One Best Delivery Speed for Touch

The physics of ball-hole interaction in putting teaches that there is really only a narrow range of optimal delivery speeds for instinctive putting and optimal capture. An examination of the way a ball drops into a hole, or fails to drop, demonstrates that around 2 revolutions per second satisfies the constraints of getting the ball all the way to the hole without going too far past while arriving with a speed that correlates to a generous effective hole width. Touch is not really personal or individual, but a matter of straight-forward physics that applies to all golfers. And only the golfers who successfully adapt to the requirements of reality will, in the end, be great players. This recent post of a video on the PuttingZone YouTube Channel explains the details:



Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist

PuttingZone Book Available

Finally, the PuttingZone book, Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone: Science, the Brain, and the Mechanics of Instinct for Putting -- A Professional Guide, is available as a PDF eBook. This book will also be published later in December 2007 as a limited first edition hardcover, signed and numbered in a first run of 1,000 copies, from Hornberger Druck GmbH in Maulburg Germany.

If you are interested in pre-ordering the hardcover limited first edition, the advance price is $34.95 US and Canada or $39.95 International (includes S&H). If you pre-order now, I will immediately ship you the eBook in the meantime for free. And if you would rather simply receive the eBook only, the price is $19.95 US and Canada or $23.95 International (includes S&H) for the electronic version (compressed PDF) in email plus the same (larger size PDF) on a CD mailed to your address. TO ORDER: Mail check or money order to Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone, 518 Woodlawn Ave, Greensboro NC 27401, and for questions simply email me at geoff@puttingzone.com. Or you may send payment to PayPal at genehammond@catalist.net. Sorry, but I do not yet have access to a credit card account for payments.

Here are the contents in the current state of the book before final publication (there will be a few additions between now and then):



Geoff Mangum’s PuttingZone: Science, the Brain, and the Mechanics of Instinct for Putting -- A Professional Guide (publication date December 2007):

Table of Contents

The Mechanics of Instinct
& the Four Skills of Putting

The Brain & the “Mechanics of Instinct” 1
Conventional Lore 2
A New Paradigm 7
Learn Skills from the Ground Up 10

Controlling Distance: Theory 12
Definition of Touch 12
Optimal Delivery Speed 12
Observing Optimal Delivery Speed 15
Five Factors for Touch 18
Definition of Tempo 19
Gravity and Movement on Earth 20
Physics Characteristics of Pendular Motion 21
Inherent Timing of Pendular Objects 22
Gravity Timing and Insinct 23
Human Instinct and Gravity Timing 25
Strength of Instinctive Gravity Timing 26
Choosing an Optimal Tempo 27
What is a Backstroke? 29

Controlling Distance: Praxis or Application 31
Green Speed Appreciation 31
Tempo Controls Putterhead & Impact Speed 32
Optimal Touch is Instinctive 33
Head-neck Motion Primes Distance Sense 33
Instinctive Move Sets Backstroke Size 34
“One Potato...Two” Tempo is Non-conscious 36
Tempo Timing & Accurate Timing Performance 38
Green Speed Appreciation from Core Putt 38
Uphill / Downhill Effects 40
Special Case: Slick Downhill Putts 42
Special Case: Steep Tiers 43
Delicate Strokes 44
Short-Putt Touch 45
Summary of Touch 45

Stroking Straight 45
Carpenter’s Square off the Foot 46
Straight Stroke Movement 47
Shoulder Starts Takeaway 48
Gravity-Tempo Downstroke is Effortless 48
Keep Hands “Dead” in Downstroke 49
Hands Stay Out Where They Start 50
Hands Do Not Rotate, Grip Stays Constant 50
Lead Shoulder Lift Sends Ball Straight 51
Throat line Holds Square at Midline 52
Lead Hip Anchors Backstroke 53
Head Motion in Thru-Stroke 54

Aiming Accurately 55
Stand Back Same Distance as Putt 55
Use Dominant Eye Behind Ball 55
Use Shaft as Visual “Ruler” 56
Anchor Perceptions on the Ground at Ball 56
Keep Perspective Walking into Ball 56
Use Achors at Ball to Aim Putterface 57
Ball Shape as Indicating Line 57
Squaring the Putter Face 58
Two T’s of Putter and Ground Lines 58
Setup for a Straight Stroke as Putter is Aimed 59
Grip Form and Setup 60
Homogenous Muscle Tone for Form 62
Checking the Aim of the Putter Face 64
Squaring the Skull Line to the Putter Face 65
Head Turn to Check Putter Face Aim 66

