Dear Chris,
In general, it is better to "appreciate" the green speed and the slope than it is to "know a number". If I told you a ball rolls off a ramp and stops 10.3 feet later, what does that mean to you personally? Not much unless you're a physics nut who knows the height of the ramp and understands gravity and the rolling friction of grass on ball. The Stimpmeter reading is mostly used to let the greenskeeper assess whether one green is about the same as another (and whether the greens are "too slow" or "too fast" so that players are going to gripe). To the golfer, if you have enough familiarity with Stimpmeter readings on different greens and different days on the same greens often enough, you eventually can "appreciate" whether a green is "about 10" on a given day, and you can also eventually get an "appreciation" of how your putting works on a green that is "about 10."
But there's a lot easier and better way -- skip the number and go straight to the "appreciation" of how your putting works on a given green on a given day. That's the "Core Putt," where you make the same backstroke with the same tempo a few times and all balls roll the exact same distance, and you simply look at the distance and "appreciate" (internalize) this basic stroke. Longer and shorter strokes play off this basic reference.
This is more important for amateur golfers than it is for pros, by the way. Pros almost always play on greens that are Stimp 11. If the greens are bad, the players complain like old hens about it and make the course owner spend cash to fix any problems. Greensboro has redone its greens twice in the last 10 or so years. The Lumber 84 course in Pennsylvania did the same. Tiger Woods doesn't like to play Hawaian greens or at Pebble Beach. Amateurs, in contrast, play a wider range of different greens than pros, so adjusting is more of a challenge.
I would have to say that "knowing the number" of a green encourages some bad habits that I think a golfer would be better served by avoiding. It's important to relate to the greens in the immediacy of the moment with your perceptions, and not in an abstract and general way based upon a number. Golfers tend to cling to anything that seems to make the job easier, but easier is not the same as better. It's easier to mess up than it is to play well. If you start relying upon a Stimp reading to try to get your touch, then what really happens is you start using your conscious brain to try to make a certain size stroke for a given putt ("I think a 1-foot backstroke is about right for this 15-foot putt on a Stimp 9.5 green." Sheesh, gimme a break!). The conscious brain is not the part of the brain that best handles touch -- that is the NON-conscious part of the brain. The NON-conscious brain only wants the senses to feed it the information about the world / green / putt, and does not use intermediary thought processes ("what does a Stimp 9 reading mean in terms of the size of my stroke"). Doing the "Core Putt" and then using your senses (eyes, balance, feel in feet, smell, etc.) to mix information into the NON-conscious instincts and intuition processes with memories and experiences gives you touch without conscious trying.
The same goes for slope percentages. While it is good to have a general "appreciation" for the usual slopes you face (mostly 2-5%), in the final analysis you want an instinctive ability to use your appreciation to generate an appropriate stroke for uphill-downhill on given green speeds. So, properly understood, "knowing numbers" can help you get the "appreciation" and the general familiarity that informs the instincts and intuition, but you have to be wary of the tendency to rely upon "knowing the number" to the extent that putting becomes a conscious trying to make a specific size and speed of stroke happen.
Your third question I interpret as asking about break, and when is it advisable to STOP trying to take some break out. (If this is not what you meant, just ask again with clarification.) There are a number of "rules" for taking the break out:
1. First, you have to know what the actual break is to start with. When you have one delivery speed of the ball into the cup for all putts, there is initially at least only one break to see and to putt. So, what is it? Is the break something that makes you aim outside the hole? How far out?
2. Second, never take any break out unless you take enough break out to get the startline aimed back inside the hole. Otherwise, you simply substitute your usual delivery speed and break for an unfamiliar delivery speed and another break.
3. Third, whenever you take break out, two bad things happen: the path into the hole will not be centercut rolling to the center of the cup as it goes over the lip but will be angled across the hole off center, and the speed of the ball across the air of the hole will increase. These two effects BOTH shrink the hole -- not just the added speed alone -- so the effective target of the hole when you take break out will demand quite a bit more-than-usual accuracy for hitting the ball on the intended line AND with the intended speed.
