Absolutely, James! I would love to help and am sure we can find a way logistically!
I fully understand the attitude Chris has about putting style and personality -- I fight against it every day. The brutal truth is that this bit of putting lore is completely harmful. You don't really choose between being an aggressive putter and a die-in putter -- instead, you choose between being a smart putter and a reckless putter.
All golfers have two eyes, two arms, two hands, two legs, one putter, one ball, and the same green -- and all golfers are roughly the same size. More importantly, all golfers live in the same gravitational field on earth, subject to exactly the same forces during movements such as a putting stroke. And the golf ball's roll and capture into the cup is a matter of physics, not psychology or personality. What this really means is that there is a smart way to putt, taking all this into account, that looks a lot more like a die-in style than an aggressive style (although not quite the same).
TEMPO: Tempo is the timing of the stroke from top of backstroke to top of thru-stroke. If tempo is the same for all putts, then longer strokes cover this distance from top to top in exactly the same time that shorter strokes cover this distance -- the longer strokes just go faster. The trick is about the pattern of acceleration from top to top. If the acceleration is smooth, then the rate at which the putter head is gaining speed from the top of the backstroke to the bottom of the stroke (middle of stance) is constant and steady. The putter head starts at zero at the top of the backstroke and smoothly gains speed coming down at the same steady rate of acceleration and then peaks at a top speed right at the bottom. Going past the middle of the stroke, the putter head then reverses the pattern and starts slowing down smoothly and coasts to a stop and zero again at the top of the thru-stroke. A golfer who relies upon his personality to make this pattern of motion happen on every putt is relying upon his muscles to move the putter head in the same smooth way every time. In contrast, a pendulum simply swings in this pattern naturally, without any human effort, every time, and will do so perfectly for at least the next 800 million years (or until our sun explodes and burns the earth to a cinder). In the earth's gravitational field, the putter has its own tempo, and a pattern of smooth acceleration it will follow IF the golfer leaves it alone and simply rides the putter down and up for the top of the backstroke. The tempo of each putter may differ a little bit, but usually almost all modern putters have an inherent tempo of about 1 full second. (Just hold one at the top of the grip loosely, pull the putter head back, and let go and observe and count the timing of the swing -- its about "one mississippi".) This corresponds to 60 beats per minute on a metronome. Loren Roberts has a tempo that has been timed at 63 beats per minute. This is not an accident. Ben Crenshaw's tempo is in this ballpark as well.
The typical advice to "accelerate thru impact" to avoid "deceleration" is bandaid advice for bad golfers. If you have a gravity-based tempo, the putter moves itself and the golfer simply rides the putter down and thru. Ben Crenshaw has said that it took him several decades to finally learn that "the putter moves itself." The PGA Tour Manual of Golf by Michael Cochran states flatly on page 80 that this advice to accelerate the putter is bogus, and that the putter will naturally accelerate by itself better than the golfer can do by trying.
Once you have a nice, casual, unhurried tempo based on gravity's everyday perfection and there is no learning of a tempo or trying to accelerate the putter to match your personality, then distance control becomes very instinctive and non-conscious - look and simply start the backstroke. With a good same-every-time tempo for all putts, the brain is able to judge green speed and distance (plus uphill-downhill effects) intuitively and then establish the correct backstroke length for the putt. Once the golfer pulls the trigger, the brain generates a smooth sort-of toss-back move that sends the putter coasting to the top of the established backstroke length, and then the golfer simply rides the putter down and thru, not speeding it up or slowing it down, but moving in the same tempo as gravity moves the putter head. This system means that every point along the backstroke has one and only one peak speed at impact -- every day, every putt. A backstroke of, say, 18 inches always has the same putter head speed at impact, and this does not at all depend upon the golfer and his personality. It's purely physics or nature, and its pretty much the same for all golfers who learn how to putt at the level of the masters.
The stable tempo not only gives you great distant control on an instinctive level, but it also gives you accuracy in stroke form, as everything always occurs in the stroke with the same timing pattern. This lets you know -- simply as a matter of counting gravity -- what is supposed to happen when, so you can adjust mid-stroke if necessary, and also so you can benefit from feedback in a richer more meaningful way. Every stroke coasts to the top of the backstroke (or something is wrong). Every stroke starts down by itself (or something is wrong). Every stroke accelerates smoothly, gaining speed in a steady way and in an unhurried way (or else something is wrong). Every stroke reaches the exact bottom or middle of the stroke at precisely the same moment determined by gravity, and the count from top of backstroke to bottom of stroke is always the same on every putt regardless of the length of the backstroke (or something is wrong). The golfer's body stays coordinated with the putter so that going back and coming down and thru there is no sense of the hands or the putter outracing one another and creating some sort of waggle feel in the grip -- the golfer simply rides the putter down in a weightless and effortless free-fall. And so forth. This predictability and sameness of feelings promotes faster learning, better corrective action, and more and more ideal strokes with correct form (square motion online).
BALL CAPTURE. The way a ball and a cup interact has a set of basic rules or laws of physics that govern whether the ball stays in the cup of not when rolling across the hole at different speeds and paths across the hole. These rules do not care in the least what the golfer's personality is, and they are the same every day, every green, for every golfer. The rules are:
1. No putt can drop unless the air-time over the hole is long enough for the golf ball to drop down one-half its diameter before the leading surface of the ball hits the back wall or rim of the cup.
