Is putting becoming more science than art

ScienceBoy said:
I am a scientist by trade, I can tell you that apart from knowing your yardages golf is about feel...

Let me explain:

In practice your body, your mind and your central nervous system learn by feedback. This feedback is in turn reproduced in commands to your muscles when you next attempt a task.

In green reading its all about getting as much visual information so your body can naturally work out how hard to hit the ball. You can probably say "I will give this 30%" but 30% of what? That is just a command to the body to feel out how hard to hit the ball!

So in summary it is really about the "art" of teaching your body how to turn feedback into the correct action in the future.

In the full swing or part swing ie pitching this is again all about feedback and learnt behaviour.

From this you could conclude that you should practice with the least forgiving clubs and play with the most forgiving you can get away with ;)
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Is this the same as saying my muscles will remember how I should hit it if I hit enough balls?
 
did anyone else see the Horizon programme on BBC2 on tuesday (13th at 9pm can see through iplayer) - this was about the unconscious mind and the effect it has on our brain and the decisions we take. they had a pro golfer on whose career had stalled because of the "Yips" when putting, wired him up to all sorts of contraptions and came up with the conclusion that his unconscious was causing the twitch in his muscle which made him mess up the putt. guess that gives us another excuse!!!! all down to the science lab not the local pro????
 
For me putting is about feel or "Art" . During my younger years my putting was deadly, anything under 5' was usually sunk, long putts rarely missed the dustbin lid, and this was done by a quick look at the line, aim at something a few inches in front of the ball and then swing. After a few years away from the game (Drink, women, and children) it has taken me roughly 4 years to get back to the level I was at mostly down to an ageing body) and during this quest to return to form I have started to get more technical or scientific in my approach. A result of this is I have lost the feel on the greens and although technically I will probably have a better stroke, I find myself concentrating on the stroke or my alignment or posture or hands than actually putting the ball into the hole. If I could go back a few years and give myself some advice it would be to forget about the science of it, and just hit the putting greens with a bag of balls and "putt the ball in the hole"
 
bobmac said:
If you get the pace wrong, you're stuffed

If you cant start the ball off on your chosen line, you're stuffed.
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But, if you get the wrong pace and the wrong line there's a chance it will drop.
 
Gil_Emott said:
But, if you get the wrong pace and the wrong line there's a chance it will drop.
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Heh!

When I start it on the right line it nomally bobbles off.... now I play to miss! :D

Hitting on your chosen line is great... if you read the line properly... for everything else getting the pace about right is the most important.

18 greens in regulation and 2 putt everything and you won't be doing too bad :thup:
 
Wheyayeman said:
For me putting is about feel or "Art" . During my younger years my putting was deadly, anything under 5' was usually sunk, long putts rarely missed the dustbin lid, and this was done by a quick look at the line, aim at something a few inches in front of the ball and then swing. After a few years away from the game (Drink, women, and children) it has taken me roughly 4 years to get back to the level I was at mostly down to an ageing body) and during this quest to return to form I have started to get more technical or scientific in my approach. A result of this is I have lost the feel on the greens and although technically I will probably have a better stroke, I find myself concentrating on the stroke or my alignment or posture or hands than actually putting the ball into the hole. If I could go back a few years and give myself some advice it would be to forget about the science of it, and just hit the putting greens with a bag of balls and "putt the ball in the hole"
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wheyayeman - Bob Rotella uses this example in his book - "putting out of your mind". He covers a few pro's who started out the game from Green to Tee. Usually as kids chipping and putting around the green. Then they work back towards the tee. When they become pro's they start getting fascinated with the perfect stroke/swing and forget the years and years of natural skill they had developed on the greens. Instead of focusing on the main reason for putting - ie get the ball in the hole they had become swamped with stance, where hands should be, head still etc.

If you havent read it, I'd recommend as he covers your scenario on a number of occasions and how he helped those players resolve it.
 
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