As an advocate of the plumb bob method, congrats to 2007 Masters Champ Zach Johnson for winning the 2007 AT & T Classic last week in Georgia! Zach uses the plumb bob method flawlessly and has won 2 of the last 7 PGA Tour Tournaments. Phil Mickelson, recent winner of The Players Championship can also be seen using the plumb bob method from time-to-time.
It's my opinion that once you learn how to plumb bob correctly using your putter, it gives you the most accurate line of putt or target line that your ball must take to hit the center of the hole. However, you must also learn to judge your stroke control and make sure not to hit your putt too firmly or too softly or the target line you've plumbed may not work, as you've taken away the break so-to-speak. It's also my opinion that many of the Tour professionals that are good putters "plumb bob" visually without having to use their putter. Occasionally, they will hold out their putter to seemingly verify the line of putt they've visualized.
I would like to know how to plumb bob correctly because when I do it I don't seem to get the right line.
What are you supposed to look at when you put the putter shaft in front of you? Do you look at the shaft or do you look at the green and what do you look for on the green with the putter shaft in front of your eyes?
If you visualize the putt line how does the shaft verify it? What do you see?
Sorry, but your opinion is wrong. Plumb bobbing would work IN PERFECT CONDITIONS. That is, if you had a perfect plumb line(which you never do in golf), if you had rigid sticks for legs, and if your putt had consistent slope throughout its distance. The pros that do it most likely do it just out of habit or because someone told them it works. Pelz has a thorough explanation of this on his site www.pelzgolf.com
After reading Pelz's article on plumb bobbing, it's obvious that plumb bobing doesn't work at all. Maybe golfers do it because they are stymied by their putt and in desperation they are hoping the plumb bobbing will tell them something.
Pelz is 100% correct that plumb bobbing is not only useless, it's wrong.
Joe...This excerpt statement taken from Geoff's post from the Sunnehanna Amateur article is strong evidence for the merits of plumb bobbing used by Nicklaus around 1957!
..."In the third year of the tournament there was a 26-year-old by the name of Jack Nicklaus from Columbus, Ohio who shot 72-72-72-70 for 286 to finish fifth. With a golfing maturity well beyond his youth and with his introduction to Sunnehanna of plumb-bobbing for putting, he created an unusual amount of interest and developed a good following."
Many golfers struggle with it because they just don't know how to use it properly including many of the Tour pros.
After reading Pelz's article on plumb bobbing, it's obvious that plumb bobing doesn't work at all. Maybe golfers do it because they are stymied by their putt and in desperation they are hoping the plumb bobbing will tell them something.
Pelz is 100% correct that plumb bobbing is not only useless, it's wrong.
I posted this message above ... so could you comment on Pelz' statements on plumb bobbing being useless?
Larry,
I sent you a message earlier and thought you might be a ble to help out. Your answer may also help with some of the detractors.
I still have some questions on plumb bobbing. I have your book and have applied plumb bobbing into my gsme. I like how it gives me a line to putt along. Here is my question however. If I stand behing the ball and plumb as you suggest (dominant eye lining up the ball to the hole) I get the line and it tells me if the putt is straight or is going to break. The problem that I see is if I am not directly behind the ball but a bit to the left of the right. If I think I am behind the ball but happen to be a bit left or a bit right the break is going to be seen differently.
David
Nice to hear from you. If I understand you correctly, as long as you dissect the ball with the shaft of your putter approximately 2"-8" from the putter blade, your plumbed line will remain the same as long as you keep the shaft in the center of the ball...the putter shaft must hang in a perfect vertical. The plumbed line
shouldn't change if you are positioned properly behind the ball.
First, determine which eye is dominant. Pick out an object in the distance (like a golfball on the green or doorknob in your house)and hold out a finger so the finger obscures the sight of the object. Then close one eye. If the finger still covers the object then the eye that’s open is the dominant eye. If the object appears to move to the side then the eye that’s closed is the dominant eye.
1---Stand erect with legs straight and about shoulder-width apart making sure your body is perpendicular to the slope of the ground you are standing on. Keeping your weight balanced equally on each foot helps keep the body perpendicular to the slope.
2---Position yourself about 4-6 feet behind your ball looking toward the hole, You may have to move left or right slightly to get the proper plumb line by splitting the ball visually, but most likely, not much. For a right-eyed dominant golfer, align the ball and the hole with the instep of your right foot (use left instep if you're left-eye dominant).
3---Close your non-dominant eye.
4---When standing behind the ball, move the shaft over the ball(dissecting the ball, so-to-speak) and look up the shaft to the hole. If the shaft falls to the right of the hole then the ground you're standing on slopes from right to left, and vice-versa. The technique also works when standing behind the hole, just cover the shaft over the hole and look up to the ball. If the shaft is to the right of the ball then the ground slopes from your right to left & vice-versa. That's why you need to align with the instep of your foot which is where the dominant eye would be aligned if the putt was straight. As the body is tilted perpendicular to the slope, the dominant eye also tilts to one side of the ball or hole which is how the technique works in the first place.
5---As you sight up the shaft, this is your line-of-putt, or target line.
The method works; however, it sometimes takes one a while to grasp the visual technique.
For what it's worth, I think I saw Brian Bateman, yesterday's winner of the Buick Open, plumb bobbing on one hole during the end of the tournament!
Larry
www.theputtingedge.com
"for what its worth" hasn't science already shown that plumb bobbing isn't worth much more than psychologically helping a golfer confirm the line he already sees? I'd like to hear what Geoff thinks about this.
4---When standing behind the ball, move the shaft over the ball(dissecting the ball, so-to-speak) and look up the shaft to the hole. If the shaft falls to the right of the hole then the ground you're standing on slopes from right to left, and vice-versa. The technique also works when standing behind the hole, just cover the shaft over the hole and look up to the ball. If the shaft is to the right of the ball then the ground slopes from your right to left & vice-versa. That's why you need to align with the instep of your foot which is where the dominant eye would be aligned if the putt was straight. As the body is tilted perpendicular to the slope, the dominant eye also tilts to one side of the ball or hole which is how the technique works in the first place.
Chiropracters will tell you that the body doesn't align perfectly with the ground due to spinal misalignments, hip displacements and one leg shorter than the other ... and all the way down from your neck to your coccyx. So there you stand in your natural contortion, assuming that you are gravitationally vertical to the ground and your head is compensating for any deviations. Next ....
5---As you sight up the shaft, this is your line-of-putt, or target line.
So you have visually established your line of putt from a datum that is at eye level anywhere from 5 to 6 feet off the ground. Now how do you transfer that measurement from eye level facing the hole from behind the ball location, down to your putter at address while looking at the ball in a lateral position?