Reading for Target 67
Read the Green as a Whole from Fairway 67
Use References to Vertical & Horizontal 68
Local Hills & Mountains May Confuse Read 68
Read the “Stock Chart” of Highside Fringe 69
Beware Lobed Greens with Catchment Basins 69
Overall Slope as Rise over Run Percentage 70
Perceiving Elevation Change from Ball to Hole 70
Perceiving Green Surface Contour 72
Perceiving Green Speed 75
Visualizing Ball Rolling Speed 76
Other Perception Issues for Reading Putts 76
Find Straight Startline for Breaking-Putt Curves 78
“Apex” is Always Too Low for Startline 78
Find the Fall-Line thru the Cup 78
Aim Spot is Always on the Fall-Line High 84
See the “Spider” at any Green Location 85

Putting Routine 87
Purpose of the Routine 87
Pre-Round Preparation Routine 87
Approach Routine 87
On-the-Green Routine 89
Reading Routine 90
Seeing Green Speed 90
Perceiving Green Contour 91
Reading Elevation Change 91
Aiming Routine 91
Setup Routine 92
Checking Putter Face Aim Routine 92
Stroke Routine 93

Conclusion 95

55 Drills for Putting Skills
Reading for Target 97
Aiming Accurately 99
Stroking Straight 100
Controlling Distance 106

Appendices
Bibliography of Putting Books 1900-2007 110
PuttingZone Academies & Coaches 121
Get in the PuttingZone: Opportunities 128
About Geoff Mangum 129

There are limited opportunities to advertise your company, product, service, course, or school in the first edition, and if interested, email me (geoff@puttingzone.com) and I'll send details immediately. Deadline for copy and graphics is November 20.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist

PuttingZone.com
PuttingZone Clinics
PuttingZone Blog / Podcasts
PuttingZone Flatstick Forum
PuttingZone YouTube Channel
PuttingZone Image Gallery




Technorati Tags: golf, putting, putter, putt, book, instruction, tips, expert,

Powered by ScribeFire.

Reading and Aiming Video Clips

Hi Folks,

I've uploaded five new video clips on the "Channel PuttingZone" at YouTube for reading putts to select a target near the hole (2 clips) and for aiming the putter face thru the ball at the selected target (3 clips).

The "reading" clips explain the "fall-line" of straight uphill/downhill thru any hole and how to perceive it accurately and how to use it -- along with your usual sense of touch and the consistent delivery speed of all putts to cups regardless of length of putt or contour -- for reading the general pattern and exact extent of breaks in such a way that one and only one spot on the high side of the hole, a certain distance up the fall-line, is selected or identified as the target spot to aim at for both line and distance.

The "aiming" tips follow chronologically in the putting routine, as then the golfer uses the selected target spot on the fall-line to aim the putter face at this target thru the ball for line, and then for putting straight the right distance at and to this target spot as if the putt were dead level and straight from ball to target spot and the golfer wants the ball to arrive at the target spot with the same delivery speed he ordinarily uses in sending the ball over the lip deep into the cup.

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

Hating Bogey vs Loving Birdie

The VERY BEST GOLFERS IN THE WORLD WHEN THEY PLAY THEIR BEST IN THE TOUGHEST MAJORS AND WIN always apply a simple rule that goes something like: "hate bogey more than you love birdie."

This is a fundamental approach to scoring that is a level above the usual approach of trying to birdie every hole as the route to shooting an under-par round.

The principal reason this is important is because a bogey wastes two holes out of the 18 available in the pursuit of an under-par round, whereas a birdie merely succeeds in 1 of the 18 holes but leaves all the other 17 holes unaffected. A bogey on hole 4 wastes the opportunity at hole 4 to score under par, and also requires that the bogey be erased by a birdie on one of the remaining holes before the golfer can get back on the under-par track. (And this applies to all golfers, high-handicap amateurs included, who play every round with reference to their "personal par".) So a bogey is TWICE as potent in comparison to a birdie in its effect on the journey thru the 18-hole round.

