggin' and pleadin' that somehow, some way, I could help him sort out his troubles.
"I just don't have no touch with a putter," he said. "I'm great at chip shots, but I can't get a long putt near the hole to save my life."
"Hang Time," I said, "tell me how it is you have more touch with a wedge, a club you only use on about half of the holes, than you do with your putter, a one-dimensional, flat-faced tool you use on every single green."
Of course you can imagine his reaction. He got all perturbed, like he was worried I didn't believe him or something. "You think I'd call you up if I wasn't serious? You think this is fun for me? Look Charlie, just let me roll a few putts for you, and you can see for yourself. Maybe you can tell me what the problem is."
That sounded like a pretty good idea, so we agreed to meet later that evening at the Munie putting green.
I had him start out with a pitching wedge, which he used to snuggle his first ball next to a nearby cup, and his second ball to a hole a bit further away. He then pitched a few high in the air, and chipped-and-runned a few. It seemed like he could do anything he wanted with that wedge.
Not wasting any time, I handed him his putter. "Now, roll a ball to that far hole," I said, pointing to the back edge of the practice green.
To my utter amazement, Hang Time swung that putter back and forth like he was wearing a damn straight jacket. He squirmed all around as his ball limped up and stopped about eleven feet short of the hole.
"How could your confidence die on the vine like that?" I said. "Are you just trying to make me laugh?"
"Come on, Charlie, this is serious."
"All right," I agreed. "I think I can help. Let's pretend, for starters, that the putter gets swung the same way as the wedge does. I'm not talking about just your arm and hand configuration, but more importantly, the freedom in your hips. Said another way, you gotta unlock your hips when you stroke through long putts the same way you unlock your hips when you chip and pitch."
"That can't be right," Hang Time said. "Everything below the waist is supposed to stay perfectly locked in place when you putt. Unless, that is, every magazine article I've ever read is wrong."
"Of course, they're wrong!" I said. To prove my point, I handed him back his wedge and suggested he do a little experiment. "Let me see you chip a ball to that far flag without letting your hips move. In other words, let's see if you can still perform magic with that wedge if you lock your lower body in place like you do when you putt."
Just as I figured, when he locked down his hips, he couldn't chip or pitch a lick. "What's wrong, Hang Time?" I asked. "What happened to all that hairdresser-like touch you were the proud possessor of just a short moment ago?"
"Are you saying I should actively rotate my hips to putt?" he asked.
"Not actively," I said. "Rather, you just gotta unlock 'em, keep 'em loose so they can move freely to allow upper body flow; the same thing you do so beautifully when you chip."
Believe it or not it was just that simple, and since then, Hang Time has become a beautiful lag-putter.
You know, I've found that most golfers who have trouble getting the long putts close to the hole suffer from too much rigidity in the hips. This is true for so many people, in fact, that I've come to believe hip freedom is the first thing to examine when a golfer exhibits less touch with a putter than with other clubs around the green.
It sure helped Hang Time.