Boogie,
My feel is so bad with my feet, I'm sort of expecting it to take at least a year to develop feel without the bubble. I don't know though, maybe I'm underestimating myself.
Those big breaking putts I can read pretty decent because the slope is so obvious. That's probably why my favorite putts are 4% at 90 degrees. I've made more of those than 2% ones this year.
I also realized I misremembered what my aimpoint teacher told me. I thought he said there were very few 1% putts because the green would have too much standing water on it if there were. What he really said was there were no 0% putts. So I almost never used the 1% circle... and of course, yesterday I discovered that 6 to 8 putts I had were 1%. So no wonder I keep missing those on the high side.
I made three straight putts outside 12 feet on the first three times I ever used the bubble -- all to save par. That was unreal how much confidence that gave me walking to the next tee. It put so much less pressure on my full swing and I was able to swing without fear, knowing that as long as I made it to the green, I had a chance to make it. And I hit the ball horribly yesterday.
The greatest putt I made all day was a severe downhill putt that looked like it would break 2-3 feet to the right. The bubble told me it was 4% -- maybe even 5% -- and that it was dead straight. My eyes had deceived me. So not only did the bubble tell me where to aim but it told me that I only had to tap it. So I hit the 20 footer and it took about 6 seconds or something to get to the hole and then dropped. The bubble also tells you the speed! Awesome!
It tells you slope, where straight is, and how hard to hit it.
When I got to the next tee I actually realized that putt was a birdie putt. The bubble was so cool, I didn't even think about what score the putt was for. I was just thinking about the shot.
So it also put me in a really good mental place.
As far as stimp goes, I always ask someone who works there what the stimp is before I go out there if I don't know it. My home course here is only an 8.