Here is a typical pre-round management plan for shooting five under par:

Par 5s: Birdie 2 of 4 and par the other 2 and HATE BOGEY on 4 holes.
Par 3s: Par all 4 and HATE BOGEY on 4 holes.
Par 4s: Birdie 3 of 10 and HATE BOGEY on 10 holes.
Five birdies AND NO BOGEYS is 67 on a par 72 course.

If the player has a bogey on the front, he now needs one of the five planned birdies just to get back on track with his plan and has two fewer holes in which to accomplish his plan once he gets back on track. What a mistake! That's a MUCH WORSE result on a hole than succeeding in birdieing or even parring the hole as planned.

If the golfer bogeys one of the par 4s mid-way thru the front nine, for example, with 13 holes remaining, and he has only one birdie in hand so far, this means he really has to birdie one of the remaining holes to get back on track, and also that he has one fewer hole as an opportunity to collect one of the four more birdies he needs to score 67, and he still is no closer to his goal with fewer remaining chances to accomplish his plan. Before playing the 5th hole, the player had 14 holes to find four birdies. After playing the 5th hole in bogey, the player now faces 13 remaining holes and still needs his planned four other birdies and also needs to "find" an extra birdie hole somewhere along the way, so he is facing fewer holes with all the same problems PLUS quite a bit of extra trouble to squeeze out another birdie from a hole he really didn't plan on birdieing. In comparison, if the 5th hole were one of his planned birdies and he in fact scored birdie, he is simply still on track.

During play, this translates into how you calculate risk-reward in every tee shot, full-swing, trouble shot, chip, pitch, bunker shot, and putt. Risk of trying to bust a drive as long as possible is balanced against the ability to recover if you go out of the fairway. As long as you stay away from bogey, you have more "comfort zone" to work with in each shot thru the round when calculating the risk-reward.

On the tee box for the par 4s and par 5s, Tiger and Vijay have learned that they can usually recover nicely, so BOGEY is not that likely from a wayward drive that results from emphasizing distance at the expense of accuracy. If Tiger's drive goes 300 yards but out of the fairway into the salad, his response if "oh well, that's probably not going to be a birdie, but my chances of getting the ball out of the rough onto the green and two putting for par are still very high, so bogey is not much in play at this point (at least until I assess my actual lie)." This encourages Tiger to go for distance off the tee even when his drives are wayward.

When it comes to approach shots from the fairway or chips and pitches and bunker shots for reaching a green in regulation, the risk-reward calculation goes something like this: the player will obviously try to stick the shot as close as possible to the pin in order to one putt, but he also has a cautionary limit on how far he is willing to stretch his comfort zone of ability to try to make that happen. If the shot poses a need to stretch the comfort zone on ability to pull off a specific shot, the player asks himself either explicitly or implicitly to what extent the stretch is risking bringing BOGEY in to the picture. Once the risk of bogey rises to a substantial level or somewhere near the chance of playing no worse than par, in the pursuit of a birdie with the stretched shot, the "wise" player backs off, gets back into the comfort zone, accepts that this is not likely to be a birdie hole, and instead merely plays for no worse than par, although he of course still hopes to get lucky and somehow make birdie anyway.

When it comes to approach shots from the fairway or chips and pitches and bunker shots for reaching a green in regulation+1, the player is obviously in a par-save mode, and birdie is off the table.

When you stop to consider that pros average about 60-65% GIRs (12-14 holes), the pro is definitely in par-save mode on all the non-GIR holes (4-6 holes) and is also in a par-save mode when the approach shot on a GIR hole leaves him with a first putt outside his makeable range (usually, outside about 10-15 feet). Of the 12-14 holes where the pro reaches a green in regulation, more than half of these greens he faces a putt outside 15 feet, so that is another 6-7 holes where the player is in par-save mode. Scratch amateurs with a lower GIR percentage are in par-save mode more frequently. And pros who are approaching greens from farther out in the fairway or who are not as proficient in approacgh play as other players face even more first putts outside their realistic makeable range. So this totals at least 10-13 holes (and probably more) out of 18 where the pro player is in par-save mode and birdie is not on the table.

On all of these 4-6 non-GIR holes plus the 6-7 not-so-hot-approach-shot-long-first-putt-GIR holes as well, the player HATES BOGEY and birdie is not even realistically desired, so the rule "hate bogey MORE than you love birdie" is definitely the rule for these 10-13 holes. In turn, this means the player is realistically allowed the luxury of playing for birdie on only 5-8 of the holes in terms of his risk-reward calculations (roughly, not much above one-third of the holes in a round are viewed as "birdieable").

