Bag Chatter is a series of interviews that spotlights brands around the golf industry and the people behind them. We’re looking to make this a regular thing, so please comment and share through your medium of choice. If you have a brand and are interested in participating in these interviews, you can email mailbag@golfwrx.com for consideration. This interview is with Marcus Potter of Potter’s Putting.

I’m going to switch this up a little bit and give you a tiny bit of an introduction. I know Marcus Potter as the guy behind @potters_putting on Instagram. If anyone reading this is not following him yet, please go rectify that and come back for the rest of this article. Now that that’s out of the way, Marcus, tell us about Potters Putting.

Well, Potters Putting is an Instagram account and website that I started to spotlight putting specifically, as opposed to most accounts similar to me that focus more on full swings. It all started when I was in college. I played golf at San Jose State University and one of my buddies was playing poorly in a Golden State Tour event. I watched him on the practice green and gave him a few pointers. The next day, he shot 8-under par with 25 putts. After that, we had a 10-hour drive back and my buddies were like, “You know, you’re a good putter and you’re also really good at teaching people how to putt. You should start an Instagram account or something.” So, I was kind of like “What the heck? Sure why not,” mainly because I don’t think many other people were focusing solely on putting. So, I literally started the Instagram account on the drive back and just started posting content. I just posted videos of tour pros putting well and explained what made them great at putting. This was in March of this year (2017).

Talk to me about how it evolved into over 21.7K followers on Instagram in just a few short months?

Well, shortly after this whole thing started, I happened to be graduating from college. Things were kind of hectic at that point and I took almost all of May off. Then I got back into it, started posting like 2-3 videos a day and it really took off after that. Somewhere around July is where it kind of exploded, so to be honest, most of the growth has come in the last three or four months. The website came about to give people a way to reach me because I was getting completely overloaded through Instagram and I also wanted to be able to give online lessons.

Tell me about some of your personal putting heroes. Do you have anyone in particular that jumps to the front of your mind? What about them sticks out to you?

Tiger Woods comes to my mind first. His stroke is my personal favorite, but also I watched him make so many putts under pressure when I was growing up. It was remarkable. Yes, his mechanics are great, but his confidence and mental strength are just remarkable and those things are so important to putting I don’t think it could be overstated. Bobby Jones also sticks out to me. The things he talked about and the mechanics of his stroke are still relevant today and he was putting on greens that were like a 4 on the stimp.

Great view of @tigerwoods warming at the Hero World Challenge. You’ll see a beautiful setup, with the ball off his left heel to promote hitting the ball with a slightly upward motion. You can also see a very subtle forward press, but it gets his hands starting at the ball. I see WAY too many people with hands way behind the ball at address, massive compensation required for that. Overall great to see ???? back with some from. How do you think his 2018 goes on the course?? ????: @shortgamegod

A post shared by Marcus Potter (@potters_putting) on Dec 7, 2017 at 3:11pm PST

How do you explain the exceptions to the rule, if you will?  By that, I mean there are a lot of very unconventional strokes that make it out on tour. Isao Aoki is always the first that comes to my mind. Bobby Locke is widely considered one of the greatest putters of all time and he did not have what most would consider to be a textbook putting stroke. What gives?

Well, about Bobby Locke specifically, if you’ve ever spent time trying to recreate his stroke, you’d notice that it does put a very good roll on the ball. I think the biggest key for people in that camp, though, is that their strokes worked for them. Before anything, I think putting is really all mental. If you really only care about visualizing the putt and starting the ball on line with a true roll and the right speed, then having the “perfect” stroke doesn’t really matter too much per se. There are fundamentals to great putting and they’re almost universally helpful, but if you spend a bunch of time trying to become someone you’re not, you’re not becoming a better putter at that point.

Talk a little more about the space between the ears when putting. When it comes to things like confidence, state of mind, strategy, etc., how would you break that down for the average golfer looking to get better?

It’s hard to adequately put into words, that’s for sure, but your state of mind plays such a huge role. For example, if I have a 10-foot birdie putt as opposed to a 10-foot par putt, it’s easy to think about those differently in your mind. With the birdie putt, I’m hoping I can pick up a shot. With the par putt, I’m doing everything I can to avoid dropping a shot. Those are two very different things.

I think routine is a huge deal when it comes to your mental approach to putting. I say that because it gets you in the right mindset (or at least a good routine should do that). Whatever your routine is (reading putts behind the hole, behind the ball, below the hole, whatever), when you lock it in and do it the same way every time, you aren’t focusing on anything outside of this one putt (including any pressure you may be under to make it). You’re in the moment because you’re focused on this putt, but you’re not focused on the pressure of the moment, which generally frees you up to roll the ball more effectively.

Lastly, make sure you don’t get static over the ball. This gives time for bad thoughts to creep in. When you’ve finished you’re routine and are standing over the ball, don’t just stand there. Some people take one last look at the hole right before firing. Some people use a forward press, which is also very effective. What you do is kind of up to you, but again just make sure you’re not standing still over the ball and thinking because that won’t end well.

