Lining up Putts

[8.5_Drive]

Does anyone use the logo on the ball and line it up with the hole?

I have allways done this on every putt, never been a great putter.

I was having a practice round and sort of gave up on the last few holes. So i started just walking upto the putts and hitting them. surely enough i holed 2 long putts on the 17th and 18th..

Now that has me thinking......

[andymane]

ill use the alignment marker on the side of the ball if i am struggling, but for the most part i dont, my putting game is all about fell for me, i find a line with my eye starting at the hole and follow it all the way back to my ball, and trust it. i find that when i get too worried about the line my putting goes to crap!

[soloredd]

I went with using the logo and even an alignment aid for a couple months but gave up on it. It's not for me. I'm much more comfortable reading the putt, finding an intermediate point to putt for and going with it.

[8.5_Drive]

you mean finding a spot between the hole and your ball? whenever i try to do that i loose the spot when i go to address the ball....

[soloredd]

Yes, exactly. I guess I'm used to it because I do the same with every shot - driver to putter. Find a spot ahead of the ball and that's my target. When putting, I hate looking down and focusing on the ball, it does nothing for me. Everyone is different though.

There was a great Golf Digest issue recently about why we can't putt. 30 pages or so long. One of the sections was with Dave Stockton and this is the method he teaches - he never looks down at the ball at address, he's looking ahead of the ball at his target. This lets him feel for the speed that he needs.

[iacas]

Does anyone use the logo on the ball and line it up with the hole?

Only on a perfectly straight putt.

And I prefer to use the straighter lines on the sides of the ball - a Pro V1x or the Penta TP. I point it at the line on which I want to start the ball.

[kpaulhus]

I only use the line inside 5 ft. Anything out of 5 ft, and I try to find the cleanest white part of the ball to look at. I had 26 putts yesterday for a career low, so its working for me.

[saevel25]

I stopped doing that, i like a nice scuff mark to look at ;b... I like looking at nothing while i putt, so i make sure both logos are on the side and the aim text on the side of the ball is facing down. The way i line up is find a mark about 3-5 feet infront of the ball, if its a big breaker i will find the point were the putt will start to funnel towards the hole and try to get my ball there. I am more of a hunch type of putter, if i over read i am screwed, so the less time i take looking at the putt the better.

[Fourputt]

you mean finding a spot between the hole and your ball? whenever i try to do that i loose the spot when i go to address the ball....

I've been a spot putter for many years now, and it doesn't have to be a discoloration on the green, although that helps. In order to not lose the spot, once I pick a spot I never take my eyes off it until I have the putter set behind the ball. I even take my practice stroke while still looking at the spot. Once I set the putter and take my stance, I look once more at the hole to lock in the distance, then I stroke the putt.

For me, using a line on the ball actually makes me less sure of the putt. If I try to align the ball, then I take my stance and something doesn't feel right, I start wondering if that little 1½" line was aimed right. The odds are that I'll make a poor stroke because I don't have the confidence that I'm aligned correctly. By using a spot about one to two feet in front of the ball, I'm much more comfortable that I'm aimed where I want to be, so all I have to do is focus on speed. It doesn't guarantee that I've always got the right read, but if I'm hitting the putt where I intended, then I know that my general setup is right and the stroke is good. I hole a decent percentage of putts from 10 feet and in, and I rarely 3 putt, so this is a method which works fairly well for me.

[saevel25]

Well about spot putting, it kinda helps, but most of the time i usually invision a tunnel. Kinda like what they do during golf coverage showing the line. I try to do that mentally, as i take my last glance towards the hole, i will invision the ball rolling there at the speed to keep it in that tunnel to the hole. It takes a bit of practice, but it helps out alot. I find i don't get caught up on hitting a spot, i start to focus more on the speed. Doing this i only three putt about once a round at most and i have made more putts this year than i use to.

[Fourputt]

Well about spot putting, it kinda helps, but most of the time i usually invision a tunnel. Kinda like what they do during golf coverage showing the line. I try to do that mentally, as i take my last glance towards the hole, i will invision the ball rolling there at the speed to keep it in that tunnel to the hole. It takes a bit of practice, but it helps out alot. I find i don't get caught up on hitting a spot, i start to focus more on the speed. Doing this i only three putt about once a round at most and i have made more putts this year than i use to.

