putting skipping the ball

[mtsalmela80]

I just watched a neat video on youtube with 12,000 fps slow-mo video of various impacts with irons, driver and putter.


The thing was with the putter, after the impact, the ball did not rotate at all and it lifted ever so slightly off the ground. I have to imagine this is not very productive. Do most of you seasoned players attempt to fix this by either delofting the putter or putting up through the ball? I remember hearing about delofting the putter on the golf fix. I thought maybe concentrating on impact on the upswing would also reduce that lack of roll right off impact.

[GamerJG]

I just watched a neat video on youtube with 12,000 fps slow-mo video of various impacts with irons, driver and putter.

i just watched phil mickelson's "secrets of the short game" and he talked some about this in his putting section. it's something i never really thought about. i think he said you have to get the putter to where it has 4 degrees of loft at impact to get the optimum roll. he also said that the critical part of putting was getting the clubface pointing directly on line together with your hands through and toward the target after impact. easier said than done huh?

[Zeph]

You can't hit a putt without skidding it the first inches. The clubface hits the backside of the ball, it's not possible it can start rolling right away. Delofting of hitting down on the club would produce more skidding and hopping. To get it to start rolling sooner you'd have to hit it on the way up. You still hit the backside of the ball, so it will always skid.

On a friction less surface, the ball would just keep skidding all the way. It starts rolling because of the friction it meets in the grass. To get this friction it needs speed, which the clubhead delivers. It will take some time before it starts rolling. The less speed the ball got, the shorter distance it will need to start rolling.

[Marinemike]

You can't hit a putt without skidding it the first inches. The clubface hits the backside of the ball, it's not possible it can start rolling right away. Delofting of hitting down on the club would produce more skidding and hopping. To get it to start rolling sooner you'd have to hit it on the way up. You still hit the backside of the ball, so it will always skid.

As the holder of a degree in physics, I approve this message. That really doesn't mean anything though. To get it rolling the way you say you want to, the strike would need to be applied almost entirely tangent to the surface of the ball with a component in the direction you want it to roll. That ain't happenin' with a putter.

The pros roll it exactly the same way you saw in the video. So do the other 26 million golfers in America. Edit: Somebody already said that another person said the face of the putter needed to be something like 4 degrees at impact to get optimum roll. The putter face is already 3 degrees. Stop worrying about it and hit it flush. Putting is already hard enough.

[sasquatcho69]

usually when it skids a lot is when you are putting backspin on the ball and not getting a true roll. so what you have to do is go and get your putter fitted for loft, lie, weight, length, and the grip. when i got my putter re gripped they put the grip on a couple of degrees closed so thats another thing that most people don't pay attention to.