Hawk, Dave Stockton talks some about foward press. He mentions
that manufactures put more loft on putters to compenstate for
the forward press. He also says that if you forward presse to the
right that you will most likely leave the putter face open and push
putts. I really do not know how to answere your question but think
that if a putter had no loft and you did not forward press, that it would be on the equator of the ball provided that you had no shaft lean.
Seems to me that you would need to compensate for putter loft
without forcing the putterface inward or outward.
Think of it this way....A typical putter soled will impact the ball in the bottom 1/3. To strike the ball at the center (equator) it must be raised up. The putter face of typical putter is not tall enough otherwise! The exception being if the ball is positioned before or after the bottom of the arc. It doesn't matter if there is forward lean on the clubshaft, it still strikes the ball below center point and more importantly misses the sweet spot of the putter. Hopefully this clarifies my original question.