I don't worry about hitting a spot either... that is only for alignment. Once I'm lined up my only thought is speed. I think we both do essentially the same thing, but I line myself up with a spot that will put the ball on the envisioned path to the hole.

Before I started using a spot for aiming, I could at times miss a 30 foot putt by 8 feet or more due to misalignment. Standing over the ball it is sometimes hard for me to see the path I expect the ball to take. By picking an aiming point while I'm still behind the ball, then lining my stance up to that point, I take alignment out of the process once I've addressed the ball. All I have to think about is making a good stroke.

[saevel25]

Really, the putts i miss the most are 6-10 footers, that range bugs me, its just outside my tap in range and inside my 15 foot comfort zone. I love 15-20 feet, i hit more of those putts than 0-5 feet. but from 6-10 i got to make sure i align right because i tend to aim to much right and miss on the right side. Outside 10 feet, its all instincts and feel. I like to do sometimes, when i just want to have fun. I will just look behind the ball once, pick no spots and just line up and stroke it. You be surprised how often you can get it close or make your putts when you stop thinking about the line, it will build your commitment to the line as well.

[bwdial]

I've been a spot putter for many years now, and it doesn't have to be a discoloration on the green, although that helps. In order to not lose the spot, once I pick a spot I never take my eyes off it until I have the putter set behind the ball. I even take my practice stroke while still looking at the spot. Once I set the putter and take my stance, I look once more at the hole to lock in the distance, then I stroke the putt.

Me too.

I find that my mind and stroke are freer when I'm looking at a spot to roll the ball over.

[alo1984]

For me, I'll look at whatever line on the ball is the cleanest and straightest. Callaway and Nike balls dictate that I make a line myself as their logos are wacky. Titleist is easy for me to line up with the logo, as is Taylormade and Topflite. I generally use the logo and not the alignment mark they make for you. I line this up with the white line on my Anser and then I visualize a line with the break going from the putter to the hole. I never seem to get the break right if I pick a spot.

[wrx_junki]

I put a line on my ball but I don't use it for lining up putts. I use it for lining up my tee shot. When I used to use the line for putting it took forever to have the line line up with the line that I wanted the ball to travel on. I now place the ball with the blank spot facing up so that I just concentrate on rolling the ball to the hole and trusting the line that I have setup with.

[B-Con]

a) How many balls don't have a straight line?
b) Why would you use the logo if the ball has a straight line on it that's practically for that reason?

I don't line up my ball. I'm OCD and I don't like having the alignment even slightly off of my intended target line, and it's hard to get the alignment perfect. However, I've recently taken to orienting the ball so that the line stripe is coming up from the bottom on the back side going roughly along my line of putt. I like to focus my eyes on the back of the ball during my swing, and focusing on a pure white spot is kind of difficult, especially if it's sunny. The line gives a nice place to focus. I do the same when hitting off the tee.

[zeg]

For me, using a line on the ball actually makes me less sure of the putt. If I try to align the ball, then I take my stance and something doesn't feel right, I start wondering if that little 1½" line was aimed right. The odds are that I'll make a poor stroke because I don't have the confidence that I'm aligned correctly.

This is exactly what I was going to say. I've tried it off and on, and all I can think of is how wrong the aim of the line looks. Even if it's lined up correctly, the line really emphasizes the distortion that results from not looking straight down over the ball and I wind up pushing the putt.

I generally figure what I think the break will be and pick an aim point that's about the same distance as the hole. I do this while standing behind the ball, then try to keep my eye on the aim point while I walk up to the side of the ball. I then set my putter 3 or 4 inches behind the ball (i.e. away from target) and align the alignment notch on the putter to be on a line with the ball and the aim point. I use a 33" putter so my eye is fairly close to over the ball, but I lean forward a touch to be right over it to help. Once lined up, I forget abotu the aim point and now just trust the line between the ball and the club. From there, I focus a bit on a point, any point really, that is about the right distance for a flat putt with the pace that I want to use. For the actual stroke, I usually move the club right up to the ball, then start the back swing, but I've been toying with beginning from 3-4 inches back. During the stroke I focus on pace and trying to see the ball go out on the line that I picked. I try to "reward" myself with positive mental feedback on any putt that starts on the line I chose, whether or not it was the correct read for the putt.

[The Recreational Golfer]

It seems there are two kinds of people in the world. Those who can putt with a line on the ball pointing to the hole, and those whom the line drives nuts. I'm in the second group. Nice to know I'm not alone. My teaching pro is in group number one.