Putting, Part IV: Harvey Penick was right…

Scrolling through my Twitter feed the other evening, I came across a tweet from the British golf magazine National Club Golfer (@NCGMagazine) with a video featuring golf coach Gary Nicol (@GaryNicol67) explaining how in putting pace determines line, and gives you options for how to deliver the ball to the hole.

Now, I have insisted in the past that pace and line are of equal importance, because they are co-dependent. There are multiple combinations of line and pace that will get the ball to the hole – a higher line requires a faster-moving ball (more pace), and a lower line requires a slower-moving ball (less pace) – but a change in one always requires a commensurate change in the other to get the same result.

But that’s where I was wrong – in thinking about “…the same result”  – because as I watched the video clip I realized that while my assertion is accurate, it is only true in a limited-case scenario; pace and line are of equal importance and precisely co-dependent only for getting the ball to the same position at the hole – like in the illustration below:

Slower pace (in blue) requires a higher line; faster pace (red) requires a lower line. Pace & line are directly related, and of equal importance – if you want to get the ball to the same target on the cup.

As Gary Nicol explained in the video clip, there is a usable target width at the hole that is essentially three balls wide, as shown in the next illustration. Recognizing this fact, you can give yourself a wider target line to aim at, essentially the full area shaded in green, instead of thinking that you have to hit a narrow, very specific line at just the precise speed. Keep reading and I’ll explain how this opens up your possibilities for making more putts.

The size differential between the hole and the ball allows a target area that is about three balls wide, giving the golfer a wider selection of line than they might think at first. Higher line still takes a slower pace, but learning to recognize the wider target area will help you make more putts.

Why pace rules in putting

I touched on this concept, a bit, in my June 23rd post, Putting is hard – but you already knew that, right?, in which I wrote:

“…(T)here is a minimum ball speed that will get the ball to the hole, and a range beyond the minimum within which the ball will go into the hole and not bounce or lip out.

To further complicate matters, this speed varies depending upon how close to center the ball is when it gets to the hole. A ball traveling at a speed which allows it to fall into the hole on a dead-center hit may lip out if it arrives at the hole off-center. The more off-center, the slower the ball must be moving when it encounters the edge of the hole.”

Right there you have the basis for pace having the edge over line in importance: There is a minimum ball speed which will get the ball to the hole (“Never up, never in” as the old saying goes) – and if the ball comes up short, it doesn’t matter if it was on the right line.

The real argument for stressing pace over line is right there in the second paragraph from my June 23 post: it is the fact that, on a given line, pace also determines whether the ball will actually drop once it gets to the hole. Even if the ball hits the hole dead-center, it can hop out if it is moving fast enough (≈ 5 feet per second or faster, by my calculations); that max-allowable pace drops off dramatically as the ball’s interception point with the edge of the hole moves off center and the dreaded “lip-out” comes into play.

So, from the minimum speed that gets the ball to the hole, to the maximum speed at which it will actually drop into the hole and stay, there is a range of speeds which you must keep the ball within if you want to make that putt. And for every speed increment within that range, there is a target window within which the ball will actually drop – and if you haven’t figured it out by now, the slower the ball is moving when it gets to the lip of the hole, the bigger that target window is.

Wait, there’s more…

I started looking at the dynamics of the interaction between a moving golf ball and the rim of the hole – as in how to avoid the dreaded lip-out – and I started getting dizzy before I had even finished listing all the variables, so let’s just go with the broad concepts, without getting mired down in the math: A ball that skims the edge of the hole, with the center of the ball just inside the apex of the rim, has to be moving pretty slowly to drop into the hole – but at that low speed it will drop into the hole from any point at which the center of the ball is inside the diameter of the hole. In other words, at the minimum speed that gets the ball to the hole, the target window is pretty much the full diameter of the hole – 4-1/4 inches.

Conversely, the faster the ball is going the narrower the window gets. A faster-moving ball’s greater momentum increases the likelihood of the ball lipping out or just plain skimming over the edge of the cup, because it passes over the free space beneath it before it has had time to fall the distance required to let it drop.

Bottom line: the slower the ball is going, the more options there are for the line that will allow the ball to drop – which means that pace rules over line when it comes to making putts.

Harvey was right

There is one caveat to this discussion. Since the putting green is a highly variable surface, with grain, and bumps, and small irregularities – not to mention the dimpled surface of the ball itself – the ball tends to wander and not hold its line if it is moving too slowly. 

“I like to see a putt slip into the hole like a mouse.”

  – Harvey Penick

This factor dictates a minimum speed – which puts me in mind of the putting maxim of Harvey Penick, the revered Austin, Texas golf pro who taught such greats as Tom Kite, and Ben Crenshaw, who was one of the greatest putters the game has ever seen. Harvey said, “I like to see a putt slip into the hole like a mouse.” Harvey knew what he was talking about.

