Best way to practice putting at home?

[me05501]

21 minutes ago, Anthony Stevens said:

 

I play around with trail-hand-only at home, but not seriously or regularly. Do you feel like it's really that beneficial?

 

 

It's interesting because I prefer to use the paintbrush grip when I'm inside 10' or so, so practicing with my trail hand only in the traditional orientation would seem to be a waste of time. What I find though is that it helps me focus on rocking my shoulders back and through and the ball tracks very well along the line on the mat. 

 

Lead hand only is much harder for some reason even though I rely mostly on my lead hand when making an actual stroke. 

[DaveLeeNC]

1 hour ago, Anthony Stevens said:

I have to question your assertion about putter weight. I don't believe (but would gladly be corrected) that a 5% difference in putter head weight would automatically correspond to a 5% difference in how far the putt travels EVEN IF all other things are equal. I just don't think the force equation is directly linear like that. Does anyone have studies that show anything about this?

 

For the case of a constant coefficient of restitution across a range of initial putterhead velocities (pretty reasonable assumption), the initial velocity after impact of a golf ball varies with the mass of the putterhead by a factor of Mp/(Mp+Mb) where Mp is the mass of the putterhead and Mb us the mass of the ball. So once the putterhead gets a good bit heavier than a golf ball (46 grams), making it heavier does very little. 

 

The last putter that I built had a putterhead mass of around 400 grams (on the heavy side). For that case adding 10% more weight to the putterhead will yield less than a 1% increase in the speed of the ball after impact. 

 

dave

[iacas]

2 hours ago, DaveLeeNC said:

The last putter that I built had a putterhead mass of around 400 grams (on the heavy side). For that case adding 10% more weight to the putterhead will yield less than a 1% increase in the speed of the ball after impact. 

 

Plus the golfer is more likely to swing it a bit slower since it's heavier.

[DaveLeeNC]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

 

Plus the golfer is more likely to swing it a bit slower since it's heavier.

But the extra weight in the putter head will cause the ball to accelerate more in the first half of its roll vs. the lighter putter head 😁😁

 

dave

 

ps. My apologies - some evil golf demon made me post this. 

Edited May 4, 2023 by DaveLeeNC

[moptop]

Here is what I have come up with.  48 inch aluminum ruler (it’s wider than I had hoped), eyeline mirror, 2 inch gate, and my new mezz max putter.  I sunk 19/25 tonight, but some bumped the walls of the gate, might have to count those as misses going forward.  

[Anthony Stevens]

3 hours ago, moptop said:

Here is what I have come up with.  48 inch aluminum ruler (it’s wider than I had hoped), eyeline mirror, 2 inch gate, and my new mezz max putter.  I sunk 19/25 tonight, but some bumped the walls of the gate, might have to count those as misses going forward.  

Solid setup. Love it. Is the floor perfectly flat beneath?

[moptop]

5 hours ago, Anthony Stevens said:

Solid setup. Love it. Is the floor perfectly flat beneath?

I suppose I should check that...ignorance is bliss!

[DShepley]

A long time ago when I started trying to get better at golf I wasn't a very good putter.  I found a drill where you wrap two rubber bands around your putter head to frame the sweet spot.  You then roll putts, (start with short ones), and get instant feedback if you miss the sweet spot.  It was frustrating to watch the ball veer sideways because it kept hitting the rubber band instead of the putter face but eventually I got decent at it.  

 

I like the yardstick drill, it's a good one.  Nowadays I don't spend much time practicing indoors but once the season starts I spend almost all of my putting practice on the green inside of a 5 foot circle around the hole.  In my view, (many will tell me I'm wrong), putting is about confidence.  Practice filling the cup up when you putt even if it is from short distance.  The more we practice outside of 5 feet, the more putts we see ourselves miss which starts to convince us that we aren't good putters.

[Righty to Lefty]

18 hours ago, me05501 said:

Does every thread in this section have to devolve into these pi$$ing matches between the same 3-5 self-appointed scientists? The bickering offers zero help to the OP. 

 

I think what you can practice at home is helpful stuff like routine, grip, alignment, quality of stroke, speed, and training yourself to consistently roll the ball straight down your aim line. 

 

With that in mind I've gotten a lot of use from the latest version of the Perfect Putt mat. I have mine laid out over carpet and it still rolls fast and true. I practice with each hand independently and also with both. I challenge myself to make X number of consecutive putts at various distances. It has really helped me groove my setup and trust my stroke. 

