• Welcome To ShotTalk.com!

    We are one of the oldest and largest Golf forums on the internet with golfers from around the world sharing tips, photos and planning golf outings.

    Registering is free and easy! Hope to see you on the forums soon!

Reading Greens

OP
TrickyPutt

TrickyPutt

Banned
Banned
Jan 11, 2012
3,992
1,198
Alabama
Country
United States United States
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #17
I plumb bob some now but not for the line. I do it to occasionally to make sure my perspective is vertical. I have found it doesnt work well for me describing the line.
 

BigJim13

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Moderator
Aug 13, 2006
11,840
3,154
I tried plumb bobbing a time or two. I saw no benefit.
 

BigJim13

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Moderator
Aug 13, 2006
11,840
3,154
Same here. There's no science behind plumb bobbing because there's too many variables.
I thought I might have been doing it wrong, but how could I screw that up?It seems like most people either swear by or swear at plumb bobbing.
 
OP
TrickyPutt

TrickyPutt

Banned
Banned
Jan 11, 2012
3,992
1,198
Alabama
Country
United States United States
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #22
Oh its valid if you can offset yourself to the slope and the green is flat. But that never happens so i dont get it
 

Gaijin_Golfer

Member
Feb 5, 2013
79
4
Columbus, OH
Country
United States United States
I thought I might have been doing it wrong, but how could I screw that up?It seems like most people either swear by or swear at plumb bobbing.
You aren't always dealing with straight lines. If every green were perfectly square it might be valid but very few are. The slope changes and isn't straight, so you can't compare 2 points.
 

jhmeg2

Well-Known Member
Sep 16, 2011
1,436
928
Hancock, Wisconsin
Country
United States United States
I plumb bob with my putter. Everyone says it doesn't work but it does. Angel Cabrera does it. Now if I could hit the putt on that line every time I'd be deadly.
good thing you got rid of the long putter, I was worried that you would be a lighting rod with that thing when you would plum bob
 

azgreg

"Don't count that."
Supporting Member
Sep 20, 2007
15,483
16,859
Phoenix, AZ
Country
United States United States
Something else here. Another reason why I prefer to walk then ride is I get a good look at the green while I'm walking up to it.
 

William Tipton

Active Member
Apr 24, 2013
436
71
Country
United States United States
huh.
If its working with gravity the way a youtube video I just watched said, it actually may help in some cases where the green SEEMS to be sloping but isnt. Ive had that happen a few times where there is an optical illusion that the green was sloping to the right or left when it was actually nearly dead flat where I was putting at. It would seem if gravity is pulling the club shaft directly 90* down that it might be easier to see if the green is slanting right or left or not.

I looked at the plumb bobbing thing a bit and I dont think I understand what it is they were saying to look for, though :D

If I use my putter like that Im just looking for something on the green in my line to have something to aim at and the putter shaft helps with that.
 

Bignose

Well-Known Member
Oct 23, 2006
426
2
On 10-20 footers..

On 10-20 footers or longer, you just have to accept that the chances of making those putts is very small no matter what. The margin of error on a 10 foot putt is just a smidgen over one half of a degree. That is, if the putt is more than one half a degree offline, the ball will not fall.

And think of all the things on the grass that can cause one half of a degree deviations... a patch of grass mowed slightly differently or growing differently, a spike mark or old ball mark. Even the wind if it is blowing hard enough. On top of having to deliver the putter within that half a degree.

The TV coverage of the pros make us feel insufficient for a few reasons. 1) Those guys are good, best in the world. 2) The putting surfaces they play on are just about as perfect as they can be. 3) The TV shows us the guys in the lead all the time, more often than not the guys who are putting the best that week.

But even on the Tour, the best putter from 10 to 15 feet today is making 44% of them. Scrolling through the stats, most are in the low 30s. The best putter from 15 to 20 feet is 36%. Most are in the middle 20s.

In short, you just have to accept that even on your best days, you are going to miss are least twice as many as you are going to make. You can hit the putt perfectly, and because the game is played in nature, outside, and on an imperfect surface, you just won't find the bottom of the cup.

Really, on 10-20 footers, what you want to consider a success is to have given yourself the chance to have gotten lucky and maybe have it fall in. That is, you want the speed right so that you are leaving yourself tap-ins. And you can't grossly misread the breaks, obviously.

But, all-in-all, putts 10-20 feet and longer do require some luck to fall in. That's actually why the short game is stressed so much, because once you get yourself inside 10', then you have no one to blame but yourself as luck has a lot less to do with it.
 

🔥 Latest posts

Top