Green Reading Quiz

[Golfingdad]

  Beachcomber said:

Originally Posted by Beachcomber

I've been thinking about doing one for awhile too. My biggest concern was it would slow my pace of play. But Erik and others have said that is a misconception on my part.

I guess I just need to bite the bullet, spend the cash and do it? My thought is that I'm putting pretty well right now. Not many 3 putts at all. But it would be great to increase my one putts. And to the defense of Aimpoint, I haven't heard any negative comments about it from anyone who took the course(s).

Mark Sweeney who's covering Socal now since Jason left?

  iacas said:

Originally Posted by iacas

Ask Mike about it today.

Go see Craig Farnsworth - http://www.aimpointgolf.com/instructors.asp

I've gotta look into this as well.  I did notice several weeks back - the very day after I first heard of Aimpoint from you guys - that somebody (I don't know if it was Craig) was hosting a clinic at Monarch Beach GC.  Hopefully there will be more.

[Clambake]

  iacas said:

Originally Posted by iacas

Ask Mike about it today.

Go see Craig Farnsworth - http://www.aimpointgolf.com/instructors.asp

It's amazing and disappointing that between the LA, Orange County, San Diego, and even Inland Empire areas - something like 18 million people - we have to drive a couple hours each way to the desert to find an AimPoint instructor.      Oh, the weather forecast is for 113 degrees today - not exactly conducive to taking outdoor instruction!     Can't Aimpoint attract anyone to be an instructor in SoCal that would actually be close to the population?

[iacas]

  Clambake said:

Originally Posted by Clambake

It's amazing and disappointing that between the LA, Orange County, San Diego, and even Inland Empire areas - something like 18 million people - we have to drive a couple hours each way to the desert to find an AimPoint instructor.      Oh, the weather forecast is for 113 degrees today - not exactly conducive to taking outdoor instruction!     Can't Aimpoint attract anyone to be an instructor in SoCal that would actually be close to the population?

I'm trying to get Mike to do it.

[WUTiger]

OK, I got a 33.

Not sure on a couple of the questions:

2. If you don't know the true direction of the slope...

Seems B. Break direction could be wrong would also be correct. This is a killer when I stand behind the cup and look back at the ball, and it seems it would break east/ then from behind the ball it seems to break west... I usually just aim straight in when this happens.

11. Putts never break (going) uphill. Didn't misread the putt, but I did misread this question. Now I understand.

-----------------------------

Q15. What is capture speed ? Sounds like it might be useful.

-------------------------

Question on plumb-bobbing... does it have any use at all? On a still day, if the flag is leaning left or right, would this indicate slope direction? (OR, could a less than square hole-punch by the greens keeper give you a false read?)

[B-Con]

Some of the questions are confusing. [quote]Q.7) It is a good rule of thumb that putts always break towards water. [/quote] "Good rule of thumb" and "always"? Which one is it? Are we answering that it's a good to consider that putts tend to break toward water [i]or[/i] it's a fact that they always break toward water? The explanation is odd: [quote]Putts break downhill, not necessarily towards water. [/quote] Well, yes, we don't think that water has a magical ball-attraction property (although it seems to sometimes :-P ), but the reason we use water is to get an idea of where downhill is. The rule of thumb that is popular that the green generally slopes downhill to the water. The point of the question may have been to differentiate "towards the water" and "downhill", and needs to be more clear. [quote]Q.9) Plumb-bobbing tells you how much the putt breaks. [/quote] The idea is to compare the slope of the green against a truly vertical reference point. The only thing it tells you for certain is which way the break is, but it does give you an idea of how much that slope is. The question needs to say something to the effect of "exactly how much the putt breaks". Unless the point is that plumb-bobbing doesn't even help estimating the amount of slope at all...? [quote]Q.11) Putts never break uphill. [/quote] What's uphill? The putt or the break direction? The perfect parsing associates "uphill" with "break" (which is what was intended, based on the answer), but one could be confused (as I was) and think that the putt itself is uphill. (And uphill putts obviously can break.) [quote]Q.13) A long putt will always break more than a short putt. [/quote] Are the putts on the same line? If so, is it single breaking? Does the obvious situation of a 30 foot straight putt vs a 5 foot heavily breaking putt apply? It's not clear how we're supposed to compare the two putts. It kind of sounds like we're supposed to compare to related putts, one is just longer than the other, but I don't think that's the case.

[iacas]

  WUTiger said:

Originally Posted by WUTiger

2. If you don't know the true direction of the slope...

Seems B. Break direction could be wrong would also be correct. This is a killer when I stand behind the cup and look back at the ball, and it seems it would break east/ then from behind the ball it seems to break west... I usually just aim straight in when this happens.

All three are correct. You should have checked all three.

  WUTiger said:

Originally Posted by WUTiger

Q15. What is capture speed ? Sounds like it might be useful.

http://thesandtrap.com/t/46450/putting-capture-speed

  WUTiger said:

Originally Posted by WUTiger

Question on plumb-bobbing... does it have any use at all? On a still day, if the flag is leaning left or right, would this indicate slope direction? (OR, could a less than square hole-punch by the greens keeper give you a false read?)