The fact of the matter is that the math and science is what governs every shot that has and ever will be struck and until this information is common knowledge many threads will go off on a tangent for a time before getting back to the matter at hand.  You can "trust your stroke" all you want but if you can't read putts it doesn't matter because your putting will be trash.  Just like asking for swing advice, developing a " pretty" swing, yet never understanding that your position in relation to the ball is orders of magnitude more important in developing a reliable strike on the ball. In either case you will NEVER maximize your potential until you understand what must happen to execute a given shot and eliminate the question of why a certain shot occurred.  The math is undefeated!!

 

16 hours ago, Anthony Stevens said:

No, not to me at least, but that's fine. If your distance calculation in your head is based on "acceleration to a spot", then more power to you. I have had other players explain a heuristic of "hit it like it's a flat 4 footer" when it's a downhill 10 footer, but that never resonated with me.

 

I have to question your assertion about putter weight. I don't believe (but would gladly be corrected) that a 5% difference in putter head weight would automatically correspond to a 5% difference in how far the putt travels EVEN IF all other things are equal. I just don't think the force equation is directly linear like that. Does anyone have studies that show anything about this?

So then what is your reference from what you develop distance control?  You have to monitor something to be used as a reference or you will never gain reliable distance control since we can't use speed as a reference because we have no way to measure  and adjust it while hitting a shot.  Some use stroke length, I happen to use a point along my ball's intended line of travel that helps me to produce what I call my "acceleration point" as it helps me to quickly gauge how much speed I need to input into the shot.  I approach it more from a tossing a ball into a bucket from varying distances perspective where I am looking at my target while making that calculation as I found the stepping off the putt and then converting it to a given stroke length of the putter too tedious and it often made me feel too mechanical with my putting stroke. Since I have already figured out if the putt is uphill, downhill, or relatively flat along with the green speed, while I am tracing the line I intend for the ball to travel from the hole back to my ball's location, find a point along it that I will have to "toss the ball to" in order for it to "finish in the bucket." 

 

If you stop and think for a second constructively about the hit it like it's a flat "4 footer, when it's a downhill 10 footer" it is simply hitting a putt while using a reference. What if I said it this way...say you were tasked with pushing a box along a 10 foot path but you needed to build up enough momentum that at some point along the way you had to stop pushing and the box still needed to make it the rest of the way.  Your reference is you know that when you do this on flat ground that if you stop pushing the box at 5 feet that it always makes it to 10 feet when you do it in the parking lot where you work.  That is your reference (for that given weight of box/putter at that given weight as a heavier or lighter putter will require more or less work to achieve a given speed and this will transfer a different amount of force to the ball when you stop pushing.) You know that it will take less work to push the box downhill, and that if you release the box at 5 feet that it will go too far because that was your reference from flat ground, so you try releasing the box at 4 feet and voila, the box stops at 10 feet. You then use that knowledge and note  to push the box uphill and release it at 6 feet and note that it stopped at 10 feet.  You would then take this knowledge and adjust those "release / acceleration" points if you were performing this same task on ice, or conversely gravel (faster or slower greens.) This is what I mean by building a reference and this is exactly what I am doing when I process a putt and also why I call it an "acceleration point" because regardless of what actually happened I was trying to accelerate the box even though all the force acting upon the box make the mostly not possible. Am I making sense. 

 

Now then on to your comment about putter weight. My putter head weighed 400 grams when I bought it and I have added some 200 grams minimum to my putter head (I will take a photo and note the actual grams added when I get home but I am sure it is at least 200 grams) so my putter being swung at the same speed as a lighter one makes the ball travel further, yet it matches my personal feel reference that I mentioned previously about a 50 foot flat putt on my home course greens.  That is how I developed my reference that I use and adjust accordingly as I move around and play different courses because I simply hit a few putts from 16 paces (50 feet) away and note how far the putt travels and adjust accordingly. I am not sure exactly about the ratio of added weight to % increase in distance at a given velocity but that added mass increases the amount of force being created so at a given velocity my putts go further than a lighter one. I also see no issue with mentioning the apex of a putt because even if you don't mention them, they are still there, so you might as well do your best to understand them and add it to your rolodex of information to play every shot as best you can.  This is the same gripe I have with people that don't believe in knowing the ball flight laws and d plane when they govern EVERY golf shot that has and will ever be hit and being that golf is not a reactionary sport as the ball is sitting there waiting to be hit, these principles can and should be given thought prior to hitting a given shot. Am I making sense? R to L

[me05501]

7 minutes ago, Righty to Lefty said:

The fact of the matter is that the math and science is what governs every shot that has and ever will be struck and until this information is common knowledge many threads will go off on a tangent for a time before getting back to the matter at hand. 

