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Webb Simpson ... golf's best putter?
Webb Simpson goes very quietly about his work on the greens, but slowly, and
surely he has become regarded as one of the great putters of his generation.
Controversially he used was the second player in the history of the game to win
a major championship using a belly putter.
Fact file :-
Date of birth: August 8, 1985.
Claims to putting fame: A staggering ability to hole clutch putts again
and again.
Putters used: Ping G5i Craz-E B
on Webb Simpson's putter
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Simpson's
putting method is that it is as mechanical and square as possible right from the
off. Despite using the belly putter as an anchor, the rest of the set-up is much
like with a standard length putter. His hips, shoulders and feet are all square
to the intended starting line of the putt.
Webb Simpson's posture is a comfortable one, with his arms hanging freely and
his grip comprises of the left-below-right style.
The thinking behind his choice of grip is that he can stop his hands from
becoming too involoved in the throughswing without losing the feel in his
fingers.
Webb Simpson's Putter
Simpson has used a belly putter and has been a big
supporter of the belly putter ever since he took one out for nine holes with his
father at Pinehurst Golf Club.
He has continued to use one to this day, his claim being that a belly putter
gives you more consistency - not extremely hot, but not particularly cold either
- and that some of the best players to have ever lived were great because of
their steady play.
Startlingly, the putter that Simpson now uses came into his hands by a sheer
stroke of luck: "It was Thanksgiving in my freshman year at Wake Forest, and I
picked it up in the shop, just messing around," he said. "I got some grief from
my teammates, but it was too good not to switch."
Webb Simpson's victory in the 2012 US Open "I'm not worried about it. I'm ready,
and if they do it for next year, I'll be ready."
What can we learn from Webb Simpson's putting?
One of the characteristics of Simpson's stroke is that he makes contact with the
ball well past the low point of his stroke, so quite distinctly on the upstroke.
This is a great way to produce a true roll on your putts, but putting the ball
as far forward as Simpson does, isn't for everyone, and most people's putters
are not built for this sort of ball position.
Having said that, though, if you're looking for a truer roll, you may find that
playing the ball forward (towards the left foot for a right-handed player) like
Simpson is the answer.
You'll have to make a modification to your putter's loft if you want to make the
best use of Simpson's style of address. Standard putters have around 4 degrees
of loft as this is the ideal angle for the ball on which to "take off" to make
it roll.
If you catch the ball on the upstroke, however, you need a putter with less than
standard loft. Simpson's putter has 1.5 degrees of loft, for example. When the
upward stroke is factored in as well, this loft is turned into more like 3 or 4
degrees, hence the superb roll that Simpson achieves.
Another leaf to take out of Simpson's book is to follow his rhythm. The brisk
back and through speed of his stroke which doesn't change at all - he merely
varies the length of swing in relation to the length of putt.

by Murray Rose Senior Contributor @muzzarose murraywilliamrose.blogspot.co.uk
Wikipedia on Webb Simpson
http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/8540686/webb-simpson-sees-no-need-belly-putter-ban
http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instruction/2011-12/belly-putting-tips-webb-simpson
http://www.pgatour.com/players/player.29221.webb-simpson.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88zAskWFuqk
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