"The buzz is in their court right now."

Jaime Diaz on the "guru war" that has broken out within the stable of short game specialists, led by Dave Stockton and sons:

None of the great putters of the last 50 years -- Bob Charles, Billy Casper, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros, et al. -- had a regular coach to help them on the greens. The same goes for today's acknowledged best: Woods, Steve Stricker, Brad Faxon and Brian Gay. For that matter, Stockton and Utley had no putting coach besides their boyhood teachers. The resistance is evident in the fact that the most recent partnerships were not initiated by the player. Stockton was suggested to Mickelson by his caddie, Jim Mackay, as Utley was to Garcia by Billy Foster. Stockton, at the behest of Mickelson, offered his services to Scott.

But when Stockton seemed to be the pivotal figure in Mickelson's immediate improvement, and when Scott and Justin Rose won soon after receiving a lesson from Dave Jr., it became a powerful narrative. "I highly respect what the Stocktons are doing," Utley says. "The buzz is in their court right now."

Comments

[Wisconsin Reader]

I read the article when it came out a few weeks ago. Diaz does a solid job in discussing the "putting guru" concept and, most significant, presents a useful chart in comparing and contrasting the varying principles of the 3 "gurus."

[Jay Townsend]

While I did not read the article, I will say the Utley and the Stockton's had successful playing careers, until the true Gurus of whom I have so much distain for their shameless self-promoting and lack of 1st hand tournament knowledge.

[Hawkeye]

Pelz knows how to count, but I doubt his biomechanical skills. Just stand at right angles from a mirror and take a shoulder-rocking putting stroke, and you'll see that a "straight back - straight through" putting stroke is a physically unnatural move. Utley is one up on him there.
I do feel, however, that there's an over-emphasis on mechanics in putting today. Good putting is all about feel, and you get feel from four things: a) a sound, comfortable setup, b) practice, c) practice and d) even more practice.