Now, returning back to the game plan, the heart and soul of a low score comes from playing all the non-birdieable holes to no worse than par (HATE BOGEY), and therefore not "wasting" one of the precious few birdieable holes. At the highest level of golf today, two-thirds or so of the round is avoiding bogey, and only one-third (at most) is chasing a birdie. A round of golf is not really 18 chances to score birdie; it is much more about avoiding bogey hole after hole. So the realistic game plan of a top pro player would be something like:

Birdie all the par 5s if possible but accept that you will probably really birdie only 2 of them. Once a par 5 hole devolves into a "stretch shot" situation, the "hate bogey more than you love birdie" rule resurfaces as the main priority.

Play all the par 3s for par right from the tee box, which means don't stretch your comfort zone in pursuit of a birdie unless you have no other choice (given the nearness of the end of the end of the event and the criticality of birdie to making the cut or attaining a desired finishing position or getting into a playoff or winning the event). Get on the green safely, and even try to stick it close, but at all events don't make a bad mistake on the tee box.

Play the par 4s as including only a few (maybe 3-5 holes) where birdie is a realistic possibility from the tee box, from the approach shot, and from the first putt. At all three of these situations, the rule "hate bogey more than you love birdie" is the main influence on the risk-reward calculation. Play with patience and wait for the birdie opportunities to present themselves as you simply put the ball in the fairway off the tee and then play safely to the middle of the green with the approach and hope you get close enough for the first-putt to be inside your makeable range.

Golf is a game of fewest mistakes and good misses and really good recoveries built on top of consistent competence for the usual shots.

All the above translates into putting by putting the emphasis on lag putting and distance control over long first putts, a basic competence in a makeable range where the chance of sinking the putt inside that range is significantly higher than 75% or so, and in finishing the usual business after a competent lag (hopefully, inside 3 feet for most pros but closer still for a top putter).

What is your makeable range? Over what distance do you have a realistic chance of 75% or greater of making a putt? For most pros this is about 6-8 feet. But that is no where near a big enough range for AVERAGING a low score day in and day out, because these same players don't face enough first putts inside 8 feet. Loren Roberts is the best on Tour from 10 feet with about 43%. For him to score 5 birdies in a round, he has to stick at least 8 approaches inside 10 feet, make half of these, and get lucky at least once outside 10 feet. Tiger can get this done because a) he is much longer off the tee, and b) he is a better, more accurate player with his closer-in approaches.

How would an amateur golfer hope to attain a skill level with the putter that gives him a 75%+ makeable range that is longer than Loren Roberts' range? The answer is basically putt at least as well as Roberts and don't make his mistakes to boot. If you give yourself better approach opportunities, handle them better, leave yourself uphill putts, and don't make mistakes by staying patient and within your comfort level, you will face easier putts more often than does Loren Roberts, so that is part of the effort. The putting part of the effort is to read putts better, handle the stability of your stroke better, and also have better touch for makeable putts. Combined, these complementary efforts result in you facing easier makeable putts over a longer range more often and having better putting skills with which to convert the opportunities. This is worth 1-2 fewer strokes per round, day in and day out.

What is your post-lag range where you MUST be able to "clean up the business" 95%+ of the time? Most pros face a second putt somewhere around 2.5-3 feet after a first putt from outside 15-20 feet. This is not very good, really. Yes, amateurs are worse, but the pro performance is still not nearly as good as it can be with a little better skill for touch. The problem seems to be that pros don't really have an understanding of how touch works, so they are subject to streakiness for distance control. This streakiness kills the "average" score. But the players have a psychological need to ignore the streakiness and delude themselves instead with the "confidence" that they are great lag putters. A bucket of icy water in the face would be better: if these pros actually COUNTED how many lags leave a second putt that is inside 2 feet for a tap-in for par, they would not be so "confident" that they can lag and tap-in over 90% of the time. It is not sufficient to lag to within 2.5-3 feet "half" of the time; you have to do it over 90% of the time, and actually do it closer than 2.5-3 feet -- the top-putting pro can and should lag to inside 2 feet over 90% of the time from outside 15-20 feet, including the really long 30-50 footers uphill pr downhill across tier steps and over ridgebacks and down and up thru swales. Without this "consistent, non-streaky" distance control in lags, the pro faces too many overly long second putts so that he is not 90%+ but is only 75%+ in this "clean-up" range. There goes one stroke every round.

