Do Dimples Effect Accuracy Of Putts?

[5under]

I have seen the Bald Eagle golf balls with the bald spots you are supposed to contact with your putter face to eliminate unwanted direction changes possibly caused by the uneven and unpredictable surface created by dimples.

There are probably other brands also.

The reason I brought this up is that every once in a while, maybe once every two rounds or so, I hit a short makable putt with what seems to be a good stroke and the putt seems to start off line upon contact with the face of the putter.

If the greens are lumpy and bumpy, I can understand that this slight change of direction will happen fairly often, but if the greens are fairly true, what is the likelihood that it is a dimple causing the immediate mis-direction of the putt.

I am not a machine, but I average about 30 putts per round, so I find it difficult to accept that I am pushing or yanking 2 and 3 foot putts by 6 inches once every couple rounds.

I am sure it happens on long putts too, but it is not as easy to notice.

[Cornbread]

[quote name='5under' date='15 July 2010 - 02:41 AM' timestamp='1279179679' post='2577155']
[/quote]


Differing dimple patterns & their effects on putting are so slight its really unmeasurable.
A grain of sand on the putter face or ball is a differnt strory.

[5under]

Hey Cornbread, I think you are on to something.
They ask us to speed up play in my Wednesday night league by not using time by marking your ball if it is not going to interfere with another players line.
I often will not mark, clean and replace my ball to help speed up play.
I live in Florida and the greens are very sandy and the sand is fairly close to pure white.
I could easily not notice a small amount of sand on the contact area of my golf ball.
I always make sure my putter is clean, but I often neglect to clean my ball.
It is possible that it is still me missing my line by 6 inches, but this sand theory makes me feel better knowing that there is a possible and logical explanation for the random blatant misdirection on some of my putts once in a while.
This might explain how I can throw 6,8,10 balls down on the practice green and hit some 40,50,60 foot putts and hit most of them within 2 or 3 feet of my intended line and get one that misses by 6 or 8 feet starting off the putter face.
Thanks for the sand theory Cornbread.

[rebby]

Pelz discusses this very subject in his putting bible. Even has a table with various distances that he has tested in a controlled environment. Short answer is yes, the dimple effect on short putts is real. Even more so if your ball has sand on it.

[John Wenger]

I’ve been digging into this issue more recently. Found this from Sydney 

 

www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~cross/GOLF/Putting.pdf

[John Wenger]

Another study:

 

[Trippels]

2 hours ago, John Wenger said:

I’ve been digging into this issue more recently. Found this from Sydney 

 

www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~cross/GOLF/Putting.pdf

For the TL:DR crowd:

Dimples seemingly do have an effect, can cause deflections of a few degrees on low speed collisons such as short putts, few degrees off line up to 5 degrees in this study, enough to make you miss short putts in isolation. Also, the dimples cause the ball to roll unevenly even when struck/rolled perfectly, compared to "perfectly" round spheres.

 

If you are concerned about dimples when putting, couldn't you just switch to a non-dimpled ball once you're on the green? As far as I know switching balls on the green and non-dimpled balls are both within the rules?

[John Wenger]

14 minutes ago, Trippels said:

For the TL:DR crowd:

Dimples seemingly do have an effect, can cause deflections of a few degrees on low speed collisons such as short putts, few degrees off line up to 5 degrees in this study, enough to make you miss short putts in isolation. Also, the dimples cause the ball to roll unevenly even when struck/rolled perfectly, compared to "perfectly" round spheres.

 

If you are concerned about dimples when putting, couldn't you just switch to a non-dimpled ball once you're on the green? As far as I know switching balls on the green and non-dimpled balls are both within the rules?

The second study I posted seems to be the most comprehensive and it disagrees that dimples have much of an impact on direction. If you’re playing a for fun round I guess you could switch out balls, but that ain’t happening in a tournament or money game.

[Trippels]

22 minutes ago, John Wenger said:

The second study I posted seems to be the most comprehensive and it disagrees that dimples have much of an impact on direction. If you’re playing a for fun round I guess you could switch out balls, but that ain’t happening in a tournament or money game.

Couldn't get the second link to work at first so thought it was a summary of the first one, sorry. It does look more comprehensive

[Fairways_and_Greens]

Short downhillers yes. Long putts no. 
 

if you saw a robot putt at 10’ on a fast green you’d be surprised how much variance there is. 

[nsxguy]

5 hours ago, Trippels said:

If you are concerned about dimples when putting, couldn't you just switch to a non-dimpled ball once you're on the green? As far as I know switching balls on the green and non-dimpled balls are both within the rules?

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by nsxguy

[North Butte]

If someone I played with was pulling out an undimpled "golf ball" to putt with on every green, I'd offer him two bits of constructive criticism in the form of advice.

 

A) Get a life

B) Find someone else to play with

 

[MattM97]

First a 12 year bump nice.

 

Second, one ball rule.

 

Third, the green isn't perfectly flat.

[John Wenger]

2 hours ago, Fairways_and_Greens said:

Short downhillers yes. Long putts no. 
 

if you saw a robot putt at 10’ on a fast green you’d be surprised how much variance there is. 

Yes, definitely true, but isn’t that more of the way a dimple ball rolls? The study was more about impact with the putter and whether the ball rolls off line from hitting it on the side of a simple. 

[Fairways_and_Greens]

4 minutes ago, John Wenger said:

Yes, definitely true, but isn’t that more of the way a dimple ball rolls? The study was more about impact with the putter and whether the ball rolls off line from hitting it on the side of a simple. 

The faster the speed of the putter the less a dimple can send it off track. Moreover, a soft face like an odyssey is going to be less susceptible. There was a TXG YouTube with the Quintuc PHD guy. Older balata balls were softer and stayed in the face longer. With how firm the balls are today, putters with face technology that slows the collision down  perform better. 

[MattM97]

@Guia if you have a response to my comment, don't PM me just respond here like a normal human.

[Guia]

Sorry, I haven't been on for awhile and couldn't remember how to reply.  Also, I am a normal human being.😃

[Andygolderson]

interesting topic, just the ther day i saw a video from Grant Horvatt where he plays with Bryson and they joke about this topic.

i'm inclined to say if Bryson is promiting it, then there must be some science behind it. Then again...it's Bryson.

I'm not completely sure if it's from an accuracy point of view, or whether it's for a better contact, but it seems anyway related to getting the putt starting along the intended line better.

 

He picks a spot of the ball where there are consecutive same size dimples and starts his line marker from there.

 

Honestly, with ball balancing, together with dimple matching, it seems almost impossible to get a perfect ball.

[John Wenger]

Close up of Viktor Hovland’s ball at Hero World Championship. Looks like he found the longest dimple seam to draw a line down, similar to what Bryson is doing to eliminate dimple effect.