The Nine Profiles

In the early days of using PuttLab technology to support our putting instruction and putter fitting, the first step we took was to ask the client to hit some putts with their eyes closed, or at times we even used a blindfold. We were looking for two things. The size, shape, and direction of the path and if the position of the face at impact match the face at aim. We collected data not only in our instruction academy but at 2 or 3 golf shows every year. The database became quite large in a brief period.

What we learned from this collection of data has supported more than one career in the time since the original study. I am quite sure I could draft an entire book on the path alone. For the sake of this column, I would like to focus on a few of the takeaways from the data.

1. Most people when they swing a putter with their eyes closed will swing the putter on a bigger arc than with their eyes open. It is my extraordinarily strong opinion that a forced path when the eyes are open is a source of many flaws a player will fight in their putting stroke.

2. If the forward swing path did not match the back swing path, that was the first sign of a poor static putter fit. This led to the concept of face aware and path aware players. If we could not get the paths to match by correcting the length and lie of the putter, we knew the player had a face awareness bias and that was the main influence in our suggestion of putter style.

3. It was obvious that without a visual reference, there was directional bias in the path. Some swung left some swung to the right. This was no surprise, especially when you consider the full swing of the same player. Faders swung left, Draws swing right. For me this was a no brainer. Mr. Palmer played a draw and had an inside to down the line bias, Mr. Nicklaus played a fade and swung the putter in a similar pattern.

It has been obvious to me that for most of my career we all have core movement patterns or a way of moving that is natural to us, regardless of the task. Forced patterns just make the job harder. Arnold was right, swing your swing. My greatest successes have been when we can find and use your most natural motion.

4. It was remarkable how much better the player’s timing and rhythm were with their eyes closed. Again, steer versus swing. Swing always wins. Even more remarkable was the improvement in speed control.

5. Finally, there was often a face bias at impact. More open or closed at impact. This was often solved by using a plain round grip, and then if necessary finding a grip profile that better matched the player.

In the 25 years that have passed since we first introduced the concept of 9 acceptable patterns, we have learned a lot about why the 9 patterns were there in the first place. Perception, posture, hand position bias, all explain why we found the 9. Over the years I have published enough of why. You can find it discussed in the articles we published on this blog. Next time I will start to explain how to match a putter to your natural tendencies.