2. The time it takes a golf ball to drop one-half its diameter (which is one-half of 1.68 inches, or 0.84 inches) is always the same and is easily observed by holding a ball on your palm, lifting it up one-half a diameter, dropping it, and watching the time it takes to hit your hand. f you need the number, it's 0.07 seconds -- less than one-tenth of a second.
3. The longest air-time over the cup is when the path of the putt is center-cut and travels straight over the middle of the cup; this path is 4.25 inches across for air, but the ball's travel is one-half a diameter shorter than this (4.25 - 0.84 = 3.41 inches), as the ball's path is from the time the bottom dimple crosses the rim until then leading equator (or somewhere lower) hits the back wall or rim, so the front half of the ball doesn't really count.
4. Because there is a longest path across the cup and a minimum time needed for the ball's dropping, there is also a maximum speed for a center-cut putt across a level cup, and any ball faster than that cannot possibly fall in and stay in the cup, but will not have enough time to drop deep enough and will hit the back rim lower than the equator on the ball, and pop out. This maximum speed at the front lip is approximately 9 revolutions per second.
5. As the golfer learns to deliver the ball at the front lip at speeds lower than 9 revolutions per second (rps), the effective hole as a target widens. At 8 rps at the lip, the hole is only effectively one-dimple wide and runs straight across the widest part of the cup. A ball moving this fast at the lip may go in the cup, but only if center-cut. Any putt arriving either to the left or right of center-cut will lip or pop out. At 7 rps, the hole's effective size widens to a target perhaps a one-half inch wide. At 6 rps, the hole widens to about one inch wide. At 5 rps, the hole is about 1.5 inches wide. At 4 rps, the hole is about 2 inches wide. At 3 rps, the hole is about 2.5 inches wide. At 2 rps, the hole is about 3 inches wide. At 1 rps, the hole is about 3.5 inches wide. At just over 0 rps, the hole is 100% wide.
6. The smart golfer wants to learn a delivery speed at the lip that balances the need to get the ball all the way to the front lip the most times on average, to overcome any surface irregularities like spike marks and ball marks, to maximize the wideness of the hole as a target, and to minimize the length of comeback putts in case of a miss. This decision depends a little on the typical green surfaces and their condition that the golfer plays, but otherwise is purely physics and smart golf, and not at all a question of personality. I personally like a delivery speed of about 2 at the lip. If the putt misses, the ball will safely stop in tap-in range, usually within 10 inches of the cup. Others like something between 1 and 3, but 4 and above is just too fast. These faster ball speeds are not necessary to overcome surface irregularities, reduce the size of the cup too much and result in many lip-outs, and lead to long comebacks and three-putts.
7. This at-the-lip approach to learning control of the ball speed at the lip is the logical and sound way to approach the whole issue of aggressive versus die-in putting style. Matching your delivery speed to your personality is not the logical approach to these unalterable facts of nature about ball capture into the cup.
8. The distance the ball goes past the hole in case it misses is not a logical approach to optimizing ball capture. the distance a ball will roll past the hole will depend upon the green speed and the surface slope past the hole. A ball that arrives at 2 rps and misses will go past a cup in a level area of green with a green speed of 9 on the Stimpmeter (typical for most courses) about 2 rolls or 10 inches. This same putt on a faster green with a little downhill slope past the hole (such as Augusta National) may well roll 4-5 feet past the hole. Dave Pelz's advice to always try to get the ball to stop 17 inches past the hole in case of a miss is completely unsound, un-logical, and un-scientific. He claims he has proved scientifically that this "rule" is the best approach on all greens regardless of grass type or playing speed. Actually, to see his "proof," you have to read the July 1977 issue of Golf Digest. In this article, his proof shows that there is NOT any one distance past the hole that serves as the optimal indicator of capture speed, and that the distance the optimal speed will send the ball past the hole depends upon grass type and condition. Everyone in pro golf already knew this. (He does not ever figure out the optimal speed at the front lip -- he misses that entirely.) So his current claims are based upon "proof" that he personally says proves the opposite of the so-called 17-inch rule. He simply made up this "rule" six years later in 1983 so he could have something to claim as original, and has repeated it ever since without referring anyone to his real data in the 1977 article.
9. Golfers with great touch or distance control always deliver the ball to the hole with the same speed at the lip, every putt, regardless of the length of the putt, or the grass type or condition or green speed. This touch depends on a stable tempo and an appreciation of the green speed, not personality.
Nick price is usually the poster-boy for a "fast" or "quick" golfing personality (also Lanny Wadkins). Lanny Wadkins was never a great putter. Nick Price has been a very good putter in some years, but never a great putter. In the 1986 Masters, he opened with an embarrassing 77, missing lots and lots of putts with his aggressive personality-based putting style. The advice he got was to ditch the aggressive putting. He then shot 66 the next day, made the cut, and survived into the weekend. The next day, Saturday, he shot 63, which is the lowest round in Masters history. Too bad he didn't write that advice down on a card, laminate the card, and keep it in his pocket -- his career would have been better over the ensuing 20 years.
So, neither tempo nor ball capture have anything remotely to do with personality or even psychology, and the golfer who ignores the real "rules" of tempo and ball capture does so at his peril. He will certainly not be a great putter, but will have streaks of white hot putting separated by long deserts of so-so or bad putting.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
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