Hi Geoff,
I pulled your answer out of another thread and hoped for clarification:
"(You don't have to have the eyes over the ball or the head and face flat to the surface; all you really need is a gaze that aims the eyes out of the face straight at the ball like pointing the bridge of the nose at the target, which is why Ben Crenshaw can stand somewhat tall at address and still get good target perceptions.)"

I try and get my eyes over the ball or over the alignment mark on the putter and the neckline square to the face as you have stated before. If your eyes aren't setup over the ball/alignment mark wouldn't it be harder to see the line with the twist of the head down the intended line? I thought the idea was eyes straight out and over alignment mark (which is in the middle of ball) so you can just swivel on the stick down the line. Did I misunderstand?

Reaaly am puting so much better and really excited for the first time in years. Just really need to work on how much you really can and need to realx from the top of the backswing to the bottom. I hit some of the best putts in years this weeknd and the feeling was great. I knew it was going to be a good putt by how relaxed I felt in the drop. Now just need to ingrain it.
Ever come to Massachusetts?

Dear bgolfing,

Having your eyeballs vertically above the golf ball is probably best, but is not really what prevents your line of sight from veering off line during the head turn to the target. To clarify this:

All golf instruction that says "put your eyeballs over the ball" is incomplete and misleading and not telling you the key factor that avoids misperceptions.

The "Rule" from the 1960s, which is not generally known by Tour players today, always came with TWO PARTS. The 1960s rule was NEVER simply "put your eyeballs over the ball", and was always 1. "put your eyeballs over the ball" AND 2. set the back of your head (or face) FLAT to the surface. That two-part rule avoids the line of sight skewing off line in the head turn, alright, but still misses the essential factor.

The MAIN FACTOR is the gaze straight out of your face, WHETHER the eyeballs are above the ball or inside the ball or even beyond the ball. This straight gaze plus an apple-on-a-stick head turn is all that is required to run the line of sight straight along the ground on a perfect line.

The 1960s golfers with their "rule" got to a straight-out gaze but didn't realize how. These golfers didn't realize that setting the eyes over the ball AND setting the back of the head flat REQUIRED that the eyeballs aim straight out of the face. No one in golf before me has ever commented on this, either.

But once you see that the straight-out gaze is the key factor, you also see that the straight-out gaze works the SAME even if the eyeballs are over the ball, inside, or beyond the ball.

This also means that IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHERE YOUR DRIVER'S FACE IS AIMED DOWN THE FAIRWAY, aim your eyeballs straight out of your face when looking at the driver head and then turn your head to face down the fairway using an apple-on-a-stick head turn. Clearly, the eyes are not OVER the driver head at this point.

But, like I say, the use of a straight-out gaze gives you more possible postures of eyeballs inside, over, or beyond the ball, so which one is best?

I personally like eyeballs over the ball AND the back of the head flat AND therefore the eyeballs aimed perpendicularly out of the plane of my face. Others don't really like this posture and just can't get used to it. They still need to know about the KEY FACTOR, though.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone.com
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