All of this boils down to putt straight with great touch, consistently, because you know what works and do what works and when you fall out of the saddle are able to coach yourself and get right back in the saddle without messing up the round.

You can always work on your distance off the tee and your approach or recovery play with irons to stick more shots closer for easier first putts and par-save putts. But parallel with this, you need to hone lagging skills and expand the range of lags so that you end up within 2 feet over 90% of the time consistently and also hone straight putting skills in close to convert those makeable birdie opportunities and also to clean up after lags. The largest number of putts that challenge putting skills are lag putts, so this is the top priority. The need to at least two-putt long lags consistently is the same as the need to at least two-putt makeable first-putt birdie opportunities, and this is again the rule "hate bogey more than you love birdie". And this, oddly, means that working on making the birdie putts inside the makeable range is less critical than making sure you can lag consistently. Even so, you need a fairly clear idea of what is your range for making a first putt over 75% of the time. This reduces the pressure in putting, as you don't have to deal with unrealistic pressure to sink a 12-footer; you can instead deal with hope and desire without the frustration after a miss. And of course it helps to expand this makeable range. These putts almost always require emphasizing the accuracy of read, aim, and stroke over distance or touch, but sometimes touch is about all that matters for subtle breaking putts.

Par-save putts really come under the province of the short-game chipping and bunker-play and trouble shot coach, as the whole deal on par-save is whether they are CLOSER than first-putt birdie opportunities. If your par-save putt is the same distance out as your "usual" makeable birdie putts, the pressure goes sky high, so don't go there.

So, to summarize, a bogey wastes the bogey hole plus one other, reduces the remaining opportunities to accomplish the game plan, invokes the dreaded necessity of "finding" an unplanned birdie somewhere in the holes other than the planned or expected birdie holes (i.e., the holes that are naturally tougher to birdie to begin with, which is why they weren't part of the planned or expected birdie holes at the planning stage), and squeezes the player out of his comfort zone substantially on every remaining shot as he has notched up the need to birdie without reducing the trouble of making a second bogey so that his risk-reward calculations going forward are forced more in the direction of risk, making another bogey even more likely.

Cheers!

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

GolfGuruSecrets.com Interview

Dana Buttenhoff, host of GolfGuruSecrets.com, conducts an hour-long interview with Geoff Mangum about putting. The in-depth discussion ranges from touch and the brain's instinctive processes, to reading putts, to putter fitting and selection, to top Tour players who excel with flatstick skills. (audio podcast, 59 minutes 42 seconds) LISTEN.

Setup for Straight Strokes

A good setup for straight, consistent strokes is one in which the stance and bend are comfortable and stable, the arms and hands hang naturally without unwanted tension, and the shoulders are aligned parallel to the target line. From this setup, the golfer can make consistently accurate and repeating stroke movements defined in reference to the bottom of the stroke. (audio podcast, 6 mins. 44 secs.) LISTEN

Perfect Lagging

The two rules of perfect lagging, or indeed perfect distance control for any putt, are: 1. Don't go long; and 2. Don't be short. Functionally, the first rule really means: "Don't ever speed up the normal timing of your downstroke." The reason is because your brain relies upon the stability of your backstroke and downstroke timings to set the size of the backstroke for a given putt, and once the backstroke is selected by these non-conscious processes, the stroke is pre-loaded with 100% of the distance, and not 103% or some greater distance. The brain and instincts of all normal adult humans for movement control are THAT GOOD! Accordingly, it is not physically possible to send a ball 103% with a 100% backstroke UNLESS you speed up the downstroke, so don't. End of Rule 1. The second rule, don't be short, really means "Don't fear going long." We just sorted that issue, didn't we? The two ways golfers manifest the fear of going long are by not allowing the backstroke to reach its full size, and / or by tightening up in the downstroke so that the putter head at impact is slower than it would be in a free-flowing stroke. These two ways of "chickening out" always leave the putt well short, so don't chicken out in the backstroke or the downstroke -- just stick to the normal timings back and thru and let the instincts alone handle the size of the stroke. (audio podcast, 4 mins. 02 seconds). LISTEN

