Hi Geoff,

I am a new member, Congratulation for your informative forum.

I am right handed and my vision in my right eye is far from good. I am a fairly good putter on the practice green and a fairly bad one in competition (too many missed birdie attempts and six to eight three putts per round). The three putts are either the result of bad distance control of the first putt, or lipping out the three footer second putts. I also have the occasional problem of completely misreading a putt's break.

I have a number of different putters (heel shaft/center shaft, different head designs, different offsets, etc) for the following reasons:

With most of them I can putt relatively well from within 6 to 12 feet. With some I can putt relatively well from long distance, making them or shaving the hole, but missing too many short ones. While with others I can not control long distance let alone make long putts, but can putt fairly well from within three feet.

I understand I do not always line up correctly, that is I line up to the right for the short putts or for the long ones (depending on the putter). Hence, my problems (I am told).

1) Would you have any thoughts on why I line up incorrectly with some putters for short putts while with the same putters I line up correctly for long putts?

2) Would you have any thoughts on why I line up incorrectly with some putters for long putts while with the same putters I line up correctly for short putts? That is the opposite of point 1) above.

3) And finally, why I line up generally correctly with these same putters (under point 1 and 2) from 6 to 12 feet?

PS: My eyes are over the line of the intended putt and I rock my shoulders to make my stroke. (Try not to use hand action.)

Many thank in advance.
Regards
Andy

Dear Andy,

Poor aiming corrupts the stroke. If you don't aim at the hole on a straight putt, for example, and in fact roll the ball into the cup, then you could not possibly be using a stroke that rolls the ball where the putter aims at address, so your stroke is not really "straight" in the sense of directing the ball where the putter aims at address, even if you succeed in directing the ball towards the target (this time). For the vast majority of putts, the putt is NOT straight and so the "target" for direction (if you have one at all) is not more than "some indefinite spot on the green surface over near the hole somewhere that you don't really look at too carefully and instead just sort of aim the putter over at this "target" generally and hope you have it right." A little higher up the skill ladder, the golfer uses a "target" like "one ball out to the right" or something vauge like that, but manages to lock in pretty accurately on a "line" when aiming the putter and making the stroke that "commits to the chosen [start] line" for the breaking putt. These golfers try to "find" a touch that will make the ball "take the break" when started straight down this start line, which is in fact not a great approach to putting breaking putts, since a better approach is to recognize the reality that every accurately visualized break is visualized ONLY with one sense of speed, and ONLY that same sense of speed will produce a putt that rolls correctly on the anticipated and visualized curve. One should never treat "line" and "touch" as separate problems. The best approach is to read with your usual sense of touch and then just make all strokes with the same usual touch.

This all means you aim poorly, target poorly, and stroke poorly, and try to fix these problems in a vague way that usually results in adding or subtracting power to straighten the hoped-for rolling path / curve of the ball out or to soften the energy up a bit to fatten up the curve of the path. The two main things to hear are: "fix one problem at a time", and "never use power to try to fix a problem."

Your miss-reading putts and experiencing lip-outs on short breaking putts is due to your incomplete integration of touch into your reading. Once you start fixing the targeting process by seeing exact spot to putt "at" for line, then you will discover the need to figure out "touch." In my approach, the anticipated real breaking curve of the putt is joined and integrated with a "line" that is not only "at" a specific target spot, but is also "to" this spot so that the ball is imagined to roll straight all the way to this target as if the target were a second hole and the putt had zero break. For missed short breaking putts, the twin culprits are poor reading skill for visualizing / predicting the realtime curving of the ball due to an indefinite sense of touch, and then not knowing what touch you used to visualize the break so that you perpetually face a touch problem on all breaking putts. (Take a look at my podcast and tips about "One Speed, One Read - One Read, One Speed."

I don't believe the problem lies in the Tech-Nine; the problem is the gangsta wielding the gun.

Your specific questions:

1) Would you have any thoughts on why I line up incorrectly with some putters for short putts while with the same putters I line up correctly for long putts?

I doubt you are really lining up correctly with the aim of the putter face in either case. But if you are more accurately aimed on long putts, it may be because you are farther away from the target and the process of looking from ball to target along this lengthier path requires more precision in the movement of the head and eyes to run the sight on this path to the target, and longer putts are more sensitive to the eyes coming off the line. A small error in the movement of the head and eyes at the start leads to a grosser more obvious error that golfers get corrected than is the case with short putts. For short putts, the hole is too close and the real target too undefined and vague and the golfer looks "towards" the hole and not really "at" a target. When the hole is visible in the peripheral field of view even though the golfer is "looking" down at the ball at address, this tendency not to target very precisely is magnified by the false assurance that you sort of know where the hole is so targeting precisely is not required. Incorrect-o!

2) Would you have any thoughts on why I line up incorrectly with some putters for long putts while with the same putters I line up correctly for short putts? That is the opposite of point 1) above.

Just poor visual skills. You don't align your eyeballs straight out of the face and don't set your "skull line" to match the aim of the putter face at address and you don't swivel your head targetward like an "apple on a stick." Instead, you let the shape of the putter head including the hoseling pattern grab your visual attention and define how your eyeballs aim out of your face and how the skull lines up with respect to the aim of the putter face. There is too much visual neuroscience to go into, but basically you are not in control of your eyes and vision because you have no real understanding of what is going on with the eyes for vision and for informing the brain about space and the relations of objects in space with reference to your body and your putter.

3) And finally, why I line up generally correctly with these same putters (under point 1 and 2) from 6 to 12 feet?