 

 

Literally no one wanted four pages of pseudo-scientific arguments. The dude asked how he can improve his putting without leaving the house. No call for a trigonometry thesis. 

[Righty to Lefty]

10 hours ago, moptop said:

Here is what I have come up with.  48 inch aluminum ruler (it’s wider than I had hoped), eyeline mirror, 2 inch gate, and my new mezz max putter.  I sunk 19/25 tonight, but some bumped the walls of the gate, might have to count those as misses going forward.  

I found one at Wal-Mart for $5 that is just about the width of a golf ball and it was maddening at first but yesterday I rolled 13 in a row to the end of it which is my record so far! It's the small things that entertain me!  

 

12 hours ago, DaveLeeNC said:

But the extra weight in the putter head will cause the ball to accelerate more in the first half of its roll vs. the lighter putter head 😁😁

 

dave

 

ps. My apologies - some evil golf demon made me post this. 

LOL...I added the weight mostly because when I looked at a target 50 feet away it didn't equate to how hard I "felt" I should have to hit the putt to make it go that far. I also struggled to replicate a given distance and all this subsided once I got the weight right.  I could look at a putt, feel for the distance, and then hit balls into a tight grouping in succession without looking up. That is how I knew that I was on to something as far as what I preferred in regards to total weight characteristics of my putter. I calibrated my mind's eye to my actual eyes if you know what I mean and it was huge for me. 

Edited May 4, 2023 by Righty to Lefty

[Righty to Lefty]

6 minutes ago, me05501 said:

 

 

Literally no one wanted four pages of pseudo-scientific arguments. The dude asked how he can improve his putting without leaving the house. No call for a trigonometry thesis. 

So should we close the thread after many of us mentioned using a yard stick in the living room?  You don't have to read it and can move on but I don't see nothing wrong with expounding on the end goal of putting on a yard stick in the living room. I also noticed that you only singled me out when others comment on the math question also prior to my response and you had no issue with that...why?  No don't answer that...stay on topic! 

Edited May 4, 2023 by Righty to Lefty

[DaveLeeNC]

FWIW, a long while back I was using a medium weight mallot type putter where I had added around 150 grams of lead tape (putter head around 300 grams). I was on Pinehurst No. 6 and the lead tape was on the putter on the third green and it was all gone when I got to the 4th green. I did not seem to have a big problem making that adjustment in my strokes. Feel just kind of took over without any overt action/effort on my part. 

 

dave

 

ps. My motivation for more weight had always been to reduce the effect of off-center hits on the initial velocity of the ball. 

[Righty to Lefty]

11 minutes ago, DaveLeeNC said:

FWIW, a long while back I was using a medium weight mallot type putter where I had added around 150 grams of lead tape (putter head around 300 grams). I was on Pinehurst No. 6 and the lead tape was on the putter on the third green and it was all gone when I got to the 4th green. I did not seem to have a big problem making that adjustment in my strokes. Feel just kind of took over without any overt action/effort on my part. 

 

dave

 

ps. My motivation for more weight had always been to reduce the effect of off-center hits on the initial velocity of the ball. 

I have a Two Ball putter and I epoxied tungsten 1/4 inch 5 gram tungsten cubes in the gap between the top and bottom of the club and you can't see them when looking down at the putter.  I love it because I can still feel it when I hit a putt off center but with that much weight added I still get most of the distance out of the putt so it is a win win for me. 

[Anthony Stevens]

15 hours ago, Righty to Lefty said:

I am not sure exactly about the ratio of added weight to % increase in distance at a given velocity but that added mass increases the amount of force being created so at a given velocity my putts go further than a lighter one.

The answer to this was posted earlier, and it's not a lot. Are you even reading the replies?

 

And you write:

You can "trust your stroke" all you want but if you can't read putts it doesn't matter because your putting will be trash.

 

Given the OPs question, why are you even on this thread?

[mshills]

Back on topic please, no need for armchair “science,” good grief. 🤣

 

In my home office I have a Big Moss, several balls with lines around them, and two driveway markers. The only other item that I would find helpful is an eye align mirror. 
 