I don't think it has any purpose at all, but it won't tell you how much a putt breaks which was the question, of course. Mark says it'll tell you the direction, but I don't know what crack he's smoking on that one. :)

  B-Con said:

Originally Posted by B-Con

Some of the questions are confusing.

"Good rule of thumb" and "always"? Which one is it? Are we answering that it's a good to consider that putts tend to break toward water or it's a fact that they always break toward water?

The question is "It is a good rule of thumb that putts break towards water." I don't see the word "always" in it. It may have changed since I took it and printed off my answer sheet. But mine says what I typed just there.

  B-Con said:

Originally Posted by B-Con

Well, yes, we don't think that water has a magical ball-attraction property (although it seems to sometimes  ), but the reason we use water is to get an idea of where downhill is. The rule of thumb that is popular that the green generally slopes downhill to the water.

I think the definition of "good" and "rule of thumb" leave too much to the individual. I agree that question isn't awesomely worded. It's a good rule of thumb, but maybe not a great one.

  B-Con said:

Originally Posted by B-Con

The idea is to compare the slope of the green against a truly vertical reference point. The only thing it tells you for certain is which way the break is, but it does give you an idea of how much that slope is. The question needs to say something to the effect of "exactly how much the putt breaks".

I disagree. It says "how much." That's plenty specific enough. And I don't even think plumb bobbing works at all except to give your eyes (which you don't really use in AimPoint) a vertical reference point. That's the only way it can help. But it's not going to tell you "how much" it breaks. Not even if you consider "how much" to be a rounded number, like when you ask how much a car cost, people say "$25,000" and not "$25,193.47."

  B-Con said:

Originally Posted by B-Con

Unless the point is that plumb-bobbing doesn't even help estimating the amount of slope at all...?

It doesn't.

  B-Con said:

Originally Posted by B-Con

What's uphill? The putt or the break direction? The perfect parsing associates "uphill" with "break" (which is what was intended, based on the answer), but one could be confused (as I was) and think that the putt itself is uphill. (And uphill putts obviously can break.)

I disagree. There's a difference between these questions:

A) Uphill putts never break.

B) Putts never break uphill.

  B-Con said:

Originally Posted by B-Con

Are the putts on the same line? If so, is it single breaking? Does the obvious situation of a 30 foot straight putt vs a 5 foot heavily breaking putt apply? It's not clear how we're supposed to compare the two putts. It kind of sounds like we're supposed to compare to related putts, one is just longer than the other, but I don't think that's the case.

You read way too much into it. The key word was always, and long vs. short. Will all long putts break more than all short putts? Nope. You can have a long straight putt and a short putt with break.

[MEfree]

  iacas said:

Originally Posted by iacas

...to give your eyes (which you don't really use in AimPoint) a vertical reference point.

I watched some of their videos, but that is the most interesting thing I have heard about aimpoint.

I`ve played enough golf and understand enough about physics to know that putts break down hill, but have been surprised how much trouble I have been having recently trying to determine which is down and up.

[B-Con]

  iacas said:

I disagree. There's a difference between these questions: A) Uphill putts never break. B) Putts never break uphill.

But the wording of "putts never break uphill" might be interpreted by some to mean the first question if they mistakenly believe that the question is asking about a putt that is uphill, not the break direction. I made that mistake, and clearly that was the source of Zeph's confusion earlier. Someone else in this thread made that mistake too. I think the question's wording throws some people off. The wording is correct, but that hasn't prevented confusion. Although it is clear what the meaning is once you understand it being a bit more explicit might help. Maybe something like "the direction putts break is never uphill". Anyway, fun quiz. And I didn't know before that the grass grain generally grows downhill. :-)

[mad max]

  iacas said:

Originally Posted by iacas

Yes it does. Do you hit a putt up a 1% slope harder than a putt up a 4% slope? If all else is equal for each of the factors, slope amount has the largest influence on putts. That question, I believe, is designed to show you that it's not necessarily about things like grain, which has almost no effect at all on the break of a putt. If you slightly mis-order a few you get them "wrong" but you're still better off than some people.

The question was worded " Which factors have the biggest influence on break, list in order:"  My understanding of break is how much the ball moves left or right and a putt straight uphill will not move at all left or right.  If the question was what has the biggest influence on a putt I could maybe agree but break is dependent of the angle of slope and slope amount.  I got a 60 by the way and I am a terrible putter.  I average 35 putts with only 4.5 GIR.

[John Graham]

Very interesting thread. Enjoying reading it.

[mvmac]

  John Graham said:

Originally Posted by John Graham

Very interesting thread. Enjoying reading it.

How'd you do on the Quiz John? lol

[John Graham]

  mvmac said:

How'd you do on the Quiz John? lol

I scored a 93. Argued with Mark intensely about wording on question 1. Got one wrong so i got 2 others wrong. Yes, I was pissed. :-P

[marcv68]

God im afraid to post,27

[brgolf]

I scored 20/100 though I am not from US so some of the questions were completely alien to me.

I'm all for theory but the fact of someone being good or bad at reading greens is probably appropriately measure with statistics gathered during rounds of golf.

[Yeri]

Woohoo.... Of course it helps that I took an aimpoint class a few years ago. The downside is I lost my book on the very first round I used it, and haven't gotten it replaced. Heard there's a new way of doing the reads now, so I'll probably have to find a class in the next few months and learn all the new tricks :)