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The first aspect they look at is skid and roll.
Skid and roll numbers can vary massively and this will result in the distance the ball travels also varying quite a lot.
If you have too much skid on a putt you are more often then not going to see your ball coming up short. Having a higher roll percentage will usually give you a more consistent distance.
Below are two examples of putts that have huge variation in the skid and roll numbers.
The first showing the on a 35 foot putt Gary’s ball skidded 55 inches, which is extremely high. The ball only rolled for 84% of the putt which meant that Gary was struggling to keep control of the ball.
The second putt was a lot better. Gary almost halved the skid distance and he upped the roll percentage by 6%. This allowed Gary to keep the ball under more control and make a better putt.
The Trackman putting performance software is there so you don’t have to guess. Knowing what numbers your putts are generating is key to learning what you need to improve.
If you’d like to learn more about how Trackman can help your putting there’s a section in the book The Lost Art of Putting, by Gary and Karl Morris, which is available on Amazon.
The Lost Art of Putting, by Karl Morris and Gary Nicol and featuring a foreword from 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie, is available in hardback and for Kindle from Amazon in the UK and US.
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The Lost Art of Putting, by Karl Morris and Gary Nicol and featuring a foreword from 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie, is available in hardback and for Kindle from Amazon in the UK and US.
Do you only see the ball going in the hole one way? We join Gary Nicol up at Archerfield Links to show you that you are limiting to yourself to just one option when putting.
Gary explains in the below visual that there is actually room for three golf balls to go in the hole at the same time depending on the pace and line.
The ball on the far right has a much slower ball speed but a different line where it drops into the hole on the right side. That is now your entry point for that specific putt.
The middle balls entry point is a little closer to the middle. It has a slightly faster ball speed and a more straight line.
The ball on the left has the fastest ball speed and with this one you are effectively taking all of the break out of the putt.
Gary adds:
“If you concentrate solely on the line you are limiting yourself to just one option. Whereas if you think more about the pace then you have three different ways the ball can go in the hole.
Concentrating just on the line will mean if you are just a centimetre off the ball won’t drop.”
Watch the video at the top of the page for Gary’s full explanation.
What are your initial thoughts when stood over a putt? If you are focusing on the start line we would strongly advise that you rethink that strategy. Gary Nicol is on hand to explain how to improve your putting, with the help of Trackman Performance software.
“If you focus on the last few feet of the putt rather than the start line you get a better idea of how the speed should be as the ball approaches the hole.”
How much do off-centre strikes with your putter affect the roll? We join Gary Nicol up at Archerfield for some putting tips using Trackman software to validate the data.
“What do you use an alignment aid on your putter for? Many amateurs use the alignment aid to simply line up the ball, but forget that it can help them simply find the middle of the putter.
With having lines on the ball it can be really easy to start matching those lines up with the alignment aid and forget about where the centre of the clubface is.”
Gary asked Michael to hit three putts, one out of the centre, one out of the heel and a final strike from the toe. He then measured each putt with the Trackman performance software. The results are below…
As you can see from the results the centre-striked putt traveled an extra four feet and made it past the hole, the two poor strikes came up two feet short of the target.
You will also notice a very similar ball speed from the two poor strikes in comparison to the faster ball speed of the good strike…
Hitting a putt out of the centre sounds like an obvious ting you need to do, but many amateurs can get too fixated on the line. Even if you get the line right, if you don’t strike the centre of the putter face the chances are you won’t hole the putt.
When it comes to putting, which is more important, line or pace?
This is a question we ask every golfer we work with on their putting. After a bit of deliberation, virtually everyone agrees that pace takes top spot as pace determines line.
So why is it that once we get out on the golf course, as soon as we step on to the greens our attention turns to line?
When you hit your tee shot down the fairway on any given hole, once you get to your ball, the first thing you want to know is how far you have to the green and/or the hole. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? However, once we cross the border from fairway to green, all that goes out the window and we starting “reading the line”.
Unless you have an idea of how long the putt is and if it is uphill, downhill and how fast the greens are, how on earth can you pick a line?
In our book, The Lost Art Of Putting, Karl Morris and I talk a lot about line and pace and reading greens. In fact, we devote an entire chapter to both.
It is our contention that pace determines the line. In fact we would go so far as to say that without the correct or appropriate pace, the line does not or cannot exist. Pace gives you options on line, whereas line limits you to one pace, perfect pace. How do you fancy your chances with that?
We saw a fantastic example of that when eventual winner of the Scottish Open Brandon Stone curled in a 40 foot eagle putt on the 16th green en route to shooting a final round of 60.
The Sky coverage showed an overlay graphic of his options on line which varied from relatively straight to almost 10 feet of break, depending on the pace he hit it. Stone chose the latter and the ball dropped in the front edge with just enough pace for gravity to take it’s course.
For the ball to go into the hole, which is our ultimate aim, the ball has to have a relationship with momentum and gravity. The diagram below shows that the effective size of the hole changes according to the pace of the putt you hit, therefore making pace your number one priority if you are to experience any kind of success on the greens.
How often have you hit a 15 foot putt that is travelling bang on line only to come up two feet short or trundle three feet past? If you are like most golfers, your immediate reaction will be along the lines of, “That was such a good putt, I just didn’t quite get the pace right.” Because we tend to relate our putts to the line we hit it on, we console ourselves that it was indeed a good putt, apart from the pace.
However, if you were to miss the same 15-foot putt by two feet to the left or three feet left of the hole, you would probably be disgusted with yourself. Why? Again because you are relating the outcome of your putts to line rather than pace.
We’re not saying that line isn’t important, of course it is but the next time you go to the putting green or out on the golf course, pay more attention to pace and you’ll find that not only will your distance control improve, chances are your line will too as a direct result.
Get the pace right and those enormously frustrating three putts will soon be a thing of the past and you might just start holing a few more birdie putts as well.
Judging distance when putting can be a complicated part of the game. Eight time European Tour winner and former Ryder Cup star Paul Lawrie gives us a few putting tips on how to become more confident on the greens.
One of the main things you need to do is put towards your target circle of 3-4 feet. If you get the ball inside there you can feel confident about tidying up.
Watch the video above for more tips from Paul Lawrie on distance putting.