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Try explaining this one to me

• GirnBlanston 648 Posts

  Wed, Mar 2 2016 2:58 AM

  5th hole Kiawah, par 3,  miss hit into green and I am 23 feet away with an 11 inch down slope.  Looking at putt the dots show a right to left break from reverse view, no opposite direction breaks at.  Set up my putt for that break and it breaks left to right.  Now I know i have misread putts many times, but someone has got to explain to me why the ball broke opposite dot direction.  This is not the first time it has happened, but I would like to know if there is some cryptic message on these greens that need to be decoded by a mathmetician with a PHD in alternate gravitational universes.  Try explainign this one to me WGT......................I dare you.

• alosso 21,069 Posts

  Wed, Mar 2 2016 11:58 PM

  GirnBlanston:

  5th hole Kiawah, par 3,  miss hit into green and I am 23 feet away with an 11 inch down slope.

  Replay? Green speed indication? Where exactly did you start?
  Who should give any explanation without precise information?

  In general, downslope putts are running slowly, thus very sensible to the slightest breaks.

  Also, KIA is said to have unprecise greens, so you better take it like a man.

  Happy hitting!

• PhiEaglesFan 617 Posts

  Thu, Mar 3 2016 1:03 AM

  The speed and direction of the dots is taken from the center point of a grid square, so it's not always the most accurate, especially if you are putting down a line where squares converge, crossing over columns, or if you're in the right-most fifth of a grid in the column (for example).

  This is why I prefer using wedges to line up my putts, since I can move the grid around and put the center of the grid squares along the expected line.  I can also quickly reset the break dots by letting go and re-grabbing the aimer, which is handier for me than the "unlock grid" feature that requires a lot of back and forth mouse movement.

  In most cases, I actually find the forward view to be the most accurate representation of the break.  I tend to make my initial read in reverse view, but then fine-tune the line from the forward view.  When I get the dreaded double-read (breaks left in reverse, right in forward view etc), I trust the forward view unless I know better (see below).

  I don't believe the grids on Kiawah are any better or worse than other courses.  I just think the Kiawah grids are exacerbated by the fact that your avatar is typically 20-30 degrees off-center on a lot of putts.  The grids definitely aren't perfect though, for any course, and sometimes you just get a bad read due to the way the grid is presented. 

  The best you can do is note that spot and keep it in mind for the next time you are there.  Local knowledge as they say.

• dchallenger 545 Posts

  Thu, Mar 3 2016 4:02 AM

  GirnBlanston:

  5th hole Kiawah, par 3,  miss hit into green and I am 23 feet away with an 11 inch down slope.  Looking at putt the dots show a right to left break from reverse view, no opposite direction breaks at.  Set up my putt for that break and it breaks left to right.  Now I know i have misread putts many times, but someone has got to explain to me why the ball broke opposite dot direction.  This is not the first time it has happened, but I would like to know if there is some cryptic message on these greens that need to be decoded by a mathmetician with a PHD in alternate gravitational universes.  Try explainign this one to me WGT......................I dare you.

  ACCEPTED:

  It's GOLF.

  Finish the hole.  Next group is waitin'.

   

• hpurey 11,505 Posts

  Thu, Mar 3 2016 5:40 AM

  Is this one of those Geico commercials?    LOL

  "Kia greens don't break the way the dots say they will."   "Everybody knows that."

  "oh yea, well did you know......."    

   

   

• fmagnets 3,640 Posts

  Thu, Mar 3 2016 8:17 AM

  GirnBlanston:

  I would like to know if there is some cryptic message on these greens that need to be decoded by a mathmetician with a PHD in alternate gravitational universes.  

  Yes there is. Try this thought experiment:

  Let's say you have a dead straight putt, downhill, and a gridline runs exactly down a line between the ball and the hole. We know that there will be no sideways dot movement because the putt is straight.

  Now take exactly the same straight putt, downhill, but now a gridline runs in a direction such that it starts on the ball, but the hole is several feet to the left of this gridline at hole distance. What will the dot movement be now? The dots moving perpendicularly to this gridline will be starting from the gridline and moving right to left towards the hole because the hole is slightly lower relative to where the dots started and dots will always move downhill. But the putt is still the same straight putt.

  Now do the same thing but the hole is several feet to the right of the gridline. The dot movement is now left to right, yet the putt is still straight.

  Same putt, 3 different gird layouts relative to the slope of the green, 3 different movements of dots, yet the putt is straight every time.

  Any time you read a putt, you have to use your knowledge of the slopes on the green to work out if there is any component of elevation affecting the sideways dot movement. Once you mentally remove this component (which is just a guess based on experience), you might even expect that the putt will move in the opposite direction to the dots. In the case of the OP's putt, it was so severely downhill that any grid orientation not running exactly parallel to a line between ball and hole would have a huge component of elevation showing in the dots. Plenty to give a completely opposite dot movement to the sideways break.     

• PaulTon 10,731 Posts

  Thu, Mar 3 2016 9:08 AM

  "Once you have eliminated the impossible what ever is left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth"

  Sherlock Magnets.

• fmagnets 3,640 Posts

  Thu, Mar 3 2016 9:39 AM

  This video might help explain it better.