putting styles, green speeds, maintenance and Billy Casper

[Phil McDade]

Watching another one of those Golf Channel programs highlighting a match from the 1960s (including the one on now!), I'm struck by the differences in putting styles between players of that generation and current ones.

Lots of golfers back then -- Casper, Palmer, Frank Beard, others -- had a putting style/set-up in which the hands were kept very close to the body, arms moved very little, and the stroke action was mostly with the wrists. Compare to, say, Mickelson and Zach Johnson (two very good modern putters), who extend their arms from the body, and seem to have very little wrist action in their putting strokes.

The long way to the question is this: Have putting strokes simply evolved, the way placekicking has evolved in football (straight-on to soccer-style), or was that kind of putting stroke used by Casper et. al. a response to green conditions (slower, most would concede), grass types (bermuda?), and overall maintenance practices?

Billy Casper is generally acknowledged as one of the best putters the game ever saw. Why don't more players copy his style?

[Phil Benedict]

I think putting technique has evolved along with green speeds.  Modern technique is mostly rocking the shoulders and leaving the hands out, which works best on fast greens.  Prior to the increase in green speeds, which started in the 70's, players needed to use their wrists and hands to generate enough pace.  

Nicklaus is something of a transitional player because he began his career when greens were pretty slow but ended it when green speeds were much faster.  It's interesting that nobody imitates Jack's technique either.

[David_Tepper]

My guess is that faster (and truer rolling) greens have reduced the number of wristy putters. You no longer need to "pop" the ball to get it rolling. All you need to do is "stroke" it.

The big divide in putting styles these days is between the Dave Pelz style (straight back, straight thru) and the Stan Utley style (putter swings in more of an arc).  

[Ken Moum]

I'm inclined to think it's only because no one thought of it.

I used to play on painfully slow greens, which were also so large that you would sometimes get several putts of 75-100 feet in a round.

Despite that, it was there that I changed from a style that resembled Casper's to the more "modern" style that utilizes no wrist action.

Even on those slow greens, it worked much, much better than the wristy stroke.

Golf technique fashions tend to change fairly slowly, in part because golfers don't want to look foolish. They'd rather look like everyone else, even if it hurts their score.

Witness K.J. Choi, who used that SuperStroke putting grip for months in practice until he finally got the gumption to take it out for real.

K