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The Science of Putting: Part 2

Toe up will send the ball left, even on a flat putt.

Posted: 1 December 2006
by John Elmer

Straight putt. Or is it? Or

Any time the grooves on your clubface are not square to the target at impact (when the toe points upwards) the ball will tend to fly to the left. Similarly if the heel's off the ground, the ball heads right. And both errors are magnified as the loft increases.

Consequently, if a golfer with his hands low (clubhead toe pointing skywards) uses a pitching wedge with 48 degrees of loft, it would tend to show a serious deviation to the left multiplied as the lie angle increases.

Therefore if we hit a club with zero degrees of loft, we would not see any directional deviation, regardless of how much lie angle is present.

In putting, most golfers believe the clubface is perfectly vertical to the ground at address. Wrong! Most putters have a loft of three, four or even five degrees to help its forward roll when making an upward strike and preventing the ball being jammed into the ground at impact.

Most putters have a 4-degree loft built in to them, so a golfer who addresses the ball with the toe one-quarter of an inch in the air (6.5 mm) has it ten degrees from the horizontal. Imagine, then on a shaven, straight, flat putt of six feet, if a golfer sets the putter face square to the target and with a smooth and perfect technique and strikes the ball square on the sweet spot with the correct speed, it should roll into the cup (4.25 inches wide) every time.

Toe up will send it left

Wrong again! It misses on the left.

But it's not the golfer's fault. The error lies with the putter - and contrary to the old proverb, bad golfers can at last blame their equipment.

Why?

Each degree we open (rotate) the face of the club with a loft angle of four degrees we change the direction by approximately 4mm per metre that the ball travels. Therefore a ball on our six-footer (2 metres approx) moves 80mm (3 ins) to the left.

The Scientific formula is: 4mm x 2metres = 8mm x 10 (deg) = 80mm (3 ins)

Flat lie leads to straight putts

If our golfer aims for the centre of the hole (108mm in diameter), the putt will miss by 25mm (one inch).

So now the secret is out. You'll always miss a straight, flat putt on the left using a putter with loft and with the toe (even slightly) in the air!

So take the loft off your putter (moving your hands forward slightly), stand closer to the ball to flatten the clubhead's lie and you'll hole more straight putts.

Alternatively you can accept (with the way you hold the putter) there are no straight putts - and aim to the right every time!

*Englishman John Elmer from Natal, South Africa, has invented the self-customising Elmer M1 putter, which can be used by right and left-handers, has interchangeable faces and can be set up for fast or slow greens.

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Discuss this story

Parky

While this technique has merit, it's not totally true. It may be on a machine, like Dave Pelz's "Perfy", however, we don't putt like machines...if only!

Some of the best putters ever in golf used a toe up style and won plenty of tournaments, notably Isao Aoki and Seve Ballesteros, both of whom addressed the ball with the toe end in the air - did they aim right to allow for the "miss"? I doubt it.

Sometimes putting gurus and designers get far too technical when it comes to putting when in actual fact good technique in swing path consistency and good feel for speed are the prerequisites for holing more putts.

The only real development I have seen lately in getting the ball to roll better is in Harold Swash's "Yes" Putters - not that works!

Parky

Posted: 06/12/2006 at 14:54

Oneput Toomany

I seem to remember Seve always had the toe of his putter up, didn't seem to bother him

Posted: 07/12/2006 at 16:35

Pengwyn 8.0/\

Maybe these great "toe up" golfers compensated for there misses left by aiming right of the hole.

Isn't the important thing consistency.
It doesn't if you always miss left by and inch, correct it by aiming right abit.
As long as the stroke is solid and most importantly repeatable you can achieve good results.

Posted: 24/03/2007 at 17:19

Henry T

The toe up address is to compensate for the unnatural swing path if we address ourselves too closely to the ball. I did find that if I address closer (a plumb line straight down to the ball from my eyes) I tend to putt the ball to the left. By standing a bit away from the ball, with the toe up, then I have plenty of room with a swing squarer to the line.

Posted: 25/03/2007 at 00:13

Wormburner

Many of the worlds greatest putters had unusual styles.Casper,Aoki,Seve very similar in style then look at Bobby Locke,totally hooked his putts,then of course there are those with more natural strokes such as Mickelson and Bob Charles ( I notice Mickelson is no better around the greens or on them since he went with Pelz).There are no rights and worngs and if you read Rotella he will tell you a player full of confidence and a repeating routine that focuses on the process then the target will ALWAYS beat a player iver burdoned by technique and lacking in confidence.

Posted: 25/03/2007 at 09:51

Muttley

As Bob Charles aged(into his 40s) he discovered his aim was out by about an inch so added a correction on every putt from then on.

Posted: 25/03/2007 at 10:33

The Space Golfer

The big problem with putting is that unless you stroke the ball out of the sweetspot and have the putterface dead square to the target line at impact consistently, you can have no real idea of what caused your missed stroke, unless you film yourself or someone watches you closely. It makes me laugh when TV commentators say, 'He pulled that putt'. How can they know. He could have turned the putterface over, pros aren't perfect.

Bob Charles was a great golfer, therefore he could simply adjust his aim to hole more putts.

Bob Public often thinks he's aimed incorrectly when he misses his putt but really he could have done one or more of the following;

Rotated his hands/arms/shoulders or hips through impact.
Had his shoulders/arms/hands/hips misaligned with the target line.
Moved his head before contact.
Swayed his body.

I could go on, my point is that there's many factors to missed putts. You need to get your set-up correct first, then work on your stroke. It's no different to the full swing, more important in fact, small errors are magnified on the greens.

Get a good set-up (everything parallel to your target line), eyes over the ball, use your shoulders to make the stroke, have a light grip, relax and just think about the hole and the ball going in.

Posted: 30/03/2007 at 12:28

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