So, after you’ve gone through your routine, read the putt and gotten set up, you have to swing the putter. I know each putting stroke is unique, but in your opinion what are some keys or fundamentals to a good putting stroke?

I would have to start by saying it’s always preferable to have an equal length backstroke and follow through (which varies depending upon the length of the putt, of course). That really helps with distance control.

Also, any kind of loop in the transition from back stroke to follow through is death. Seriously, it just kills a good putting stroke. The reason I say that is because once you do that, you immediately have to compensate after that. You went from being in a good position to now having to overcorrect to square the face of the putter again. It creates a lot of wasted motion, which there isn’t much time for in such a short swing. Also, if you do loop in the transition, very rarely will you loop the same way every time, so your timing will be off as a result. There’s just a lot of stuff that can go wrong. One of my favorite drills to combat the loop in transition is to take the putter back, hold it for a couple seconds, and then follow through to the ball. Sort of like a Hideki Matsuyama putt, if you will.

Also, don’t get too fast during the transition. It’s pretty subtle, but you need to smoothly go from taking the putter back to swinging it through the ball — not jerk it. The stroke needs to be fluid. Don’t try to hit or jab the ball. Just swing the putter and almost forget that there’s a ball in the way.

Lastly, I know we’ve already addressed this, but don’t be someone you’re not. If you have a unique stroke, but it works, own it. If you try to make yourself have a “TV” stroke, you might ruin yourself. Stick to what’s good for you, not necessarily what works for Tiger. The more natural you are over the ball, the better of a putter you’ll be.

Video of the pause drill used to improve timing and combat loop in the transition

That feels like a good place to transition over to talking about putters specifically, so I’ll start there. Do you think how well a putter fits your eye plays into this? Can you be confident and find a groove with a hideous putter?

Absolutely it plays a role. You can find a groove with a putter you don’t like the look of, but it will be a forced groove and therefore its effectiveness will be somewhat limited. It’s not the most important thing when purchasing a putter by far, but it does mean something. I’m fortunate to say that David Edel is a friend of my family’s and I’ve been custom fit by him personally. One of the things he says (which is kind of an extension of what we’re talking about) is that everyone lines up to different shapes differently. If I hand the same guy an Anser-style blade, a mid-mallet, and a Spider (for example), he will set those putters down on the ground differently and he will use them to frame the ball differently. Your alignment can be wildly different between different putters and that doesn’t even address how well it may or may not fit someone’s stroke. The shape of a putter and how well it fits your eye is definitely a big deal.

How often do you think people should switch their gamer?

That’s hard for me to say. I think you have to notice that most of the best putters will stick with their main squeeze for a very long time (Ben Crenshaw and his 8802, Stricker and his Odyssey #2, and so on). I’ve putted with the same putter since I was like 13 years old. It’s a Bobby Jones Edel putter. It’s one of like 8 putters that he got permission from the Bobby Jones family to use the name. It’s been very good to me over the years and at this point, I just trust it a lot, so I won’t mess with it.

Marcus Potter’s personal Edel putter

You’re obviously really active on social media. Present company excluded, who do you think are some of the best accounts to follow for golfers?

@shkeengolf is a teacher up in Canada who posts a lot of good instructional content. Andrew Rice (@andrewricegolf) is another teacher on Instagram that comes to mind. I guess what I like about those guys is that the way they explain what they’re teaching really makes it sink in. It’s not like WebMD like a lot of people where you’re chasing random symptoms and find out you may have testicular cancer or something. The stuff they post is meaningful and is explained in such a way that it really clicks.

If you could only have one mastered and struggle with the other, would you rather have perfect speed control or perfect line? Why?

Speed. All day long. If you hit a well-paced putt on a poor line it will only go so far offline. If you hit a putt on the right line with terrible pace, you’ll wind up farther away from the hole every time.

If today was your last day on earth, what would you have for dinner and where would you play golf?

If today was my last day on Earth, I would definitely play the Old Course. It’s No. 1 on my bucket list and if I knew I was not going to be around tomorrow, I would drop everything and go play it. I don’t care what I eat for dinner at that point. It could be McDonald’s for all I care.

Here’s your time for shameless promotion. Lay it out there. Tell people where to find you, what’s coming up next, what to look for, etc.

Well, we’ve mentioned the Instagram handle. I think the thing to talk about here is the website, which is www.pottersputting.com.   The big thing with the website is that through there, I can conduct online putting lessons with anyone regardless of their location. Most people don’t know that I do that as well. I get inundated through Instagram, so going through the website is definitely a better way to reach me. To do an online lesson, I need a face-on and a down-the-line view of you putting and I can do my lessons from anywhere. I do need to see your full body (head to toe) in both videos so I can accurately work with you. I have different lesson packages available and also an at-home practice guide. My main philosophy is that putting is really not as complicated as some people make it out to be. I try to keep it simple and free people up to become better putters in their own way.