Good morning, Geoff.

Can you answer a query for me?

I find that when I have a down hill putt the only place to determine the correct line of the putt is from underneath the hole - because - if I determine the line from above and/or behind the ball, the line that my eyes tell me to take will always be the opposite to what it should be.

e.g. -- a gentle break to the left seen from the ball, but the putt will drift to the right. I go and check from below the hole and a drift to the right is the obvious path.

Question -- could this be a something that is particular to me or is it just a common occurence?

I will make a 100% judgment on the proposed line from below the hole and disregard any other messages when I line up. I may not get the ball in the hole, but the reasoning will inevitably be proved correct.

Kind regards

John.

Dear John,

Your opposite breaks seen from above and below the hole seems to be a common occurrence.

Part of the problem seems to be the difficulty of always seeing the speed of the ball correctly at the last two or three feet of the putt when estimating the curve of the path into the cup (most people are naturally better at it when actually near the hole).

Part of the problem is that on downhill putts the fact that the surface is sloping away from your head and eyes rather than towards you on uphill putts makes the break harder to see anyway, since there is less apparent surface information to see (so again looking from behind the hole reverses this and gives you more surface detail for the read).

And a third part of the problem is especially for breaks that curl away from you, to the opposite side of the hole from where your feet are located -- this is an especially unfavorable instance of having less surface detail in your view, the difference between trying to read a book propped up in front of your eyes and trying to read a book tilted away from your eyes -- and is in fact a part of the difficulty of reading left-to-right putts for a right-hander (and again, getting behind the hole gives you a better vantage from which to pick up the necessary surface information).

So, getting a proper read is mostly getting the best vantage on the surface detail, but only when combined with accurately imagining the speed of the ball through the critical final stage of the putt in the last two or three feet into the cup.

I think it always helps to identify the fall-line through the cup on a downhill putt. To do this, stand to the low side of the cup and try to see the very highest point on the lip (there is only one), combined with seeing the axis of tilt through the cup perpendicular to the fall-line. On the axis of tilt, to the left and right of the fall-line, the surface is at the same elevation, and if you planted your two hands flat beside the hole on either side of the fall-line, the two hands would be the same elevation, and neither hand would seem more uphill than the other. Once you are clear about the fall-line, you can see that any "downhill" putt is one in which the location of the ball is on the high side of the axis of tilt. The path of the putt will necessarily have to curl into the cup by turning downhill and matching the fall-line right at the last. And, no putt that travels ACROSS the fall-line can possibly go in the cup, but will miss to the outside / high side. AND, no putt that does not get over near the fall-line will go in either, and will miss to the inside / low side.

Here's a trick that summarizes this. Find the fall-line and place your putter shaft over the hole so it matches the fall-line. If the cup and surrounding green is seen as a clockface with the cup at the center of the face, a right-hander has a right-to-left downhill putt when the ball is located between 12 and 3 on the clockface, and has a left-to-right downhiller when the ball is located between 12 and 9. For a ball between 12 and 3, move the puttershaft to the left edge of the hole (the edge farthest from your ball), but still pointing straight uphill-downhill. Then from your ball, imagine a "slice of pie" with the sharp point at the lip and one edge of the pie triangle matching the putter shaft. Your target for this putt is to make your ball roll over the big end of the pie on the way into the cup. If your ball touches the puttershaft, you will miss high. If you ball doesn't get to the pie, you will miss short or low. Seeing this piece of pie right at the top of the cup on a downhill putt ought to make the job of the putt a lot clearer.

--
Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor

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