Not likely. But this range is noteable because this is roughly the range where the hole is just beyond peripheral vision when looking down at the ball in the setup, but is close enough that your poor aiming skills don't show up as glaringly as they would on longer putts if you employed the same targeting postures and movements on longer putts that you use in this middle range.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone.com
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.

Visit the new PuttingZone Blog for podcasts of putting tips:
Site PuttingZone Blog
RSS XML Subscription

Hi Geoff,

Firstly thank you for the lengthy response. Yes, you identified it correctly, I am a poor putter, however, I find your response still leaves me in doubt how to fix my problems.

I feel that some of your observations made based on my initial post are not correct. Not that is your fault, I probably should have given a much more detailed description.

1) I always aim for a specific (intermediate) target, irrespective of the length of the putt. I prefer this target to be more than four feet away if possible. This target is never bigger than a golf ball and is always on a straight line aiming at the hole on straight putts or on a straight line aiming left or right of the hole depending on the kind of break.

2) My aim has been check by a golf professionals and a couple of helpers on a number of occasions. Once I took my aim, the two helpers stretched a line past my target point and past my putter. Then a straight edge was placed in front of my putter's face. Finally a try square was placed against the straight edge representing my putter's face and another line was stretched out to see the actual line of my aim.

From six to twelve feet targets I rarely aimed incorrectly and when did so the error was less than the size of a golf ball at the target. Depending on which putter I used there was a smaller or higher error rate.

3) From 20 to 30 feet targets the test were repeated. With some putters my aim was spot on just like for six to twelve feet targets, but with others I could not aim correctly despite trying to do so.

4) For short distances (less then four feet) again the tests were repeated. In this case the putters I could aim well from the long distances I struggled to aim correctly with, while with the ones I could not aim well from long distances my aim was good.

5) There were no strokes involved in these tests. Hence whether my swing/stroke is correct or completely wrong surely can not be a factor in my aiming.

6) I also know that my eyes are over the intended line of my aim as it has been check. However, whether both of my eyes were over the line or slightly in an angle to the intended line I could not say.

7) As far as distance control is concerned: With four of my putters I can control distance pretty well (I mean for long putts). With one I can control distance exceptionally well (for me). Unfortunately, I struggle to hit the putts over fifty feet with this putter and have difficulty to aim correctly on short distance putts.

What I mean of controlling distance exceptionally well (for me): from within thirty feet I can hole the putt or left with less then two feet in 90% of the time. If I did not read the green correctly my length is still correct.

8) Here again I feel that poorly read greens have nothing to do with my actual aim. It just happens that I aim correctly for the wrong target. Hence I miss the hole considerably.

9) Whatever putter is in my hand I make the same effort to aim correctly. In my case, using the various putters result in actually aiming better or worse for a target. From this I conclude that the cause must have something to do with the putters I happen to aim with as my aiming process/technique is unchanged from putter to putter. In my view this is true even if my aiming method is incorrect or faulty.

At least this is what the test seemed prove.

10) I believe that improving my putting can only be done if I can trust that I aim correctly. Hence, this is the first thing that needs to be fixed. I see no point in discussing or trying to make changes to my stroke even if it is completely wrong. I equally feel that learning distance control should be done with a putter I can aim correctly at my target.

If you can spend more time with my problems it would be appreciated. I am sure you are a busy man so if you have no more time for me, it is ok.

Either way, Thank you again.
Regards Andy

Dear Andy,

Other than what I teach, visual processes in aiming are not taught in golf, except by a couple of optometrists who teach that eye dominance is a problem without much of a solution and that eye teaming for distance perception is usually off and needs training before golfers have good distance control in their putting -- both of which points are incorrect and display a lack of deep understanding of how vision is USED by the brain to contribute to SPATIAL PERCEPTION AND MOVEMENT. I can't expect you to know whether this is the case unless you first become familiar with all the other putting instruction in golf (a 5-10 year undertaking at best), but I personally know this to be the case from twenty years of research, so permit me to say it straight up without giving offense. When you state that you use the same aiming process on all your putts in 9) above, I am very confident that this is not the case, from the point of view of the perceptual behaviors you actually are using.

Perceptions are not free from the manner in which they are generated. Certain physical behaviors generate more accurate perceptions than others, that is, perceptions that correspond to reality, while others are tainted by misperceptions and biases. What I teach is how perceptions are actually formed and how to use accurate behaviors to generate accurate perceptions and avoid misperceptions and biases.

There is a dynamic interaction between stroking straight and aiming accurately. Your belief in 10) above that aiming needs fixing first strikes me as incorrect. You cannot know whether your aim is good or bad unless you putt straight where the putter actually aims. If the ball rolls where you thought it should, your aim was okay, and if not, not. But if your stroke is not straight, you cannot tell whether a ball went a certain direction because your aim was good and your stroke was good (went where expected), or your aim was bad and your stroke was bad (went where expected or elsewhere), or your aim was bad but your stroke was good (went where expected or elsewhere), or your aim was good but your stroke was bad (went where expected or elsewhere). The two are confounded. By the same token, you cannot tell whether your stroke runs straight where the putter aims unless you also know accurately where in fact the putter aims. So you need to fix both stroking straight and accuracy of aiming at the same time, on parallel tracks. Doing so makes learning and improving both skills occur more rapidly due to the increasing accuracy of feedback. So the two skills are mutually interlocked and supporting.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone.com
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.

Visit the new PuttingZone Blog for podcasts of putting tips:
Site PuttingZone Blog
RSS XML Subscription