University researchers find keeping eyes on target when putting more effective

[nevets88]

It's research from Sasho MacKenzie and his student. The tweet below summarizes it. Here's the article

 

[billchao]

Interesting. Could be very useful combined with AimPoint on breaking putts.

Going for a putter fitting tomorrow, so thanks for putting conflicting ideas in my head, @nevets88. If my new putter is no good, I'm blaming you 

[RandallT]

They said it is 3% higher success, which surprises me. I have tried it before, and my contact was poor- which is likely a putting stroke issue.

They lost me when they next inferred that for 33 putts, that means one stroke per round (33 x 0.03).  Not true. A significant number of those 33 are gimme putts.

I’d like to know more about the study. What was skill level of golfers? How much practice with eyes up method did the players need? Were people typically similar or did some people far favor one over the other?

 

 

[dennyjones]

Quote

Forty per cent of the putts where golfers looked at the target line went in the hole — three per cent more than when they kept their eyes on the ball. 

They must have all been professionals and putting from 10'.    

Quote

They held sessions over four days with 28 experienced golfers

Not a very big sample size.. Call me doubting Thomas.

[Piz]

I'm not surprised.  I have long suspected that allowing one's intuitive sense to take over was the "secret" to playing good golf.  It is no problem to wad up a napkin, after dinner, and bank it off the refrigerator and into the tall, kitchen, trash recepticle.  But doing so when it means the difference between par or bogey can be a bun-puckering trial.  What's going on?  Why is one action sequence so fraught with anxiety while another is a piece of cake?  See it; roll it; hole it.  Eddie was right.

[Yff Theos]

My friend pro from Holland uses has been using this technique for years and swears it is the best way to putt. I've tried it without any progress though.

[boogielicious]

11 hours ago, billchao said:

Interesting. Could be very useful combined with AimPoint on breaking putts.

Going for a putter fitting tomorrow, so thanks for putting conflicting ideas in my head, @nevets88. If my new putter is no good, I'm blaming you 

 

It's like he gave you an earworm for your fitting!

[Shindig]

There's an international journal of golf science?  Nice.  

I think Rotella had a story about suggesting people look at the hole while putting.  I wonder if it's something about the speed?

[billchao]

13 hours ago, RandallT said:

I’d like to know more about the study. What was skill level of golfers? How much practice with eyes up method did the players need? Were people typically similar or did some people far favor one over the other?

There's a link to the study in the article, but I'll link it here for ease: Evaluation of Near Versus Far Target Visual Focus Strategies with Breaking Putts

It's pretty good. The gist of it is 28 various experienced golfers, handicap range 5-18, putt on an indoor mat set up at a constant 1° slope from an equal number of fixed locations 6, 10, and 14' away. They were instructed to only use the far target strategy at the very last moment in their putting routine, just before their backstroke, so there was no practice time with that method involved. Golfers not only made more putts using the FT strategy, but they also missed closer to the hole.

Their conclusion also addresses some of your questions, saying further studies should be conducted to evaluate differences on the individual level and the effects of  these strategies on longer putts.

[Hacker James]

not unlike Anika Sorenstrom in her driving.

I have found there are times when actually facing the target (putting side saddle) works well for me, but I attribute that to a vision problem that I have. (Hyper vision with double images).

[iacas]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

Their conclusion also addresses some of your questions, saying further studies should be conducted to evaluate differences on the individual level and the effects of  these strategies on longer putts.

I think that's why Tiger "putts to the picture." It's kind of what I do as well… it gives you the best of both worlds. You are putting to the picture, but you're still also looking at your ball, and the putter head speed and orientation on the downswing, etc.

1 hour ago, Hacker James said:

not unlike Anika Sorenstrom in her driving.

I don't think that's even remotely the same thing.

[billchao]

56 minutes ago, iacas said:

I think that's why Tiger "putts to the picture." It's kind of what I do as well… it gives you the best of both worlds. You are putting to the picture, but you're still also looking at your ball, and the putter head speed and orientation on the downswing, etc.

Yea, it's mentioned in the paper: previous studies have shown that looking at your ball while putting results in better control over the clubface and impact position.

I think further study on the subject needs to be done before we can proclaim that heads up is better.

[nevets88]

17 hours ago, billchao said:

Interesting. Could be very useful combined with AimPoint on breaking putts.

Going for a putter fitting tomorrow, so thanks for putting conflicting ideas in my head, @nevets88. If my new putter is no good, I'm blaming you 

 

Ha ha. Psych out!

[Vinsk]

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/study-argues-golfers-should-look-at-line-instead-of-ball-on-breaking-putts

[dennyjones]

I saw the same article.   I agree there are some instances where we don't look at the tool to perform the function but I believe my personal experience would disagree with the article.    

When swinging a hammer, we don't look at the hammer.   When shooting a basketball we don't look at the ball.   But...would you use this argument  when hitting a 7 iron?    Would you look at the target instead of the area around the ball when hitting any other club?  

 

[Vinsk]

Just now, dennyjones said:

I saw the same article.   I agree there are some instances where we don't look at the tool to perform the function but I believe my personal experience would disagree with the article.    

When swinging a hammer, we don't look at the hammer.   When shooting a basketball we don't look at the ball.   But...would you use this argument  when hitting a 7 iron?    Would you look at the target instead of the area around the ball when hitting any other club?  

 

Well I think when you’re talking about more velocity involved, no. A putting stroke is pretty calm. But I dunno...it’s golf. Do the same exact study with the same participants in a couple days and may get a totally different outcome lol.

[Lihu]

On 11/25/2017 at 6:11 PM, Piz said:

I'm not surprised.  I have long suspected that allowing one's intuitive sense to take over was the "secret" to playing good golf.  It is no problem to wad up a napkin, after dinner, and bank it off the refrigerator and into the tall, kitchen, trash recepticle.  But doing so when it means the difference between par or bogey can be a bun-puckering trial.  What's going on?  Why is one action sequence so fraught with anxiety while another is a piece of cake?  See it; roll it; hole it.  Eddie was right.

 

On 11/26/2017 at 3:15 AM, Yff Theos said:

My friend pro from Holland uses has been using this technique for years and swears it is the best way to putt. I've tried it without any progress though.

 

I'm convinced it will work for me in the long run, but my putting is quite poor now because I'm just starting to learn this technique.

 

[billchao]

2 hours ago, Lihu said:

I'm convinced it will work for me in the long run, but my putting is quite poor now because I'm just starting to learn this technique.

Did you read the study? It's not about learning how to putt with the FT strategy. It supposedly improves results right from the get-go.