Another great question, Neville! Thanks for giving me the opportunity to clarify this.
Neither Farnsworth nor Pelz are making original statements, and both are simply repeating an old bit of lore from the murky world of golf. They are pretty confused about this because they don't make the necessary distinctions. I would say that both are just too vague to be deemed either right or wrong.
When one speaks about the "position of the eyes" in putting, it is necessary to distinguish among
1) the physical location of the eyeballs vertically above the ground in relation to the location of the ball on the ground,
2) the gaze direction of the eyes out of the skull and face,
3) the "eye line" across the skull features of the eye sockets (as different from the line across the two pupils, which depends upon the gaze direction), and
4) how the axis of rotation of the head moves or rotates when the head is being turned towards the target.
There are a number of combinations of eye position in the setup, gaze direction, "eye line", and head turn that generate misperceptions of the target location. This basically comes about because of conflicting signals received from the visual system and the proprioceptive or body-position systems.
For example, when the eyes are over the ball, the "eye line" matches the puttline, and the gaze is straight out of the face, the head turn can still be "bad" with the top of the axis of rotation moving back out of place as the head "turns." When the top of the head moves back in the head turn, this twists the "eye line" clockwise off the puttline (right hander) and misdirects the line of sight to the right or outside of the target. Even if the golfer subconsciously redirects the gaze back to the target, the body-sense of the head-neck system signals the brain that the target is to the outside of its true location. And the head-neck relates more directly to the orientation of the shoulder frame than does the gaze. Consequently, in almost all conflicts between the eyes and the body, the body wins. The putt goes to the outside.
Another example is when the gaze is directed not straight out of the face but down the cheeks somewhat. Even if the "eye line" matches the putt line and the eyes are vertically over the ball and the head turn rotates cleanly about the axis of rotation, the downward gaze will misdirect the eyes to the inside as the head turn progresses. Since it is not normal for the golfer to redirect the gaze "upward" back to the target as the head turn misdirects the line of sight, the more normal response is to send the top of the head and the axis of rotation backwards to recapture a "look" at the target. Again, the eyes get to the target but the head-neck signals that the target is to the outside.
Similarly, if the 'eye line" is twisted off the puttline, with a right-hander's left eye beyond the line and the right eye inside the line, this necessarily means that the axis of rotation thru the head is askew, and not perpendicular to the putt line. No matter where the eyes go, the head-neck tells the brain that the target is to the outside of where it actually is,
When the eyes are physically above a spot on the ground inside the ball, it is perfectly possible to obtain accurate visual and physical signals about the target location. So long as the gaze is at the ball straight out of the face and the "eye line" matches the putt line, then the head's axis of rotation will be perpendicular or square to the line, and this means your shoulder frame is also square to the line. The only remaining trick is to make a head turn towards the target with the axis of rotation not twisting out of its square orientation. That is, don't let the top of the head drift back as you turn to look at the target. This combination gives perfectly accurate visual and physical cues to the target.
Basically, neither Farnsworth nor Pelz adequately understand the perceptual variables in order to discuss the matter. They are just passing along the common but misunderstood experience that when the eyes are inside the line, most golfers are unaware that their gaze is slightly down the cheeks or that the top of the head is wandering back as they look to the target. This being the case, the proprioceptive body-sense signals that the target is outside. It's not really a poor or wrong signal from the eyes, since the eyes still look at the target. Instead, the body sense trumps the eyes.
Moreover, when the head-neck movement goes awry, the base of the neck shifts from its starting squareness parallel to the puttline and ends up twisted ever so slightly clockwise looking down on the golfer from above. This base of the neck is what establishes the shoulderframe orientation. With the shoulderframe "closed" (right-hander with left shoulder closer to putt line than right shoulder), the putt is sent to the outside. Not only does the brain get a bad signal from the flawed procedure, but the physical posture of the body as a result of the flawed movements in targeting sends the ball off in an unintended direction (outside).
Pulls are usually stroke movement flaws, but pushes are sometimes stroke movement problems and sometimes targeting movement flaws.
The targeting flaw that results in misperceiving the target to the inside does not seem to be a targeting movement problem. Instead, it seems to me that a person basically lives in a hemisphere of space centered on the feet. It takes a deliberate effort in scanning along a straight line located out a foot or so from the feet and directed parallel to the alignment of the ankles to keep the scanning headed away down the line. The tendency seems to be for the scanning to curl subtly to stay closer to the feet than the line.
The deliberate effort is mostly a matter of actually looking at the grass along the line, and not just looking in the direction of the line. The consciousness via the visual line of sight needs to get "out there" to the line as the scans progresses farther from the feet. If you get a little casual about this, you are liable to misperceive the hole a bit to the inside. More commonly, misses to the inside are traceable to setting up a little closed (the right foot tends to creep forward and misalign the shoulder frame) or to a stroke movement flaw (such as starting the putt back from the ball outside across the line, which also closes the shoulderframe.
Pelz's comment about the aimline having different angles for different length putts when the eyes are inside makes no sense. He seems to assume that the eyeballs have to change angle of gaze while the head stays stock still to "look along the line." That's not the case. The head turns and the gaze stays steadily straight out. This being the case, there is no difference in scanning a line with a good head turn and the eyes gazing straight between having the eyes inside versus having the eyes over the line.
I'll address golfers with visual problems and using a long putter in a separate posting.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
PuttingZone.com
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