For most of golf instruction's history, putting has been treated as a technique problem. Something wrong with your stroke that a few lessons could iron out. I used to teach it that way too — until two people changed how I think about the game's most repeated shot.
The Equipment Half of the Equation
David Edel's putter fitting work starts from a different question entirely: not what's wrong with your stroke, but does your putter actually match how you naturally move? Weight, balance, and feel, matched to the player instead of the player being asked to adapt to a generic putter off the rack.
That idea pushed me to stop treating putting as a one-size-fits-all motion — the exact same lesson I'd already learned about the full swing, just showing up in a different part of the game. If your putter fights your natural stroke, no amount of technique work fully fixes that. You're compensating for equipment, the same way a bad lie tempts you to compensate with your shaft.
The Read Half of the Equation
Mark Sweeney's contribution sits on the other side of the ball: stroke analysis and green reading. Where Edel answers "does your equipment fit you," Sweeney answers "did you actually read this putt correctly in the first place." A perfectly fit putter and a technically sound stroke still miss if the read was wrong before you ever took the club back.
What This Freed Me Up to Teach
Here's the real impact those two had on my coaching: once the putter fits, and once the read is trustworthy, I stop needing to troubleshoot equipment or aim mid-lesson. That frees me to focus entirely on what actually wins putts — start line, speed, and green reading.
That's it. Three things. Not a dozen technical checkpoints, not a swing thought for every situation. Once fitting and reading are handled, putting comes down to starting the ball on the right line, with the right speed, toward a target you've read correctly. Everything else is noise.
The Short Game System This Built
This is the foundation of what I call the Clear and Simple Short Game System — a straightforward way to pick the highest-percentage shot for any situation around the green, putting included. Fit the equipment. Trust the read. Focus on line, speed, and green reading. That's a system a weekend player can actually carry onto the course, not just remember in a lesson.
If you've been told your putting problem is a stroke problem, it might not be. It might be an equipment problem, or a green-reading problem, wearing a stroke problem's disguise. Worth ruling those out first.
Curious which swing type you are, and which short-game system fits it? Take the free In-2-It Golf Diagnostic.