Hi Geoff,

First of all let me say that I've been reading the articles that you sent to me in response to my last email request. There is an abundance of concepts, techniques and practices to keep me busy for a while. I am seeing a steady improvement in most aspects of what you taught. One revelation I had recently had to do with the distinction you make between reading the green and reading the putt. Now, I read your article on the Four Fundamentals several times. It is at the same time coherent and concise. Yet, I am bedeviled with trying to understand your instruction on how to curve the ball when confronted with variations in slope.

What I do get is that it is always favorable to get a read of the green about 100 to 150 yards out as you are approaching. I am now able to discern the high to low continuum of the green (the Wall Street ticker tape metaphor works well here). Straight putts are obviously no problem. It is when I have to work with a break that I am lagging behind in my development (pun intended). I should say that what I am able to do with a break right now is not all that bad, but from my lesson with you, and from your writings, I suspect that reading the break should be as precise as the instinctual dynamics of touch. When I took a lesson with you back in November, you described a kind of vector model that I cannot reconstruct in my memory, but my sense is that if I could "see" what you are referring to I would be able to grok the methodology more than trying to reconstruct it in my imaginations derived from my linear left brain understanding of what you have articulated in your writings.

So, I am wondering if you can point to any articles on your website that will provide the visuals of how to calculate break, assessing the break from the hole back in interaction with the dynamics of touch, etc.

If you haven't done so already, this aspect of reading and calculating the break and the speed that the ball has to be optimally traveling at to be properly drained, would make a great DVD. If you already have something like this that demonstrates on the green or through animation what I am needing to learn, please let me know.

Thanks Geoff.

All the Best
Art

--
Arthur Giacalone, Ph.D.
Consulting Psychologist
Walnut Creek, CA

Dear Art,

With an all-too-unfamiliar sense of fraternity, I see that you, like me, are plagued with a unrestrainable facility for verbal complexity beyond all measure of reason and balance!

Try these:

Reading Break: Zero in on the Zero Break Line If the green surface for the putt is basically flat although tilted, you can find one aim spot for any putt of the same length by identifying the fall-line through the hole (the "zero break line" or ZBL) where all putts up or down are perfectly straight, walk around the hole in a semicircle from your ball to a side-on putt to the hole of the same length that is perpendicular to the ZBL (and hence has no elevation change up or down from there to the hole), and visualize this putt at regular speed to imagine how far below the hole such a putt would roll low and cross the ZBL; the aim spot for all putts of the same length is that far above the hole along the ZBL.

See the Spider The "fall line" of the green surface at the cup runs straight uphill-downhill thru the center of the cup, and the final path of all putts across the flat-but-tilted surface right around the hole makes a pattern like a spider with the legs all indicating different pathways into the hole, and the head of the spider is the SAME AIM SPOT for all putts. Learning how slope tilt, green speed, and distance of putt make the spider change size and shape a little, so you can accurately visualize the curve or path of the one "leg" of your putt and find the single aim spot or "head" of the spider above the hole on the fall line, is mostly learning how to "see the spider."

Box the Break The only part of the green that matters is the part the ball rolls over from address into the cup, so you can "box" this putt and focus only on this surface while learning something valuable about the break and how to start the putt off so it feeds into the break correctly and goes on to sink -- simplify a typical breaking putt to a break point and then a higher aim spot for starting the putt off, with the intention of having the ball break off the start-line so it turns parallel to the baseline right at the break point.

All "Methods" of Reading a Putt are Reading the SAME Putt -- When the golfer uses one speed to "see" the break, he may use different "methods" to read the putt, but all methods are reading the same putt. This means that any target spot near the hole for line and distance generated by a particular method has to be the same target spot generated by all methods, and the curvature of the final section of the putt with its implied energy shape into the hole also has to be the same for all methods. There is only one reality, given a particular "pace" or "delivery speed" for the putt over the given surface. If two distinct methods or approaches differ in the target spot, then one or both are not accurate. When different methods all agree, the golfer should have high confidence that his read is accurate.

One Speed, One Read -- Modern neuroscience teaches that the brain is similar to a flight simulator: its main job is to predict accurately the future consequences of movement, a skill that the brain learns throughout life by ceaseless trial and error, and without which the animal using that brain will die. Animals live because their brains are well-trained and highly skilled at predicting accurately the consequences of intended movements. How does this work in reading a breaking putt? The three principal factors that determine the curving path of a rolling golf ball across the contoured surface of a putting green are 1. the exact shape of the tilts of the surface in relation to flat and level in gravity; 2. the surface speed of the green over the path; and 3. the pattern of rolling speed of the ball over that same path. Of these, the only factor in the control of the golfer is the rolling speed of the ball. From the beginning of a putt to the end of a successful putt in the bottom of the cup, the ONLY section of the putt where the golfer can accurately predict and envision the rolling speed pattern of the putt is at the end, specifically the last several feet of the path as the ball slows and drops into the cup. A golfer who has a consistent tempo and good distance control always delivers the ball into the final few feet of EVERY putt, regardless of length or green speed or contour, with the SAME "terminal velocity" or "delivery speed" -- the ball always drops into the cup with about the SAME rolling speed right as it crosses the lip of the cup on ALL putts. At least, this is true so long as the golfer uses his normal tempo and touch. THEREFORE, when the golfer envisions the break of the ball into the cup, he is implicitly relying upon his normal tempo and touch with its same-every-time delivery speed in order to predict accurately the exact curving path of the ball over the final 3-4 feet of the putt. Once he "sees" this accurately and realistically in his "mind's eye," the remainder of the path of the putt constructs itself backwards from the hole to the golfer's ball at his feet, establishing a startline and a distance for the putt. Great putters use only one delivery speed, and therefore always look for only one read. Once they see this break, then they are able to make choices, but not before. The usual choice is to putt the normal break, using the normal tempo. If the golfer uses tempo A to "see" the break, he jolly well better execute the putt with tempo A as well! Otherwise, he's like Homeros Blanco: "reading the putts in English but putting them in Spanish." The notion that there are multiple breaks to choose from on any putt depending on "how hard you are going to hit it" is alien to great putters. One speed, one read.

3 Rules to Sink Breaking Putts -- An intuitive way to approach breaking putts -- so that the chances of sinking the putt are VERY HIGH and the chances of leaving no more than a tiny TAP-IN are virtually certain -- does not require a specific target on the ground. Instead, the golfer simply applies three rules to his breaking putt. Given a straight line from ball to hole along the ground, with one side high and one side low (the "Baseline"), and also given a second straight line up thru the hole on the only straight-uphill line thru the hole (the "Fall-line"), the three rules to apply are: 1. NEVER allow the ball to roll across the baseline to the low side; 2. ALWAYS putt for distance as far as the fall-line and no farther; and 3. Aim as high up the fall-line as necessary to accomplish Rule 1, but no higher. It sort of boils down to just aim high and putt to the fall-line. If the ball rolls low by crossing the baseline, aim a little higher next time! This is fantastic for long breaking putts, and the application of the three rules gets you aiming higher than usual, which is a good thing.

Here is a visual on this last:



This next visual shows how to use the vector (spider) system just standing at the ball with a sense of the orientation of the fall line and your touch.



Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone.com
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