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Double breaks

• chrisironsbones 3,524 Posts

  Mon, Sep 16 2013 7:11 AM

  I've seen this happen loads here you might have a left to right break at start of putt then it turns to right to left for last few yards of putt but here the 2nd break doesn't seem to effect the ball at all and the break seems non existant.  I thought it was right until i looked it up on PGA site and it clearly says that break should effect putt less at start of the putt than at the end, but here its the OPPOSITE!

  "As we take a look at your putt more specifically, it’s important to note that break is a function of the speed the ball is traveling. Generally the ball is traveling its fastest immediately after leaving the putter face and moving it’s slowest toward the end of the putt. This means that X amount of slope will have much more effect on the roll of the ball at the end of the putt than in the beginning of the putt. To this end, you should assign more value to slope around the hole than the slope near the putt’s starting point." from pga site

• WGTicon 12,511 Posts

  Mon, Sep 16 2013 11:47 AM

  Hi Chris,

  I would say it depends greatly on the break and hole and would probably be unique hole to hole.  For example: say you have a double breaking 10fter that's 2 down on champ greens. I would likely hit it for 5-6 power since I wouldn't want it to run by... Once that happens because of such speed, it will start breaking left hard and when it comes time to break back right, because it will slow down so much, it will not consistently break as much as just curve sideways. Most of them time it will either go high (take less break if speed is consistent) or stop short and overbreak. 

  Unfortunately, there is no way to overcompensate for that, so I always assume early break (if I think both breaks equalize) breaks more than at the end. I could be wrong, but that's how I view it.

  -wgticon

• alosso 21,094 Posts

  Tue, Sep 17 2013 3:19 AM

  A good point Icon.

  A reasonable break at the putt's start may have only influence of a few degrees of deviation, but the new line will continue through the whole putt, multiplying the effect of a small direction change.

• courteneyfish 15,796 Posts

  Tue, Sep 17 2013 3:40 AM

  Variation. Having played a good few windless tournaments this week I've come to realize how much variation there is in all shots. Chris seems to expect perfection in the game to match his qualities but with variations and errors in the slopes and winds this will never happen.

• phiber 2,795 Posts

  Tue, Sep 17 2013 8:32 AM

  I've seen countless putts in the 10 -12 foot range that had a severe break in the beginning and a much slower break towards the cup, and on first impact, the ball takes that first break rather quickly (looks like the ball goes off the putter face immediately left or right) then never recovers for the second break.  

  Using the new mulligan feature in practice mode I played with that some and what I found was the initial break makes the ball take an entirely different direction based on that initial break and sometimes it puts the ball into a part of the green where the dots completely change.

  Having said that, IRL, the initial speed of the ball off the putter usually overpowers that first break, but then again, this isn't IRL golf.

  What really gets me is the green where the ball is 6' from the pin, dots moving like crazy right to left, you compensate with the target and the putt doesn't break at all....totally frustrating.  

• Tightrope 1,072 Posts

  Tue, Sep 17 2013 10:19 AM

  Imagine if you have a straight putt going into a break to the right, then it will immediately start going right, but if it is coming in going left from a previous break than it enters the new break with a completely different angle and will take some feets of rolling until it is "normalized". So basically you have to recalculate the putt from when the break switches direction, imagine where the ball will come out from the first and... well, it is one flow but two parts.

  I do however have the feeling that if there is a break just at the first foot on an otherwise straight putt, that initial break make too much impact on the direction.