"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
weekly online golf column
by
Chris Dortch

July 6, 2004

He’s developed quite a following for his full swing instruction, but Stephen Puryear is something of a putting guru as well. Just don’t tell anybody.

Last month in this space, we discussed the full swing theories of Puryear, an Alabama-based teaching professional who travels two days a week to Black Creek, where he gives lessons all day. This time, we wanted to ask Puryear about his putting philosophy.

Puryear is careful not to overdo the putting talk. He doesn’t want to get typecast as a short game instructor, even though he’s done some amazing work with young touring professionals and a host of college players. There just isn’t enough call for a teacher who operates out of Alabama and Chattanooga to focus strictly on the short game.

Just as the keys he uses to teach the full swing are what some might call unconventional, so too are Puryear’s putting theories. But the soundest principle he teaches is alignment.

"It’s about getting the golfer to get all their lines consistent," Puryear said. "People who have the hardest time putting, their eyes go one way, their shoulders go another way, and their forearms and putter are pointed at still another target. They could have four different lines. Which one do they pick to roll the ball on?

"These kinds of people are very streaky putters. At a certain distance, all those lines cross. On a 12-foot putt, they might teach themselves to make them all day long. If they’re hitting their irons to 12 feet all day, they’re red hot. But if they’re hitting it to 20 feet, chances are there are going to be some three putts in there, because putts shorter or longer than that 12-foot zone are going to give them trouble."

Puryear teaches a square alignment, but advocates a less-than-conventional grip to achieve it. (You’ll have to get that info from him.)

Puryear also has very specific ideas about reading greens. "I’ve yet to find anybody in the last six or seven years that can actually aim at the spot they think they’re putting to," Puryear said. "Straight putts, they can do all right on. On a breaking putt, typically they play twice as much break. Now either they’re going to hit it too hard and through the break, or they’re going to get tentative with it."

Puryear’s solution for that? Emulate the pros. "Most of the good putters I’ve worked with, they’re looking at where the ball’s going in the hole versus a point outside the hole," he said. "A lot of better putters, they don’t know where they’re lined up, but they know where they want the ball to go in the hole."

Puryear also goes to work on a student’s mind when he teaches putting. Confidence is all-important. To help instill that, Puryear dispenses some PGA Tour statistics. "The No. 1 thing I tell people is that you’ve got to realize your odds," he said. "Take the FedEx tournament (in Memphis last month), which David Toms won, and Stewart Cink was No. 1 on the putting stats that week. But he made less than 10 percent of his putts outside 25 feet. The difference between handicap players and pros is that, inside 10 feet, those guys are extraordinary. But even for the pros, outside 12 feet, to 15 feet and beyond, there’s a major fall off.

"So the average golfer shouldn’t be too hard on himself."

Puryear has found several willing pupils among college players.

"College kids are aware of the importance of putting," he said. "The game has become so extreme off the tee. Young people are all bombing it. The only way they’re separating themselves is one the green. But many of them don’t have a solid foundation to base their putting on. College players have been very receptive to what I’m teaching."

So too have young professionals. Last year, Puryear worked with Nationwide Tour player Ryuji Imada, and he finished fifth on the tour’s putting list (28.37 putts per round). This year, Imada has won a tournament and is third on the Nationwide’s money list.

This season, Puryear gave Hunter Haas a putting lesson during the Chattanooga Classic, where he finished 22^nd. The next week, Haas finished ninth, and two weeks after that, he won the Knoxville Open.

Puryear has also helped McCallie star Adam Mitchell, who has been winning everything in sight on the junior level.

"It’s rewarding to help these guys achieve success," Puryear said. "That’s what it’s all about for me."

So is Puryear a putting guru? Perhaps he’s a reluctant one. "There’s not much to it, really," he said. "After two or three lessons, you should have it."

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The Men’s Metro at Valleybrook promises to be a showdown of the new wave of Chattanooga amateurs who have, for this season at least, moved past some of the older guard. Whereas in the past, Richard Keene, Pat Corey, Neil Spitalny and a handful of others could be expected to contend for the championship or unofficial best-player-in-the-city honors, nowadays a handful of college players are showing up on area tournament leader boards.

The top four places in the Chattanooga Area Rankings are taken up by college players: No. 1 Bryce Ledford (Chattanooga), No. 2 Ricky Honeycutt (Tennessee), No. 3 Josh Nelms (Middle Tennessee State) and No. 4 Chris Gilliland (Furman). All will tee it up at the Metro. Ledford (Don Malarkey, Red Bud), Nelms (Chattanooga Open) and Honeycutt (Cleveland) have combined to win four of the five tournaments on the local circuit this season.

The other winner this season, Kevin Law, won’t be playing in the Metro along with another former winner, Andrew Black. But 16 of the top 20 players in the area rankings are entered.

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