Speed determines break, and optimal speed at the hole determines
optimal break; the optimal break is obviously between the fastest
speed that will drop and the slowest speed that will just get the
ball to the hole, and is a lot closer to the slowest than the
fastest to make more of the hole available for capturing the ball
and avoiding long comebacks.
If you're tired of missing breaking putts on the low side, you can
always force yourself to aim higher as a matter of habit, but this
doesn't really come to grips with the problem. How much higher? How
do you see enough break to begin with? Here's a quick tip to help:
Try to envision the slowest putt you can hit that will still make
it to the hole. That's the putt with MAXIMUM break. Your putt ought
to have a little less break than that, but not too much less.
Some Theory.
Speed is the first and last consideration for breaking putts. All
breaking putts are speed putts. Imagining or "seeing" the curve of
a breaking putt first requires a pretty accurate appreciation of
how fast the ball will be rolling in the putt.
The trouble is, there is a range of possible speeds that can get
the job done. With different speeds, the curve the breaking ball
will follow is different. Generally, the slower the ball rolls, the
more opportunity the constant tug of gravity from the tilt has to
curl the ball down slope. So slow putts have greater break than
quicker putts.
The situation is greatly simplified by realizing that for every
putt, there ends up being only the speed you actually give the
ball. In this sense, there may not be a single "optimal" speed, and
instead a fuzzy range of usable speeds, but in any event you will
only hit one speed, and it ought to be comfortably within this
optimal range.
The trick is to focus in on the optimal range. The set of curves
corresponding to the optimal speed range clearly lies between the
extremes. The easiest and perhaps most accurate way to find the
optimal range, then, is simple: identify the outer, extreme
boundaries first, and then work inward to the optimum, based on the
ball's approach speed as it enters the cup.
A Dash of Science.
To get the speed and shape of the curve right, we need to consider
the motion patterns of breaking putts.
First, gravity is constant, but its effect shows up more as the
ball slows down. A fast ball and a slow ball moving along the same
line on a tilted surface have identical tugs from gravity downhill
but it's sort of like both balls have their steering wheels turned
downhill to the same degree. The slow ball runs off the road in a
lot shorter stretch of highway than the fast ball does. The slow
ball's radius of curvature is sharper but only because it's not
going as fast forward. For this reason, putts seldom break much in
the first two-thirds or so of the putt because the ball is then
moving too fast to curl too far off line. By the same token, most
of the curl occurs as the ball is slowing down, and the curl gets
tighter just as the ball is ending its roll.
Second, all breaking putts on slopes like this start out uphill and
then come back downhill in the arc of the putt. This alters the
speed pattern of the putt somewhat.
Third, when a ball crosses the cup's lip, it starts dropping by
gravity as it continues laterally across the hole. If the lateral
speed is too fast, the ball doesn't have sufficient time to drop at
least halfway before it bangs the back lip and pops out. And on
breaking putts, the back lip is always lower a bit than the entry
lip, so the ball needs even more time for dropping than it would on
a level putt.
Imagining the Extremes.
To take a simple case, imagine a flat green that is medium fast (so
a test ball rolls about 7.5 to 8 feet off the Stimpmeter), with a
tilt of 3 percent right down to left with an axis of tilt that
parallels a direct line from the ball to the hole. (There is no
elevation change up or down on a line from the ball straight to the
hole.) On a putt length of 10 feet, how much break would you
estimate? The answer, of course, depends on how fast you start the
putt off. But the extremes of possible speeds are fairly easy to
identify.
For MINIMUM BREAK, see the fastest curve for the putt that will not
run over the hole. The first extreme is the most direct line to the
hole, or the fastest speed. By the laws of physics, there is an
outer limit on this speed and that is a speed that is too fast to
allow the ball to drop halfway while crossing over the 4.25-inch
diameter cup. Without getting into details, this "capture" speed
has to be less than about 50 inches per second as the ball crosses
over the front lip (roughly, a ball that is rolling about nine
revolutions per second covers about this distance in one second, so
they are two ways to express roughly the same speed.) If you need
to visualize this speed, roll your index fingertip over your other
index finger nine times while counting "One Mississippi..." It's
pretty fast. A ball that misses the hole going this fast will roll
about 4 to 5 feet past on a medium fast green.
A putt that is going to go 4 to 5 feet by the hole if it misses
will have the path with the slightest curvature, but it will have
some curvature. In our case, it probably wouldn't be much more than
two or three inches off the direct line to the hole (or baseline).
And such a putt must cross the hole dead center, too. Anything off
to the side a bit doesn't leave enough hole-crossing for the ball
to drop far enough for capture, and it hops or spins out of the
hole. In order to have the central third of the hole available for
capture, the ball can't be going much above 30 inches per second as
it crosses the lip. That's a 40% decline in putt speed.
Backing off from the maximum speed 40% results in a higher curve
right away. Just because it's easier to feel, you should go ahead
and back off half the maximum speed and make a rule: Never hit a
breaking putt so it reaches the hole at more than HALF the maximum
capture speed.
