What Effect Does Lie Angle Have on Your Putting: The Hidden Influence Most Golfers (& Fitters) Overlook

Lie angle is one of the most misunderstood parts of putter fitting. Most golfers think of it as a small spec that only affects how the putter sits at address, but lie angle can influence your stroke, your perception, your strike quality and even how the ball launches and rolls. Recently I worked with a player in the JB Coaching Putting Studio whose putter sat noticeably toe-up. What followed was a perfect example of how lie angle influences putting — not just through physics, but through the player’s instinctive reactions to what they see and feel.

Before we go any further, it’s important to be clear about one thing. Changing lie angle on a putter does not directly produce a huge face angle error. In fact, a 6° change in lie angle only changes the face direction by around 0.66°. Mathematically, that’s tiny. On its own, it’s nowhere near enough to make a golfer consistently pull or push a putt. This often surprises people, because many assume that a toe-up or toe-down putter dramatically twists the face at impact. It doesn’t — at least not through geometry alone.

But this is where things get interesting. Even though the pure physics create only a small face error, the biomechanics, perception, and compensations golfers make because of a poor lie angle create far bigger performance issues.

When a putter sits toe-up, the face appears to point left for a right-handed golfer. The golfer rarely realises this consciously, but they instinctively begin to adjust. Some start fanning the face open on the backswing to counter the look. Others pull the handle in an effort to square the face. Many begin striking the ball more toward the toe because the putter no longer sits naturally on the ground. These adjustments are the real source of start-line issues, not the geometric 0.66° itself.

Similarly, a toe-down putter looks and feels like it wants to stay open. Some golfers respond by flipping their hands to square the face. Others push the putter out or swing more right to “save” the stroke. These small changes in movement create large differences in face delivery, often several degrees — far beyond what the lie angle itself causes.

In the studio example, the player with the toe-up putter delivered the face closed on nearly every putt. Not because the lie angle physically forced the face left, but because the lie angle changed their setup, perception and stroke pattern. They aimed slightly differently, moved the putter onto a different arc, and struck the ball inconsistently across the face. Every element of their movement was trying to compensate for a putter that simply didn’t match their posture.

Once we adjusted the lie angle to sit flush to the ground, their entire stroke changed almost instantly. The putter looked square. Their eyes relaxed. Their stroke became more natural, less manipulated and more stable. The strike moved to the centre of the face. Their launch improved. Their ability to control start line tightened. Nothing about the player changed — only the lie angle did — but the biomechanics followed immediately.

This is the hidden truth about lie angle in putting. The direct influence on face angle is small, but the indirect influence on the golfer is enormous. A putter that doesn’t sit correctly forces a player to fight it. A putter that matches the player’s posture allows the stroke to unfold naturally. And when the stroke is natural, everything becomes easier: aim, strike, launch, roll and distance control.

Most golfers never think to check their lie angle, yet it’s one of the easiest and quickest improvements you can make. If a putter sits toe-up or toe-down for your posture, you will unconsciously adjust to it — and those adjustments are what compromise your consistency. Getting the lie angle right isn’t about chasing a tiny face change; it’s about freeing your stroke from unnecessary compensations.

If you want to understand how lie angle is influencing your aim, your perception, your stroke mechanics and the way the ball rolls off the face, book a fitting or a putting session at the JB Coaching Putting Studio. A correctly fitted lie angle is a small change that often delivers a very big result.