Geoff, I've started to use an alignment line on my ball primarily because I've noticed the pro's doing it. I'm not sure if it really has helped my accuracy or consistancy but the concept makes perfect sense.

Do you think a line on the ball is a good thing or a distraction from where the real focus should be?

Thanks again for your help.

Dear Jake,

The lines probably help most golfers get better, but at a certain level of skill you have to be careful with them or they can detract from your performance. Here's why:

It's absolutely true accurate putting requires a square face moving straight on line at impact that carries the sweetspot of the putter thru the sweetspot of the ball (there are TWO!) So, the line CAN help in the eye-hand coordination of making that happen. The trouble is: Is that good enough?

It might not be good enough if the line is not really aimed properly. That's fairly obvious, but what is not obvious is that it is not all that easy to aim the line in the first place accurately. That's because your head is high above the ball and close to it, as you crouch, and that's not a good sighting posture or angle to "line up" the ball visually with the cup. You have to glance from the ball to the cup and back several times, or else crouch real low to get a good sighting. Pros don't do that. What the good putters like Faxon are doing with this is that they very carefully identify the startline of the putt from behind the ball, and then anchor these perceptions with spots and the way they move to the ball watching this line. Then the line alignment is much more accurate.

There are still two problems, though. First, the perception that really counts is the one you get from address, standing next to and above the ball after your final targeting. If this is different from the line's orientation, something's wrong and you have to pick which it is -- the ball's line or your last targeting of the startline. I personally find that these two often differ, and the one I always go with is the at-address targeting. I won't go forward with the putt until that clicks into place with everything else I perceive or have perceived about this putt. It's not often more than about one dimple left or right off line, but that's quite a difference over the length of a ten foot putt.

The second problem is the angle of gaze at the ball's line from address. If your eyes are not really over the ball exactly, then your eyes are most likely inside, between the ball and your big toes. This means your angle of regard is not perpendicular down on the ball, but into the ball at an angle in the top quadrant. This is an odd way to look at a line oriented perpendicularly on the ball, for the purpose of stroking a slab of flat metal thru it somewhat sideways. In the tee shot, there is a tip that the ball's line should be tilted back to you a bit to make your angle of regard match the line on the ball, so you are really lokking down onto the line from directly above. I suppose this would help with putting too.

Finally, there is a sense in which putting is a stroking thru, not a hit, and if your focus is exclusively on the ball itself (because of the focus on the line) and not on the path the sweetspot of the putter will traverse thru the ball and on toward the target, this can hamper your effectiveness.

So, I've tried the line a number of times, and never really preferred it to what I consider to be a better technique. That is, when you set up to the ball. the flat surface of your putter is against a sphere. This geometry means the flat face of the putter is tangent to one and only one spot on the surface of the ball (only one dimple), and this is most conveniently one on the back of the ball at the equator. This geometry also means there is one and only one direction that is "square" off the putterface and thru the ball, and this direction goes straight thru the ball's center and out the opposite dimple on the front equator of the ball. What you have to be careful about is getting the sweetspot of the putter cenetrd on the back of the ball so the face is aimed directly on the startline of the putt. Once this is done, you have identified one and only one back dimple, one and only one front dimple, one and only one path for the sweetspot of the putter to pass squarely thru the ball's sweetspot, and thus -- if you wanted to -- you could put your putter back in the bag, go eat lunch, and come back in an hour to setup again at the same back dimple and you're all set to pull the trigger again.

The way I use this instead of lining up the ball is that I'm very careful in the at-address targeting to see exactly where the startline comes back from the putt into the front of the ball. This front dimple tells me the back dimple, and I'm all set. Also, from behind the ball, once I get a sense of the line and start to walk into the putt along the startline, I am careful to see exactly the one and only back dimple I want to hit. Then when I step around, I just square the putterface up to this one dimple. You can also use spots 5-6 inches ahead of the ball if you like.

Sometimes, when you first set a ball's line, and then stand at address and finish targeting, the startline does not come into the ball and meet the front dimple ON THE LINE but often 1-2 dimples off to the side. So, I don't use the line.

