Seeing slopes correctly on the green

[chipandcharge]

I discovered something curious about my vision--when I stand naturally and look at a line that is perfectly horizontal, I see it as descending to the left around three degrees to the left.  This means that if I look at a green that is perfectly flat and perfectly horizontal, I see a three degree slope to the left.  For years, I couldn't understand why putts that looked straight in, broke to the right, and putts that looked like they would break to the left, went straight.  When I got some advice to also look from behind the cup and saw the opposite break compared to looking from behind the ball, I attributed it to an optical illusion.  Then one day, I discovered in my living room that horizontal lines such as the intersection between a wall and the ceiling and the top of a tv set looked like they were descending to the left.  I used a carpenter's level to make sure that the lines were horizontal.  I had my vision checked and was told that my dominant eye must have rotated in my eye socket and that it could be corrected by surgery on the muscles.  I didn't want to do that, so using my engineering background, I came up with two methods of adjusting for this problem.  The first is looking at the slope near the cup from behind the ball and behind the cup and estimating an average.  For example, if the slopes are three degrees to the left from behind the ball and behind the cup, they cancel out, and the surface is horizontal.  If the slopes point in the same direction from behind the ball and behind the cup, the "true" slope is the average of the two.  There are other combinations.  There is a problem that still remains--after estimating the actual slope, I have to putt an imaginary slope, or I have to develop a "cause and effect" relationship between the false slope and how the ball breaks for that false slope.  I found a second correction last night that I will write about later.

[billchao]

I recommend taking an AimPoint class.

[saevel25]

The trouble with eye-sight is that course designers can trick your eye. Placing a pin near a bunker where you might pick up the slope there but it isn't near the hole enough to effect the putt. There are situations where the green can also be more of a bowl shape. These type of greens can have the ball curve to what looks like up the slope.

10 minutes ago, billchao said:

I recommend taking an AimPoint class.

This is the best way to read greens.

[Ernest Jones]

As per above, take an Aimpoint class and learn to read slope with your feet. 

[NJpatbee]

15 hours ago, Ernest Jones said:

As per above, take an Aimpoint class and learn to read slope with your feet. 

I will have to look this up since my aging eyes are having a difficult time reading greens.  I can look at a hole from both sides and it look like it is downhill both ways which I know is impossible. 

[Ernest Jones]

10 minutes ago, NJpatbee said:

I will have to look this up since my aging eyes are having a difficult time reading greens.  I can look at a hole from both sides and it look like it is downhill both ways which I know is impossible. 

It's not impossible if the hole is sitting in a depression.

[chipandcharge]

43 minutes ago, NJpatbee said:

I will have to look this up since my aging eyes are having a difficult time reading greens.  I can look at a hole from both sides and it look like it is downhill both ways which I know is impossible. 

If this happens to you on greens that look as flat as a ping pong table, the vision effect I wrote about might be of help.  Working first on greens that look like a ping pong table but may or may not be tilted is a good first step.  Here's what I do--I get down low and move back far enough that the cup looks like a cigar instead of an oval.  Then I look at the long axis of this cigar and observe the direction of the tilt, and I estimate the amount of the tilt (small, medium, large).  Then I go to the other side of the cup and do the same.  If the tilts of the "cigar" are equal and opposite, I conclude that the green is horizontal at the cup.  If the "cigars" tilt in the same direction both times, I know that the green tilts in that direction, to an amount between the tilts seen from both directions.  If the cigar tilts one way from one side and a lesser amount in the other from the other side of the cup, I conclude that there is a mild tilt in the direction of the larger tilt.  Sounds complicated at first, but this gives me a big confidence boost.  This works best on short putts on flat but tilted greens and less so on long putts where the slopes change along the path.  Good luck.

16 hours ago, Ernest Jones said:

As per above, take an Aimpoint class and learn to read slope with your feet. 

I agree with your suggestion.  I have been trying to find a local friend to go to a class but no luck so far.  In the mean time, I bought a calibrated carpenter's level to take to putting greens to experiment with my vision and with my feel (as described in videos I have seen on Aimpoint).  I have developed a procedure  (I'm and engineer) where it appears that I am more visually sensitive to green tilts than I am kinesthetically sensitive with my feel.  But I still intend to attend an Aimpoint class.

[DaveP043]

22 minutes ago, chipandcharge said:

 I have developed a procedure  (I'm and engineer) where it appears that I am more visually sensitive to green tilts than I am kinesthetically sensitive with my feel.  But I still intend to attend an Aimpoint class.

I had the same impression at first, I found it difficult to be comfortable in the reads I got through my feet.  With time and practice, your sensation will become better tuned.

[lastings]

19 hours ago, chipandcharge said:

when I stand naturally and look at a line that is perfectly horizontal, I see it as descending to the left around three degrees to the left.  

No, it only seems that way because you have only one shoe on.

[chipandcharge]

1 hour ago, DaveP043 said:

I had the same impression at first, I found it difficult to be comfortable in the reads I got through my feet.  With time and practice, your sensation will become better tuned.

Thank you for that feedback about time and practice.  I can envision (I almost wrote "see") how that could take place.

It's worse than having only one shoe on.  Having a club foot and needing a shoe with a thicker sole might be a problem.  However, if physics is correct, having unequal (but nearly equal) lengths of both  legs/feet are automatically compensated for  by gravity trying to make the spine line up vertically with the line from your position on the earth's surface to the center of the earth. 

[mcanadiens]

After this particular round yesterday, I looking for some answers. 

I had been relatively pleased with my recent putting at my usual battery of courses, but hit the road to play a place called Majestic Springs in Wilmington, OH. As soon as I stepped on the greens there it was like the world's worst fun house. Up was down, left was right. The speeds were all over the map. I didn't make a freaking thing. 

Maybe I've gotten so familiar with the home courses that it masks a lot of deficiencies that I still have. ... Or maybe it was just a lousy day.