Pelz still got it wrong. IIRC, he only did something like 3 samples which doesn’t even pass the laugh test for a scientific study. I think Geoff Mangum could tell us more.
Even on 11-12 stimp greens, an average slope putt (2% slope) will result in an optimal distance of about 12 inches.
I think where people really screw this up is on uphill putts. They’ll hit them 18 inches bye when the optimal distance is more like 6 inches past the cup. They’ll think that they hit it about the right speed, but in reality they hit it too hard…and quite a bit too hard.
Still, I agree with Mangum who has based it off his study of neuroscience, we are better off feeling and envisioning the putt rolling at a speed it takes to have the ball land into the back plastic of the cup that we are to think of hitting it to a certain distance past the cup.
Lag and others,
In response to my initial question, do you mean that pendulum putters (non-Active) who desire that the face close, might benefit from a light toe, heel weighted putter? Whereas an arc putter who actively closes the blade, needs a toe weighted putter in order to feel the weight of the toe and close it?
In response to other issues in this thread, my understanding is that the best putters on tour including Tiger in his best years, use a stroke that arcs back inside with no actual rolling of the face on the back swing and then during the downswing moves back to square and either along the target line or even slightly outside the target line producing a slightly “hooked” putt. Tiger said he felt like he hit putts with a “high draw” swing.
No doubt that putters who aim left and block it can get hot, like Billy Mayfair did for many years but they are seldom regarded as the best putters.
not heard or read that before but it certainly sounds like sense, having played around with the ‘x inches past the cup’ method in the past, i recall quite often managing to very nicely get the ball to the spot i had selected past the cup
I had used the 17 inches past the cup and then when I found out that it wasn’t true, I mostly worked on 12 inches past the cup. That did help improve my putting because I was not hitting the putt too hard. Then I understood Mangum’s theory and it has worked much better for me. Occasionally I will look at 12 inches past the cup if I am hitting putts too softly and cannot alter my sense of touch enough. Conversely, if I’m hitting putts too hard, I usually start focusing on the front edge of the cup. But in general…since I know how to use rhythm and tempo in accordance with my brain to have the right touch…visualizing the ball rolling at the speed where it will land into the back plastic works most of the time.
And that’s with me playing in Florida where the greens are often painfully slow and inconsistent from one day to the next because superintendents are concerned with cutting them too low and destroying the grass blade if there’s a heat wave.
I certainly prefer the idea of the ball rolling into the back of the cup rather than past the cup. I only think about the ball going in the hole… commit to the putt, roll it and feel it going in. Beyond that, I can only learn to live with the results whatever they are.