Hope this helps. If it helps you, though, stick with it until you get past its usefulness.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
The PuttingZone
http://puttingzone.com
The Future of Putting Now
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I have been using the spot several inches ahead of the ball and it has really helped my putting particularly on the short putts. I have not gotten to the point where I can find the one dimple on front and back of the ball but with practice I am sure I will.
Thanks again!

Finding the front and back dimples to see the line thru the ball that corresponds to the start line of the putt and the aim direction of the square putterface is really more about seeing the geometric shape of the ball and the putterface. By that I mean -- seeing how a slab of a putterface meets a ball in one and only one point on the ball's equator. This is the back dimple. This is easy to see once the putter is placed behind the ball, since it is the ONLY dimple in contact with or nearest to the putter.

Once this back dimple is identified, think of it as the south pole on a planet, with the axis of the planet running from there straight thru the center of the planet out the top or north pole. This helps you see the front dimple on the ball opposite the back dimple. Also, this line runs thru the center of the ball, so the line passes directly beneth the top dimple of the ball (the one opposite the bottom dimple that rests on the surface).

The putterface MUST be perpendicular or "square" to this line thru the ball, and a "straight" stroke by definition is one that moves the putterface squarely thru the back dimple, thru the center of the ball, and out the front dimple. Actually, it is even better if the sweetspot of the putter moves thru the ball in this fashion, but it is more important for the face to stay square than that the golfer hits exactly with the sweetspot of the putter. And actually, the sweetspot or contact point on the putter that travels thru the ball should probably be on a slightly rising trajectory thru the ball's center, so the back dimple is actually a little lower than the front dimple.

Another way to see these relations is to view the ball as if sliced into two hemispheres right along the putt line (like slicing an orange in half on the table), and then remove the far side so only the near half of the ball remains. Then the back dimple and front dimple should be easier to visualize.

The trick for seeing the back dimple to start with, from behind the ball looking down the putt line, is to view the ball as really only two dimensional, like a dart board hanging on a wall. The back dimple then is simply the center of the "ball" seen as a dart board. (The dimple / center is the bullseye.) The trick is to realize that you must squarely face the "wall" that the board hangs on to see this particular dimple or center. If you view the ball from an altered perspective, you in fact will be looking at another dimple. One way I handle this is to imagine the ball is a sleeve box aligned at the target, and from behind the "ball" / box, I am looking into the top tab of the box where I am looking for the center of a dartboard on this tab. That way, I am reminded that the center I am seeing requires that I maintain the same "look" down the line. So, as I approach the ball from behind to set and square up the putterface, I "walk the line" into the back of the ball.

Other tricks include looking for writing on the ball to get a sense of the relations of the center of the back of the ball to this writing; observe the shadow of the ball on the ground to get a sense of the way you have to walk the line into the ball without altering the ball-shadow relationship; and using one edge of the shaft of your putter as a visual ruler from behind the ball to connect the center of the ball with the target and then note a spot of grass on the ground directly beneath the center of the ball as well as note a spot on the grass farther along the line to sense the location of the front dimple as well.

Once you set the putterface behind the ball's back dimple or the bullseye on the 2D dartboard, then squaring the face thru the center of the ball requires identifying the opposite pole of the ball. Only when this line thru the ball is visualized is squaring of the putterface thru the center of the ball done.

All this aiming the face squarely thru the BALL, instead of aiming the face at the target only, is designed to make sure the golfer only aims at the target squarely thru the ball, and does so with the putter's sweetspot. In my approach, this aiming thru the ball (if done accurately) will also aim the putterface squarely at the target, since the line thru the ball was identified only with reference to this line aiming at the target. Even so, once the golfer steps around to the beside-the-ball address position, he has to CHECK to make sure he really aimed as he intended. So there are two separate face aiming processes -- first, from behind the ball to setting the face down and aiming it thru the ball, and then, checking the aim from beside the ball and possibly adjusting the face aim thru the ball. This second aiming process uses the straight gaze and head turn to assess face aim. Once the golfer gets a "go" signal from beside the ball, he is ready to forget about aim and graduate to the stroke stage where it is all about consistent feel of the movement.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
The PuttingZone.com
http://puttingzone.com
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.