For the MAXIMUM BREAK, see the slowest curve for the putt that will
just make it to the hole and drop. The other extreme is a little
more tricky. This is the SLOWEST possible putt that just makes it
to the hole's edge and topples in. This is where the imagination is
tested. People with a lot of experience putting will naturally find
this curve easier to envision, but novices can learn this technique
pretty readily, too.
The quickest way to get a feel for this curve is to imagine putting
straight at the hole with just-get-there speed, knowing the ball
will curve low. Try to imagine just how far below the hole the ball
would end up. See the whole curve in your mind's eye from the
address spot to the endpoint, and then pivot the whole curve uphill
as if on a hinge at the address spot. When the endpoint connects up
with the hole, you have a good approximation of the slowest putt
you can hit and still get the ball to the front lip.
In our 10-foot example, this SLOWEST possible putt in our case
would run approximately 20 inches uphill from the baseline, and
this "breakpoint" or apex will be somewhere near the start of the
last one-third of the total putt (say, three feet from the hole).
From the ball to the breakpoint, the curvature from gravity will be
pretty slight, since the ball will be moving fastest in this
section of the putt. The putt needs only a little more speed than
necessary to reach this highest breakpoint to then curl back
downhill three feet to the hole. From the ball's perspective, three
feet is not quite seven rolls.
So this slow putt is about the same as putting uphill a bit to just
barely send the ball through a point about seven feet away and 20
inches or so uphill from the baseline. The surface rises 3% of
these 20 inches, or 6/10th of an inch, so it's not THAT much
uphill. For this extreme, then, the "seeing" of the putt's speed
and curve translates into seeing the speed of a putt of about seven
feet to a point 20 inches up-slope from the baseline.
Narrow Your Focus to the Optimal Breakpoint.
If the maximum break is 20 inches, then half the maximum speed /
minimum break curve can't be any less than 10 inches, so the
optimum curve must have a breakpoint between 10 and 20 inches
uphill. That's still a big range, and needs more focusing.
The optimum break depends on managing the last few feet of the putt
to maximize the chances of sinking the putt. Obviously, the optimum
will be closer to the highest curve, because even the highest curve
has sufficient speed to deliver the ball into the cup. And there
are two others reasons: a slower approach to the hole results in
misses that are a lot closer; and since the ball approaches the
hole from uphill, the opposite side of the hole's rim is a little
lower than the entry edge, so the ball has to be slower to have
more time to drop farther than normal to be captured.
Broadly speaking, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being slowest, the
optimum speed for the putt we have described is definitely above 5,
and probably above 7. That puts the optimum breakpoint around 70%
of the way from minimum to maximum.
On the other hand, you don't want to go all the way to the slowest
extreme, because then you would have no margin for error on the
slow side left. Any slower than the slowest is too slow!
Taking everything together, the optimum is probably about
two-thirds to three-fourths the way between the minimum and the
maximum breakpoints. For simplicity, make this the rule: Find the
maximum curve; the optimum's breakpoint is 3/4ths the way up from
the baseline to the maximum breakpoint. This curve gives a very
nice approach speed into the hole, with a good margin of error.
Finally, Work Backwards from the Hole to the Breakpoint.
Now that you can see one specific optimal breakpoint, it's critical
to finish the job by seeing the last several feet of the putt. You
really need to make sure the vision of the putt has the ball
actually entering the cup dead in the heart. This is essential to
crystallizing the very line your actual putt needs to follow.
If the closest point on the cup to you is the six o'clock position
on a clock face, a right to left breaking putt as described will
enter the cup at about the four o'clock position, and at a speed
such that the ball drops well below the back rim before hitting the
back wall of the cup down in the hole. Coming backwards out of the
hole with our imaginary vision, we can pretty clearly see exactly
where the entry curve connects back up with the optimal breakpoint.
The curve has to flatten out here and parallel the baseline. From
here, the task is very direct: send the ball to that breakpoint
with the right speed so that the ball smoothly connects with and
follows this final entry pathway and rattles home. That's about all
you can do.
Make This Part of Your Game
When faced with a breaking putt (with the surface otherwise
generally flat), imagine a putt straight at the hole with
just-get-there speed and visualize how far down the amateur side
the ball would curl. Transplant this "slowest" trajectory uphill so
the ball would end up in the cup. This curve sets the maximum
breakpoint. The optimum breakpoint or apex will be somewhere around
three-fourths of the way from the baseline to this maximum break.
Get the whole putt crystallized in an exact curve by seeing the
last several feet of the putt in reverse, with an optimal entry
speed, from the hole back to the optimal breakpoint.
Now you're back full circle to concentrating on the speed, since
the curve is set. The speed won't be much more than just enough to
get the ball uphill to this breakpoint, because the final three
feet past this point or so are downhill at least a little.
The numbers will vary with green speeds, slope, actual contour, and
other factors, but generally speaking, looking at breaking putts
like this will help you see more break than you might be accustomed
to, and will keep you within the ballpark of the possible as you
try to give your putt its best chance of going in the cup.
Enjoy the Game !
PS - What’s The Secret To Curing a Golf Slice When Nothing
Up To This Point Has Worked For You? Click Here
