Bobby Jones on the Pendulum Putting Stroke

These thoughts are from the book Bobby Jones on Golf, a compilation of newspaper articles Jones wrote in the early 1930s. In an article called simply The Pendulum Stroke Jones talks about the perpetually controversial teaching about swinging the putter back and then forward in a straight line, with the putterface remaining perfectly square to that line from start to finish. He says:

It has been described and expressed in different ways, but when boiled down, each demonstration resolves itself into a thing absolutely impossible of accomplishment so long as human beings are built as we know them.

While he says that such a stroke is an "ideal conception of accurate striking," he adds:

But so long as human toes stick out in front, and until a golf club turns into a croquet mallet and can be swung backward between the legs, there is little hope that this can be attained.

Clearly Jones didn't think like Dave Pelz!

It does seem to me that something close to a pendulum stroke can be made if you lean over far enough so the putter is swinging on a line out past your toes, but that requires a posture that Jones himself neither used nor recommended. He often told players to stand as tall as possible, and that advice truly would eliminate the possibility of a pendulum stroke.

But whether you believe in a pendulum stroke or not, what he says at the end of the article is something that every golfer struggling on the greens should remember:

The important considerations in putting are that the putter should be faced properly when it strikes the ball, and that, as it strikes, it should be moving in the direction of the hole. If these two requirements are met, it makes no difference in the world whether or not the club was faced properly or moved along the the projected line throughout the backswing.

Let me rephrase that in a more modern way.

As long as the putter is moving toward the hole and the face of the putter is square to that line AT THE MOMENT OF IMPACT, it doesn't matter whether it did those two things for the entire time you were making the stroke.

In other words, what matters is if the club is doing what it should when it hits the ball, not what it does when it isn't hitting the ball!

If you remember that when you putt, I think you'll find putting to be less frustrating. Whether you swing on a straight line or an arc, there is some point during your swing that the putterface is pointed at the same point you're swinging toward. Find that point by trial and error if necessary, then put your ball there each time you putt and stop worrying about your backswing. You'll make a lot more putts that way!