Sure,
"Touch" is the consistent ability to STOP the ball on the green where intended. As a matter of physics, "touch" is putter head mass, velocity, and surface trajectory thru the ball producing a sliding / rolling / launching motion in the ball across the green that is retarded by the green's "speed" condition until the ball's motion ceases, and all the factors contribute in one way or another (plus a few others). In terms of BASIC factors controlling touch, there are five: ball (mass and cover material); putter (mass of head and putter design); green condition (green "speed" or friction characteristics); tempo or the timing pattern of the back and thru movement of the putter by the golfer; and targeting (the manner by which the senses infom the brain about the spatial relationships between and among the body and its parts, the putter, the ball, the surface, and the target area and hole). Of these five factors, the golfer simply needs to be familiar with or used to the first four, and the fifth factor is the only one usually requiring putt-by-putt action. the fifth factor, however, is entirely mechanical, so it is extremely easy to perform consistently. The only other variable that the golfer really has responsibility for as something within his control to perform consistently or variably is the tempo. If the tempo is organized based on the downstroke timing of the putter, hands, arms, and shoulder frame as a unit free-falling in gravity (or nearly so), then this half of the stroke is not the golfer's responsibility except in the negative sense of not doing anything. This whittles the whole affair of "touch' down to a consistent timing in the backstroke. the backstroke is twice the timing of whatever the downstroke timing from top of backstroke to impact. Double that and make all backstrokes persist for the same time every putt regardless of length and the brain by non-conscious instinctive processes will load the initial ballistic backstroke movement so that the stroke starts back somewhat abruptly but then coasts in gravity to a conclusion at the top of the backstroke at the end of the backstroke timing period. At this point, the backstroke will correlate with one and only one impact velocity at the bottom of the stroke, and this velocity has been preset by the instincts with exquisite precision so that the physics will then roll the ball at least as far as the cup and not significantly farther.
The whole enterprise is "just right" with the same frequency that a normal adult human reaches out to take hold of a doorknob and succeeds, completely without thinking or trying of any sort.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
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