You should read my blog post on my profile about 'playing feel'.
First, in answer to this question:
Gobarg:I am interested to know whether you do lose distance by not hitting the ding. Is there a bonus for actually hitting the ding other than accuracy?
It depends. If you miss the ding with the wind (strong right-left and you click left of ding), you can actually increase your distance, by aiming farther outside and riding the wind with your curve. However, if you use the curve to straighten out the wind, fighting it, you will lose distance.
I am the guy Icon is talking about, or one of them., anyway. I am a feel player.
Playing feel:
The only time I regularly move my aiming cursor is drives. The reason for that is what I mentioned above. Straightening the wind costs length. On my drives I would rather get as much distance as I can, so I will move my aim to compensate for the wind, even to the point, again mentioned above, of playing outside the wind and curving with it to gain distance. But usually on my drive, I aim and ding (or try to). Other rare occasions I will move my aim, but those are generally once or twice a round. An example would be a long 3 wood at a par 5, where the hole is 250 but my cursor only sets at 235, I will move the target to the hole. And very rarely, a putt that breaks more than I can curve, I'll move it.
Otherwise, I play curves and spins on approaches, putts, shots from around the green (I hesitate to use the word 'chips', since I use nothing but full shot). Here's the thing... Icon is right when he says that playing that way is inconsistent. It is inconsistent with the specs. BUT, it is consistently inconsistent. That is to say, it will mess up the same way with the same shot. It's hard to explain, but once you get used to the variances in performance over those listed, it pretty easy. For example, I know that fighting a 10 MPH cross on a 140y approach is going to cost me about 4y over aim and ding, so I play an extra 4y. A 12 yard putt on a tournament green with 0 elevation but an extreme break will still take nearly 12' of power to curve through the break and reach the hole. But once you get used to the variances, for me it is as easy or easier and as effective or more effective than aim and ding. And, again for me, I find I am able to click on the meter where I feel the curve is better than I am able to hit the ding, which is why I refer to it as playing feel. I make a higher % of putts that have a slight to medium curve than relative putts that are dead straight dings.
I wouldn't recommend playing feel, but unlike Icon, I wouldn't advocate against it, either. I suggest you play the way you feel comfortable, and you find most effective for you. Experiment, and don't be afraid to change styles. When I first started, I tried to play all dings, and struggled the first day or so. Then I started playing all curves, and shot my first below par round. But I plateaued with that as well, and switched to aimed drives and curves otherwise. I started out playing chips, pitches, flops, etc and found that I was most effective with just full shot. I couldn't do that in real life, but the game has predictable, repeatable results.
As my... qualifications to show that playing off-ding can work as well. I am a Legend with a 61.5 avg, down from 65 when I tiered (and 63 a few weeks ago). I have shot -9 for 9 and -14 for 18, and rarely shoot 30 (or 60) or above these days.
And a confession... I became a feel player because I flat suck at hitting the ding. I'm not a young man and my reaction times aren't what they were. On drives, missing by a couple pixels isn't usually too bad, but on approaches it can mean 10-20' of putt and on putts it just means you missed. I would estimate that, with my putter (slowest of all my meters), if I really, really try, I can hit the ding maybe 40% on 15' putts. So, since I realized very early on that attempting to be a ding player was a hopeless endeavor, I learned to play by feel. Hell, I don't even decide where I am going to click before I begin my swing. I set my distance and begin my swing, and when the meter gets where I feel the break or wind is, I click.
One benefit of playing by feel: It takes a lot less time. While you guys are fiddling with the aimer to get it just right, I look at the wind and hit. Or I spend a couple seconds looking at the front and back view of the putt then hit.