What You Need To Know
- The TrueStroke Putting Track is a putting training aid designed by former PGA Tour pro Brian Tennyson
- The product features a patent-pending design that combines aspects of other putting aids into one
- The TrueStroke Putting Track retails for $119.00 each, but is on sale for $99.00. SwingU readers get an additional $20 off with promo code 20OFF.
If great putting was easy, everyone would make everything. We know all too well that this isn’t the case, which is what set Brian Tennyson in search of the DNA of the great stroke.
A former NCAA All-American and PGA Tour player, Tennyson spent years studying video and extensive technological data to determine the founding principles of a “true” putting stroke, and how to simplify learning it. The result was the TrueStroke Putting Track, with patent-pending features never before combined in one training aid.
If you’re a golf sicko, you’ve more than likely invested in at least a few training aids. And if you’ve struggled with your putting, more than a few of these training aids have caught your eye. What Tennyson set out to do was create a one-stop shop for golfers that would allow them to not only work on their face and path, but also a key component that is often ignored: angle of attack.
The TrueStroke boasts that it can train you to do all of the things tour pros do when they putt, providing instant feedback when you do anything wrong, thus teaching you what it feels like to make a tour quality putting stroke and allowing yourself to repeat it every time.
First Impressions
Having seen the TrueStroke Putting Track on its website before reviewing the product, I was surprised by the amount of pieces that came with the unit. While initially confusing, a few minutes spent on TrueStroke’s easy-to-follow Intro & Quick Start Set Up Guide webpage, you find that the TrueStroke is a “choose your own adventure” type of training aid.
In its most basic form, you can use the TrueStroke as a one-rail system. Creating a putting track is simple as well, and with supplied spacers, you get a consistent putter track to putt through. Going a step further, pop on what TrueStroke calls its Elevation Guide Hoods. These encourage a low, hovering stroke that eventually delivers an ascending angle of attack thanks to the notches near the impact zone.
Finally, the TrueStroke comes with L Brackets that can be attached to the face of your putter to accentuate the perception of face rotation, chronically under-emphasized reason for missed putts.
How The TrueStroke Stacks Up
The TrueStroke Putting Track was built on the back of what Tennyson calls the APA system, which represents the three things that need to happen in every stroke that will result in a true putt: the clubface Aim, Path and Angle of Attack.
Beginning with Aim, Tennyson is adamant that 80% of where the ball goes off the face is directly correlated to where the face of the putter is at impact. Simply put, this the baseline for the TrueStroke Putting Track. Keeping your putter inside the guiderails allows you to deliver a consistently square putter face.
The path of the stroke accounts for the othe 20% of where the ball goes off the face. Tour pros average 3-6° of clubface rotation, while amateurs average about 20°. Based on that sentence alone, you can come to the conclusion that the less face rotation the better, and that’s again where the TrueStroke shines.
If you want more arc to your stroke, you can adjust the track to be a bit wider, but if you’re after a Bryson DeChambeau-esuqe straight back, straight through stroke with minimal face and path rotation, get that track tight to the putter.
Finally, and again, a part of great putters’ DNA that doesn’t often get talked about is the angle of attack. The goal when striking a putt is to get the ball moving as close to the ground as possible, not bouncing. The angle of the putter face at this point is what determines how the ball begins its journey.
Amateurs typically struggle with getting the putter too high in the backstroke (hence the TrueStroke’s Elevation Guide Hoods), which results in a descending angle of attack, leading to a bouncy journey. The TrueStroke hood and impact zone inlets promote this low backstroke, ascending angle of attack, which gets the ball rolling true from the moment of impact.
The Takeaway
Like most things in golf, great putting is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated, to steal a line from Arnold Palmer. Training yourself to make the simple motion over and over can be as complicated as we want to make it.
What the TrueStroke Putting Track does is take the tinkering and guesswork out of creating a great stroke. By simply setting up the track in its most complete form, you have everything you need in place to create a great stroke.
From there, it’s as simple as doing your diligence and training yourself to make the same consistent stroke with great aim, great path and great angle of attack every single time.
The TrueStroke Putting Track retails for $119.00 each, but is on sale for $99.00. SwingU readers get an additional $20 off with promo code 20OFF. Visit TrueStrokeTrack.com to learn more about the TrueStroke Putting Track