There is another putting maxim which defines a reasonable upper threshold for ball speed on the green: Get the ball to the hole at such a speed that it will roll no more than 18 inches past the hole if it misses. There are two reasons why this is good advice: 1) that 18-inches-past speed is not so high that you will have squeezed yourself into a narrow target window; and 2) if you do miss the putt, you have a short comebacker.

Speed rules

So there you have it. Pace dictates line, and the lowest speed that gets the ball to the hole on a steady course gives you the best chance of making the putt. Practice hitting your putts with consistent speed, and when you are warming up on the practice green before a round, do some distance drills and get a feel for the speed of the greens you’re going to be playing on. It will pay dividends on the course that will show up on your scorecard.

PuttOUT—the analog putting trainer that succeeds in a digital world

High-tech and digital technology have a firm grasp on the world of golf – advanced CAD (computer-aided design) and exotic materials are the order of the day in golf club design; GPS devices and laser rangefinders assist you on the course; and apps for your phone keep your score, track your stats, and even keep track of those Nassau’s and automatic presses that can make settling up at the 19th-hole feel like an AP Economics class.

In the midst of all this digital magic, however, a new training device has hit the market that uses good old-fashioned analog operation to help you home in on your best putting stroke – it’s called PuttOUT.

 

The PuttOUT putting trainer is precisely designed to operate as simply as possible.

The PuttOUT is a deceptively simple-looking device, consisting of a clear plastic ramp on a circular white plastic base, but it is as precisely designed as any computer chip. The base, which is the exact diameter of the cup – 4-1/4 inches – is your primary target. The clear plastic ramp swoops up behind the base, its shape and position with respect to the “cup” engineered to give you feedback on every putt – no batteries required.

The shape of the ramp allows the ball itself to provide feedback on the quality of the shot. Precisely designed based on the fixed diameter and mass of a golf ball, as defined by the USGA and the R&A, the shape of the ramp works with the ball’s momentum to tell you if your putt is a hit or a miss. It’s simple – if the ball stays on the ramp and rolls back toward you, that putt would have gone into the hole; if the ball drops off of the side of the ramp without rolling back, that putt would have missed. Not only that, but the distance the ball rolls coming back is the distance that the ball would have rolled past the hole had it been a miss.

But that’s not all – the PuttOUT has one more trick up its sleeve: the “microtarget”, a hole in the center of the ramp about halfway up which is the ultimate goal for your PuttOUT practice session. If the ball stays in the microtarget, you’ve hit a “perfect putt” – perfectly centered on the hole, with just the right amount of speed, which the PuttOUT folks define as the pace that would have carried the ball 18 inches past the hole, based on a Stimpmeter reading of 10.

Lots of putting training aids have hit the market over the years – guides to force your putting stroke into the “correct” line, clamp-on pointers to help you line up your shot, even lasers that project a beam of light on the green to help you start the ball on the right line. What the PuttOUT does, simply and elegantly, is give you feedback, based on the behavior of the ball on the ramp, that tells you if you are getting the ball to the hole with the right speed and line – feedback that reinforces a good stroke without directly telling you how to make that stroke.

Before I got my PuttOUT, I had been practicing in my office by rolling putts at a cup-sized paper cutout on the carpet. A ball that rolled right across the center of the “hole” was easy to score as a good putt, but the ones that skirted the edge were judgment calls. With the PuttOUT, that uncertainty goes out the window – if it rolls back, it was good; if not, it was a miss.

I have been using my PuttOUT now pretty much daily since Christmas, and I have rolled hundreds of putts on the tight-pile industrial carpeting in my office since then, with a variety of different brands and models of golf balls, and three or four different putters. Besides getting a really good handle on the quirky little break in my carpeting, the biggest benefit that I have realized from all this practice with the PuttOUT is learning what I need to do to put a consistent stroke on the ball every time.

I know that practicing with the PuttOUT has helped my putting, because after just a few days of use, one of my golf buddies – a guy whose last comment on my game was that I needed to throw away my irons and get a set that I could hit – actually complimented me on my putting.

Getting the ball to the hole with the right speed is key in putting, and helping you develop a feel for this is where the PuttOUT shines. Harvey Penick, the great teacher who is at least partially responsible for the putting genius of one of the best putters of all time, Ben Crenshaw, famously wrote in his Little Red Book: “I like to see a putt slip into the hole like a mouse.” I keep this quote in mind whenever I practice with the PuttOUT, and when my putts are rolling back off the ramp no more than a foot and a half to two feet, I know that I have achieved that goal.

The PuttOUT people also make a practice mat as a companion to the PuttOUT. The mat rolls at 10 on the Stimpmeter – a value based on their survey of average green speeds at a wide range of golf courses – and has alignment marks to aid you in your practice sessions.

The PuttOUT is not only easy to use, it’s convenient to take with you to the course, or to the office for a little lunchtime practice (or competition with coworkers…), thanks to its folding design. With or without the PuttOUT mat, the PuttOUT trainer is the best putting training device that I have seen come down the pike – ever. PuttOUT is available at major golf-equipment retailers, or online (in the USA) through Amazon. It might just be the best $29.99 you ever spend on improving your putting.