The Secret of Reading Putts

The secret of reading putts is touch or distance control, which means the consistent ability to deliver the ball with the same ending speed or velocity right at the front lip of the cup, regardless of the length or difficulty of the putt. A golfer with excellent touch consistently delivers all putts to the cup with the same speed, whether the putt is a 50-foot snake for eagle or a knee-knocking 4-footer to save par. (A typical good-touch delivery speed is about 2 revolutions per second at the lip, in which the ball dives deep into the cup before hitting the back wall of the liner.) Touch is critical to reading putts because there are three factors that determine the real curvature of the roll of the ball -- the tilt or contour of the green, the green's speed, and the rolling speed of the ball over that section of green surface. Of these, the golfer is only in charge of the ball's rolling speed, and the section of the putt that really, really matters to whether the ball sinks or misses is the last 2 to 3 feet of the putt as the curvature enters the hole. Without good touch, a golfer is not going to be a good reader of putts and will not sink nearly as many makeable putts as he could. Accordingly, with good touch, the golfer's brain can successfully predict the actual curvature of the critical path of the roll at the end of the putt. This means the golfer visualizes the curvature of the break implicitly using his normal sense of delivery speed at the end. When the golfer visualizes with one sense of touch, he must also execute the putt with that same sense of touch, or else he is reading putts in English but putting them in Spanish. The secret of reading putts is "one speed, one read." See the break with touch and execute the putt with the same touch. (audio podcast, 4 mins. 50 secs.) -- LISTEN

GolfSmarter PuttingZone Podcast

In this appearance on Fred Greene's GolfSmarter Podcast, Geoff and Fred discuss the PuttingZone's revolutionary approach to putting that combines over 100 years of the best golf lore with modern neuroscience for putting targeting perceptions and stroke movement processes in the brain and body, resulting in the "Mechanics of Instinct" -- a new paradigm for golf science to replace the outdated engineering / robotics approach of the past quarter century. Learn what the brain knows about "touch" that golfers have never known about the body moving and acting on earth -- from the inside looking out. (audio podcast, 41 minutes) Listen.

The Aim Gaze

The Aim Gaze is a tip to help golfers setup beside the ball and determine accurately where in fact the putter face aims along the green. (This has never been taught before by anyone in golf, although in the 1950s and 1960s tour pros used an around-the-elbow approach that avoided most problems.) Over 90% of all golfers, pro and amateur alike, do not accurately aim their putters where they think they are aiming on a ten-foot putt, and the vast majority usually are aimed outside the hole from this distance and farther but are not aware of the problem. There are only two simple skills to learn in order for any golfer to setup to a putter and to determine accurately where in fact it aims: first, the skill of running your line of sight along the ground sideways in a straight line, and second, the skill of matching this line on the ground to the aim of the putter. The first skill requires the golfer to use a "gaze" that aims the eyeballs dead straight and level out of the plane of the face and head and combine this with the turning of the head and face on the axis of the neck like turning an "apple on a stick." The second skill requires only that the golfer in addressing the putter align the line of his throat or neck to match the top edge of the putter face. Then when he aims his face and line of sight at the sweetspot of the putter with a straight-out gaze and turns his head and face towards the target like an apple on a stick, his line of sight will run in a straight line sideways along the ground to the spot on the green where the putter face is actually aimed. (audio podcast, 5 minutes, 17 seconds). -- Listen

The Putter "T"

The Putter "T" is the shape of the putter, with the top being the putter face and the stem being the alignment aid at the sweetspot directed away from the target. Consequently, every putter, once aimed, implies an opposite or mirror "T" along the ground showing where the ball needs to roll for a "straight putt." The "T" stem is a short line segment about 5-6 inches long running perpendicularly away from the putter face. The stroke needs to move the putter face square along this stem, with the sweetspot remaining on line and the face square, and the ball needs to roll down this stem and off its endpoint. The "T" always looks the same in a consistent setup, and all straight putts have the same "look and feel" for exiting the visual scene near the feet. Golfer's will never know how poorly they actually aim until they first learn how to putt straight where they in fact have aimed (audio podcast, 5 mins. 38 seconds) -- Listen

The Core Putt

A short tip for touch: appreciating green speed with the "Core Putt" technique (audio podcast, 3 mins 14 seconds) -- Listen