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2 putting methods-ding-challenged & dingers

• slmpickins 65 Posts

  Sun, Oct 6 2013 1:27 PM

  I am a ding-challenged putter. I started out moving the aim point to correct the slope but couldn't hit the ding consistently and missed many putts. I got frustrated and started hitting off-ding left and right to compensate for the slope. After a bit of practice I found that I was sinking more putts than trying for the ding. The more the slope, the more miss of the ding is needed. The only other thing I do with that method is add 1yd to the distance I need to compensate for the lack of distance caused by the missed ding. I'm pretty sure others use that and have been in the forum, but I thought I'd mention it. 

  The other is for those consistent dingers. It has to do with time. The distance between 2 lines on the green is 2ft., I figured if I knew how long it takes a ball to travel over a distance and knew how long it took one of those slope dots to travel between 2 lines, I could figure out how far I would have to adjust the aiming point. I went to hole #1 green on Andy in "practice mode" and used "0" slope( up/down, left/right) areas I found on the green. I hit 5, 10, 15, 20ft shots and timed (counting one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, etc. in my head) each shot how long, in secs., it took to go that distance. With that info I took it to the field and it seems to work pretty well or got damn close. A couple of examples below:

  Very Fast Green- 12ft takes 4sec., this is the "constant" I found on Andy's green.    You're on a VF green, 12ft from hole. the slope moving dots take 4sec. to reach the next line, you position the aiming point 1 line (2ft) away from hole because the ball will "fall" 2ft in 4secs. If the dots take 3sec. between lines, you position the aiming point 1 1/4 lines away from hole. If dots move 6sec.between lines, position the aiming point 1/2-line (1ft) away from hole, 2secs slower is 1/2  of 4sec."constant".

  If the dot travel time is slower than the "constant", you aim toward hole, and faster aim away from hole.

  It's just a theory, but it seems to work. On some shots, alternating slopes will tie your mind in a knot. You'd have to do your own "constant" timing numbers, some of mine don't make sense, ie: standard green 6ft =2.25sec, Fast green=2.5secs.

  Like I said, I'm a ding-challenged putter and mostly use the left/right ding method but when the slope is pretty constant I use the latter...it gives me a good chance.

• andyson 6,415 Posts

  Sun, Oct 6 2013 3:52 PM

  Using a large scale when putting makes it easier to ding a putt. 

  Say you need to hit a putt with 9 ft of power, select the 90ft scale on your putter and pull it back 10% of the meter.  The meter is much slower and a makes short run (so less chance of a stutter) and therefore easier to hit the line.

  One drawback is you need to be more precise on your pull back so the use of a Putter Pal or scale on your meter is important.

• josephk2317 873 Posts

  Sun, Oct 6 2013 4:00 PM

  Like your theory and post on putting. I myself putt the same way. Miss the ding for breaks & elevation and hit the ding for straight in shots. Sometimes I take out the break by adding extra power to the putt (ram it in..lol)  on occasion.

  But almost never move the flagstick. Just add/subtract for the inches up/down with the length of the putt then compensate for the break left or right.

  Good Post

• jsweetcr 1,209 Posts

  Sun, Oct 6 2013 4:59 PM

  andyson:

  Using a large scale when putting makes it easier to ding a putt. 

  Say you need to hit a putt with 9 ft of power, select the 90ft scale on your putter and pull it back 10% of the meter.  The meter is much slower and a makes short run (so less chance of a stutter) and therefore easier to hit the line.

  One drawback is you need to be more precise on your pull back so the use of a Putter Pal or scale on your meter is important.

  only other problem with this is that if you miss ding on a 90 foot scale, how far left or right that the ball goes based on your miss will be much greater than if you miss the ding on a 10 or 20 foot scale. I get what you are saying, your chance of missing is less cuz meter will  travel less distance and in theory have less speed, but if you are having a bad day  or have been drinking some of your fav cocktail and you miss, it will be much more noticed.

  I have a hard time with this idea because there are days i can't miss the  ding with my putter but sometimes it is like an alien and i can't hit it to save my life, so i need to think about all of these things

• andyson 6,415 Posts

  Sun, Oct 6 2013 6:20 PM

  jsweetcr:

  only other problem with this is that if you miss ding on a 90 foot scale, how far left or right that the ball goes based on your miss will be much greater than if you miss the ding on a 10 or 20 foot scale.

  I don't see that, or any logical reason for it, happening.  9ft of power is the same whether on a 30 ft scale or 15ft scale or 90ft scale.  Do you 'miss the ding' putters adjust the amount you miss based on the scale you use?  I've tried both ways ding it and miss the ding.  Had two different instructors and neither said "because you're on the 30 scale miss it this much"

• jsweetcr 1,209 Posts

  Sun, Oct 6 2013 7:41 PM

  i had someone tell me that a while back, however, i am not a  miss the ding putter so i cannot speak from experience, other than when i miss ding by accident on a larger scale, TO ME, it does seem like it goes further offline. That could just be me misreading, I am by no means perfect or know everything. I just prefer to hit ding when i putt and adjust aim for where i think i need it. Sometimes i miss on purpose if it is a huge sweeping break because, for sure, on big breaks i never give it enough credit

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Mon, Oct 7 2013 6:25 AM

  jsweetcr:

  when i miss ding by accident on a larger scale, TO ME, it does seem like it goes further offline.

  It does but for a different reason-the larger scales require serious attention to be paid to that ding. A one pixel miss on a 15 foot scale has a chance. At the same distance a 1 pixel miss on the 100 scale is not the same simply because that pixel is worth more in distance and the miss is slightly exaggerated. This is easy to see if you use avatar movements. Basically, and I believe Bollox pointed this out a few years ago, you have less of a margin for error when using those higher scales for shorter putts and misses will hurt more.

• 2DAMFLASHY 1,141 Posts

  Mon, Oct 7 2013 6:36 AM

  yep.... i can back up andyson

  ..always use a bigger meter ..an miss ding... see no difference in scales.. .. 

   

  NOTE !!!  ...  ( the above is wrote by an AVERAGE putter)  at best ... :) 

   

  :)_~~

• IRISHPUNK 4,019 Posts

  Mon, Oct 7 2013 6:49 AM

  YankeeJim:

  jsweetcr:

  when i miss ding by accident on a larger scale, TO ME, it does seem like it goes further offline.

  It does but for a different reason-the larger scales require serious attention to be paid to that ding. A one pixel miss on a 15 foot scale has a chance. At the same distance a 1 pixel miss on the 100 scale is not the same simply because that pixel is worth more in distance and the miss is slightly exaggerated. This is easy to see if you use avatar movements. Basically, and I believe Bollox pointed this out a few years ago, you have less of a margin for error when using those higher scales for shorter putts and misses will hurt more.

  This is true.   My 10ft meter is a lot more forgiving than my 50ft meter.  I also agree with Andy about using the "larger" putter in order to get a "shorter" meter.  I never go over 40% power on any of my putts.

  "This is easy to see if you use avatar movements."  

  Avatar Movements?