Does the ball "stick" to the putter head
 

On full shots, the ball is actually on the clubface for some distance around 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. This fact obviously has implications for clubface orientation and for clubface path.

Is there a similar effect for putts?

Re: Does the ball "stick" to the putter head
 

There has to be on the basis that the duration of time the ball stays on the club face is relative to the force of strike. However with the putter the force is so small that compression and time the ball stays on the putter face is minimal and IMO would have a negligible effect on considerations of clubface orientation and for clubface path. The arc of the putter is not as curved as with other clubs, the distance in which the ball stays on the putter face is minimal.

There is compression but it is very very small. Also the clubhead should travel in an arc on a natural putting stroke, unless you setup for a square/square ala Pelz stroke.

However i read, somewhere, that the small compression the ball when struck by the putter IS IMPORTANT because of where you hit the ball to compress it.

I read that this is why you want a slightly descending blow because that small compression helps to "bounce" it out of its depression that the ball is sitting in on the green and reduces "excessive" skid.

Putting Impact Facts
 

In his 1982 G.S.E.M. Authorized Instructor Class, Homer Kelley stated that, while the length of Clubhead Travel with the Ball still on the Clubface was shorter with Putting versus Full Shots, the time duration of Impact was approximately the same, i.e., four ten-thousandths of a second.

If my calculations are correct, at 10 mph that would leave the ball on the clubface for .07 inches.

I guess that such a short distance is not enough to have implications for an open putter clubface at impact.

Thanks

Short Shot Clubface Alignments
 

Impact Fix Clubface alignment for all straightaway Short Shots is Square -- regardless of the Hinge Action employed. Only as Shots lengthen must the necessary Clubface adjustments be made, i.e., tending toward Open for Horizontal Hinging and toward Closed for Angled Hinging.