Ball Flight Laws & Putting

[Carland]

Since the "new" ball flight laws that say clubface angle determines 85% of the ball's initial direction and since the ball stays on the ground during a putt, isn't a square putterface at impact the most important thing for hitting a straight putt? According to the new ball flight laws, straight-back-straight-through versus an arc path don't really matter as long as the putterface returns to square impact, right?

If that is correct, then on short putts I'm going to focus on square impact alone.

[iacas]

Since the "new" ball flight laws that say clubface angle determines 85% of the ball's initial direction and since the ball stays on the ground during a putt, isn't a square putterface at impact the most important thing for hitting a straight putt? According to the new ball flight laws, straight-back-straight-through versus an arc path don't really matter as long as the putterface returns to square impact, right?

You're right, yes, of course. And on putts, it's often more like 99% is determined by face. Face angle is really important. And speed of course. That's all there is to putting - starting the ball on line and with proper speed. We don't have to worry much about "sidespin."

P.S. Interesting tidbit too about cutting across a ball - it'll make the ball "draw." Hitting putts from the inside will make the "fade."

[sean_miller]

P.S. Interesting tidbit too about cutting across a ball - it'll make the ball "draw." Hitting putts from the inside will make the "fade."

Good to know!!

[Carland]

P.S. Interesting tidbit too about cutting across a ball - it'll make the ball "draw." Hitting putts from the inside will make the "fade."[/spoiler]

Can you explain why? Thanks.

[saevel25]

Well i know that if you putt side spin on the ball in the air you basically are creating high and low pressures on either side of the ball due to friction between the ball and the air, and the ball will travel in the direction of lowest pressure, ie curve. (Love that sport science show ;b)

but i think its a little more complicated with the putter. Is the ball open or close when its cutting accross. Were on the ball are you hitting it. I don't think its a clear case of 100% draw 100% fade. When you interact a ball with a flat surface at different angles, there is a multitude of different spins and paths.

[Golfswingsolution]

Face angle is key assuming you are lined up correctly, but if you don't have correct rhythm sequence relative to length of putt, the face angle may be thrown off at imapct.....Therefore, id suggest understanding and mastering the rhythm of the putting stoke according to how to balance the putter head, knowing a consistent rhythm sequence will provide proper face angle for any length of putt.

[iacas]

Can you explain why? Thanks.

Simplified version: the spin is in the opposite direction. A normal shot has backspin, but a putted ball has topspin.

I'll use an angled line to demonstrate a ball with fade spin, as if the ball is spinning along this line: / For a fade the arrow you'd draw to show the ball spinning on / would be pointing down. The lift is generated on the top of the ball and the ball goes right. This occurs when you swing out to in. But to get that spin axis with a putt, where the arrow is drawn upward, you'd have to swing in to out. Hence, a putt struck in to out, due to the topspin and the fact that the ball "grabs" the green on the BOTTOM instead of "lifting" from the "top" of the ball, it "fades" despite being struck from the inside. Anyway, that's beside the point... the ball starts where the face is aimed in putting almost 100%. That's the take-away from this thread.

[DavidFehertysBike]

When im putting my best, it feels like im almost pulling the ball. When i try to hold the face square is when i get in trouble. I push alot of putts when i try to do that.

[Stretch]

When im putting my best, it feels like im almost pulling the ball. When i try to hold the face square is when i get in trouble. I push alot of putts when i try to do that.

I can't putt for toffee, but I agree with you there. My guess is that's the feel of properly releasing the putter head when you're stroking on the arc.

[Cornbread]

Since the "new" ball flight laws that say clubface angle determines 85% of the ball's initial direction and since the ball stays on the ground during a putt, isn't a square putterface at impact the most important thing for hitting a straight putt? According to the new ball flight laws, straight-back-straight-through versus an arc path don't really matter as long as the putterface returns to square impact, right?

You should always focus primarily on square at impact.

Also, the ball doesn't stay on the ground during most putts. The standard putter face loft is 3 or 4 degrees. On most any distance putt (say 12 ft or longer) the ball leaves the ground for several inches and possibly up to 2 feet, often backspinning whiles it's airborne.

[iacas]

You should always focus primarily on square at impact.

If your ball is in the air for two feet you're doing something horribly wrong. Or the putt is 100 feet long and you're REALLY giving it a good whack.

Most putters should have a degree or two of loft at impact. The handle leads (de-lofting the putter) and the putter should be struck with a slight upstroke. Unless you're Zach Johnson, of course. :) But his putter has roughly half a degree of loft.

[RC]

Several years ago we measured a number of low handicap golfers' putting strokes. The vast majority had a swing path so that at the moment of impact they were coming slightly outside in, but with the putter face generally on line. I used some fairly precise measuring instruments and it was enough to tell the club face was very slightly open at impact for a few but close to square to the line for most. The better players (better putters actually) were consistently a degree or two left on swing path and very nearly square to the target. What surprised me the most is no one actually made contact (in the group I tested) swinging outward, although I know there have been good putters who push their putts. None in the group tested kept their putter face perfectly square a few inches before and after impact -- none could or did swing straight back and straight through, always staying square to the line, even the two who thought they did. That is very hard to do apparently.

Most of the group could easily swing in a putting track and appear to stay pretty square, but the instrumentation could detect very small inconsistencies with real putts.

What was interesting to me beside the slightly left moving path was the difference between measurements on a perfectly flat putt and putts that had right to left or left to right breaks. Every one of those tested changed their stroke very slightly on breaking putts with the most noticeable thing I could observe being that on right to left putts, the blade was typically slightly open to what should have been the line, indeed, it looked like these putts did move more right to left than those that were more square to the line, confirming what Eric has mentioned.

The data gained should be considered anecdotal and too small a sample to generalize (I think it was six or seven guys all who would occasionally shoot a round in the sixties.) It was just a test of a few guys I knew that I thought were excellent putters and I wanted to see what they were actually doing and I had the equipment to measure it optically and electronically. It would be interesting and fun to do such tests today on a much larger sample and try to gain some real data that correlated to putting statistics.