From: "James F. Tims" <p00168@psilink.com>
Subject: Re: putting and vision
Organization: none
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 19:33:27 GMT
X-Mailer: PSILink (3.2)

>DATE:   Thu, 21 Jan 1993 15:42:18 GMT
>FROM:   Mike Fitterman <mjf@eff.org>
>
>In article <C1683q.II@world.std.com>, rsilver@world.std.com (Richard
>Silver) wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> A friend and I have been discussing putting and the need for 
>> binocular vision. I believe it would be very difficult for a 
>> one-eyed golfer to read the contour of a green. What do 
>> readers of this group have to say about this query? 
>> 
>> Are there any aides that make it easier to read a green
>> for someone with normal vision? Does it really help to
>> hold a putter pendulum style behind the ball?

I can't figure plumbbobbing out, and for god's sake don't try to explain 
it to me.  Must be something like juggling...you either can or you 
can't -- I can't juggle either.  I use the edges of roofs or other 
things "known to be level or straight-up-and-down".  Iron powerline 
structures, concrete bridge supports, rainsheds when well-built, large
drinking fountain areas, whatever seems "flat".

>
[...]
>a good putter (I am never in the fairway and have a 3 handicap).  You can

I spent a lifetime in making positive financial adjustments to your 
(generic) bank accounts. Nothing like hitting 15 greens and can't win a 
hole no matter what.  Depressing, really.  (Just kidding.)

>walk the length of the putt (although not in the line!!!) to get the
>general feel of the slope.  But the thing I find most important is what

Good idea, no matter the condition of your eyes, just do it quickly.

>goes on around the hole.  10 feet and in is a really important distance to
>get good at reading.   You have to know the speed of the green and the

Early on, long putts don't usually do much of anything.

>various textures of the green and the effects it has on how you are going
>to hit the putt.  I truly believe that all methods of reading the green are
[whoops.  Sorry Mike! 8^(]
>Mike

I wonder sometimes, you know?  A quick history of my putting:

11	Lousy
12	Pretty good
13	Outlandish good putting on long putts
14-23	About 27 per round.  Spooky.
24-31	29 per round  (Hmm.  Nervous over those short one's, Jim?)
32-40	40 per round  (No four putts, today!  16 greens and shot 80!)
41-46	38 per round  (Ha. Just hit without thinking. Better than the yips!)
47-48	35 per round  (Corey Pavin's putting grip -- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)
49-	32 per round  ( 3D -- see below.  Distance/speed is the ticket.)

>about equal.  Whatever lets you see the line in your minds eye the best is
>the best method for you.  Try looking at putts you already know and read
>every inch of the line the break that it has.  Use that as a base to learn

And putt lots of absolutely straight putts.  If you can't make 9 of 10 
ten footers (or better) in a row, on a putt that you know is absolutely 
straight, your stroke needs work.  See above ---COREY PAVIN.

I think like this, now.  I just try and hit it the right distance either 
inside the cup, on the edge of the cup, or just outside the cup, and try 
to actually get it there.  I rarely fail to know which WAY it breaks, 
it's just a matter of how much.  I try to hit it hard enough to take out 
most of the break.  I think it's a lot easier to hit the back of the 
hole than it is to die it over the lip.  Hard to do on real fast greens, 
though.  Takes a lot of guts.  8^)

But nobody, pros included, can putt fast greens that break a lot.  I 
watched Watson 5-putt from 3 feet at the Masters one year, when the pin 
was on the upper right corner of the 16th.  Brutal.  I don't think the 
the ball even goes the same way twice when greens get this fast, so a
read is almost immaterial.  Keep it inside the, on the lip, or a little 
outside.  Simplifies things.  My putting went south when I started 
thinking too much.  

I think 3-D (Davis Love III) has the right way to 
putt -> looking at the hole, then starting to hit it the 
instant the eyes return to the ball.  You retain a better eidetic image 
of how far to hit it.  This sort of kinaesthetic information fades very 
rapidly from consciousness when the eyes re-focus on something else since 
it is a constant activity to discard old distance estimates and make new 
ones -- we could not walk, probably, if we retained newly estimated spatial 
relationships for more than a second.  But perhaps we can retain them for 
just long enough to putt.  Hit it before you forget what you were 
looking at, in other words.

-jim

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