4. Fourth, there is a maximum amount of break you can take out. There is obviously a maximum speed you can deliver a ball at a hole and the ball will still have enough time for the path across the air of the hole for the ball to drop and stay in the cup. This means that there is a limit on HOW MUCH break it is possible to take out, even at the edge of performance for accuracy and for a tiny effective target. It also means that a "straight line" from ball to hole is not an option. You cannot really take ALL the break out of a breaking path -- that would require a putt that rolls with light speed, as anything slower will break at least a little between ball and cup.
5. Fifth, taking the break out is a trade-off that asks how much smaller the effective target gets with the increased speed, how greater the danger that an unfamiliar delivery speed will cause problems for accuracy of line or touch, and how much of a comeback will result from the greater speed if you miss.
6. Sixth, since break is a matter of green speed plus slope plus delivery speed of ball across surface a given distance (all three together, integrated), the faster the green or the more tilted the slope or the longer the putt, the bigger the challenge of taking the break out without messing up the trade-off.
Putting these factors all together, and using the fall-line to establish a clockface reference of positions around the hole (so the 6-12 line on the clockface is the straight uphill-downhill line thru the cup), here are my rules:
UPHILL
Positions 5 & 7 -- small break, uphill: taking the break out may not be necessary but if it is, then usually you have a green light to do so. A modest increase in speed is all that is required to redirect the startline into the hole without drastically shrinking the target and without getting too far from your familiar delivery speed / touch. Also, since the cup for an uphill putt is tilted towards you, the back wall is something of a backstop; this allows MORE delivery speed than usual without shrinking the hole (within reason). Finally, because the putt is slowing when the ball is rolling uphill at the end, there is not much danger of a lengthy comeback if you miss.
Positions 4 & 8 -- big break, uphill: use caution, but very often okay. These situations challenge you not to use too much speed. Be cautious to assess whether taking the break out requires too much extra speed. But if not, go for it if you feel the need. Usually not advisable on putts outside about 6 feet.
SIDEHILL
Positions 3 & 9 -- biggest break: take the break out only on VERY mildly sloped greens that are also kind of slow and the putt is not very long (not more than about 3-4 feet).
DOWNHILL
Positions 2 & 10 -- big break, downhill: use caution, seldom advisable. The hole is tilted away from you, so not much extra speed across the air of the hole can be tolerated, plus the comeback will be longish. There is not much extra speed to work with, so there is not much break that can be taken out. Only advisable for very mild slope (mot much downhill or cup tilt) and not-too-fast green speed and pretty short putts (3-4 feet and in).
Positions 1 & 11 -- small break, downhill: because of cup tilt, there is not much extra speed to work with. This is a better situation than positions 2 & 10, but only marginally so. Advisable only for mild slope and slow greens and short putts.
The upshot of this is that outside of 4-8 on the bottom of the clock, taking the break out is NOT recommended except in safe situations. In general, the situations are probably not safe outside 4-8 when the green is sloped significantly, is fast, and the putt has some length. Even within 4-8, it's often not necessary to take any break out, since the startline is already inside the hole to begin with.
You should know that Loren Roberts "lags" very short putts with break. It is very easy to get the speed of a breaking putt wrong for an intended line. And all breaking putts end up in the final analysis being "touch putts." You start with your sense of touch to "see the path" initially, you use a different sense of touch to "see" a different path that takes some break out, and then you have to putt the ball with the same touch you used to "see" the path you choose to hit. Right before pulling the trigger, every breaking putt boils down to touch for the visualized path. Because touch is SO VITAL to making any breaking putt, it is usually best to stay with your familiar delivery speed and NOT take out any break at all unless there is a pretty strong need to do so.
This "need" to take break out is greater for golfers without a clear sense of what they are doing in breaking putts -- those who don't clearly see the break to start, or who don't have fine control over their delivery speed of the ball to the hole. That's unfortunate, because these golfers with a bigger "need" to take break out are precisely the ones least skilled for doing it astutely.
So be warned.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone
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