Dear Lee,
The Tiger Shark Optix putter looks like just another marketing twist to me. There seems to be no science about their "optix" alignment design (three parallel lines), and the joining the putter head alignment marks with the ball marks is a bit too cute. Both aspects, as perceptual effects claimed to improve performance, seem to me empty of substantive science to back them up. The science MAY be supportive of their claims, but I just don't see ANY science.
I agree with you at the outset that this visual busy-ness would tend to make you ball-bound more than help you aim accurately or make a stroke more accurately. The three lines seem to me more relevant / salient to aiming than to stroke, and in fact I don't see much positive influence on stroke. The actual perspective of almost all golfers looking down at the three lines will make them look OTHER than parallel, AND the lines on top of the putter head will not look like the lines on the ball, as the underlying objects have very different shapes for the lines.
Note that the perspective of the website's depiction of the visual relationship of putter head and ball is definitely NOT the perspective of the golfer's eyes at address, and the website perspective is calculated to suppress the issue of the golfer's perspective in the sense of sweeping it under the rug.
The fact that Tiger Shark offers a number of other putter models with their own marketing features (i.e., interchangeable head weighting) BUT WITHOUT THE OPTIX ALIGNMENT tells me that the company doesn't really think its alignment feature is too important.
I'm glad people are finally realizing visual perceptions for aiming and stroke are important. Now if the putter manufacturers would just learn something about perceptions and body action before designing and marketing putters or aids, the golf world would be less cluttered with problematic claims. Aiming and stroking perceptions are too important for this sort of business-as-usual mercantile treatment.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
Geoff Mangum's
PuttingZone
PuttingZone Clinics
Flatstick Forum
PuttingZone Channel on YouTube
PuttingZone Picasweb Image Gallery
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction -- you're either in the PuttingZone, or not.
Over 2 million visits -- 100,000 monthly from 50+ countries -- and growing strong.