The Big Moss is the best golf purchase I have made in quite a while. Focus on good contact and repeated end-over-end roll with no wobble, and you will make more putts. 

[Righty to Lefty]

On 5/4/2023 at 11:39 PM, Anthony Stevens said:

The answer to this was posted earlier, and it's not a lot. Are you even reading the replies?

 

And you write:

You can "trust your stroke" all you want but if you can't read putts it doesn't matter because your putting will be trash.

 

Given the OPs question, why are you even on this thread?

Have you given any thought to the fact that I might be answering the post that was directly asked of me prior to scrolling through all of the other comments? You were the one who asked about added weight to the putter head, you then like it when someone else gave you the answer, but then told me to leave the thread when I replied?  Well my putter has 270 grams added to it on a 400 gram putter head so what say you now...I assure you it has an effect? 

 

If you don't like what I post, then ignore it, but the fact is most threads evolve into a deeper / small talk conversation on the side as I would hope that the original poster's objective is to become a better putter on the course and practicing at home only gets you so far, just like only hitting shots on the range or into a net.  You can have all the trust you can muster in your stroke by hitting millions of putts in your living room, and I am all for it as I do a ton of practice when away from the course and rather enjoy it,  but the fact of the matter is that you have to get on the course and play golf and put it to use as much as possible to refine things and make those adjustments needed to make your game travel. 

Edited May 9, 2023 by Righty to Lefty

[Righty to Lefty]

On 5/4/2023 at 8:34 AM, me05501 said:

 

 

Literally no one wanted four pages of pseudo-scientific arguments. The dude asked how he can improve his putting without leaving the house. No call for a trigonometry thesis. 

Anyone in forums giving one word or sentence explanations to someone asking for advice is doing the thread a disservice by the way because they either don't know, or know and aren't telling.  A response to a golf related topic in which your response isn't tongue and cheek should require a moment to explain because none of them are simple explanations and that is precisely why I despise it when people come into a thread and leave three word responses and then never expound things.  I mean shouldn't you know why putting on a yardstick in the living room will be of use to you on the course and how it fits into the bigger picture? I also never assume that everyone is familiar with a concept and so I try to be as detailed as possible in my explanation because it is amazing how many don't know basics like ball flight laws and d plane etc.   @jmudo @mbwannab @mshills  @Carlito

[two_wood13]

On 4/30/2023 at 8:34 PM, Curmudg3on said:

A metal yard stick works wonders for the starting line.

Revisiting this one...has anyone seen any stats on tolerance / variance for putting start line? I've done the math on my metal yardstick and know that I'm within +/- 0.9* if it rolls straight off.

 

But I'm looking for some data that could quantify just how good +/- 0.9* start line is? 

 

This....https://blog.trackmangolf.com/performance-putting-the-evaluator/...would suggest if you're within 0.9* you're making most ten footers, which is decent. But thinking through the PGATour stat (quote below), a Tour player can probably just roll it down the yardstick all day long.

 

A better stat to look at is that the average PGA Tour player should make 95% of putts at 12 feet given how strong their LD Consistency is on a flat putt.

 

So what I'm looking for is if anyone has seen a stat that's "the average PGA Tour player starts their putt within +/-0.X* 95% of the time" or something like that.

 

[Curmudg3on]

3 hours ago, two_wood13 said:

Revisiting this one...has anyone seen any stats on tolerance / variance for putting start line? I've done the math on my metal yardstick and know that I'm within +/- 0.9* if it rolls straight off.

 

But I'm looking for some data that could quantify just how good +/- 0.9* start line is? 

 

This....https://blog.trackmangolf.com/performance-putting-the-evaluator/...would suggest if you're within 0.9* you're making most ten footers, which is decent. But thinking through the PGATour stat (quote below), a Tour player can probably just roll it down the yardstick all day long.

 

A better stat to look at is that the average PGA Tour player should make 95% of putts at 12 feet given how strong their LD Consistency is on a flat putt.

 

So what I'm looking for is if anyone has seen a stat that's "the average PGA Tour player starts their putt within +/-0.X* 95% of the time" or something like that.

 

 

I have no additional data about the 0.9º variance but there is data available that shows the pros only make around 50% from 8 feet.   Obviously, slope plays a major factor.  Variance in the putting surface plays a role.   

 

Good luck with your search.