==================================================== Newsletter - Issue 96 Date 05/08/09 ==================================================== ==================================================== TCT Quick Tips - Putting Practice Stroke ==================================================== When you are taking a practice stroke to gauge the distance of your putt, do it with your eyes horizontal to the ground, even if it means standing upright. Horizontal - or as it's sometimes called "binocular" - vision allows your brain to triangulate the distance and convert it to a meaningful stroke, as opposed to bending over and looking down the line with your head cocked. ==================================================== Golf Tip : Putting Speed ==================================================== I teach that the correct speed for makable putts should be a speed that rolls 17 inches past the hole if you miss. This isn't just my idea, several learned golf teachers have come up with that figure, most notably Dave Pelz. I mention his name because he was a former NASA scientist turned golf pro, turned golf teacher. I have read a couple of his books, and he uses a scientific method to arrive at absolute conclusions when he can. This means that he tests his theories and backs them up with research. He and his staff went out to greens at a course down south for several days early in the morning and counted the footprints left on dew laden greens after the first foursome passed through. Here is his profound discovery: he learned that a foursome of golfers often leaves more than 500 footprints on a green; and worse - more than half are from less than 6 feet away because half of all the putts were from less than 6 feet away. (I'm thinking that this fact probably explains why the best putters in the world - PGA Touring Pro's - only average a 50% success rate for 6 foot putts.) Most golfers were considerate enough to not step within 6 inches of the hole, so the result was a an area with a 6 foot radius around the hole that he referred to as the "lumpy doughnut". The raised 6 inch edge of the doughnut near the hole is the reason that a speed which allows for a 17 inch rollout beyond the hole is recommended. It can fight through the raised edge of "the lumpy doughnut" without rolling off line. 17 inches past the hole, remember that as speed - not inches, and you'll make more putts, both short and long. Enjoy, Tom