Dear HUE,
I've been watching Ernie Els closely on the ABC telecast Saturday, but it is difficult for me to see the changes in setup you describe. The television cameras at Troon are typically far off from the green mounted on cranes, relying upon zoom lenses to show golfers on the greens putting. With the combination of fixed camera position, distance, high perspective, and zoomed optics, viewing the golfer from back and inside the line of the putt, lots of golfers "appear" to have the ball position moved back in the stance.Only rarely does the camera look at the golfer face-on when putting. When I did manage to watch Ernie putting face-on, his ball position appeared to be about in the middle. This is his usual position, as can be seen in this month's issue of Golf International, page 47, where there is a face-on photo of Eernie illustrating his putting stroke for Troon.
Do you have a better look than I do? If Els has actually moved his ball position back, I have no explanation for it, and agree that the adjustment is not a good idea. We'll see today how it plays out.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
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