A Line to Rely Upon

Frank,

I enjoy your Q & A's and find them most informative. I have a question about putting alignment. I do draw a line on my ball to assist in alignment when putting. It does help; however, after I align the ball from directly behind the ball and then address it with my putter, the line always appears to me to be pointing significantly left of my target line. Needless to say, this makes "trusting" the alignment difficult. I normally putt with a very open stance but it doesn't matter if I stand open, square or closed. I "see" the same thing. I have never heard this problem discussed before so perhaps I am unique and simply have my head on crooked. Any suggestions?

--Ray

Ray,
Thank you for the kind comments about my column and I don’t think that you have your head on crooked. The person who designed us doesn’t often make such mistakes, especially if he knows we are going to be golfers.

I have a slight problem with drawing a line on the ball and relying on this as a sighting line to help set up for  final adjustments to alignment. The reason for the concern is the fact that a short line – equivalent to that which you can draw on a ball which is effectively a little more than an inch long – is difficult to line up accurately with a target 15 feet away, and sometimes relying on this can cause internal conflict when over the putt, as you have found.

In some cases the line may help but one better have perfected the procedure through hours of practice -- as is the case with some players on the tour. The recreational golfer then tries to  mimic this procedure -- as with the useless plumb bobbing technique – because it seems to work for the pros. This is what marketing relies upon.

I do believe that focusing on a spot on the ball will override or dampen many other thoughts (the little voices when over the ball) which interfere with our putting stroke. For this reason, a line may help but a dot or “X” or any other marking may do the same thing.

Another concern is when the ball lands in the fairway and we are not permitted to move it – at least if we are playing by the rules which I believe is an important and integral part of the game – and the ball is positioned in such a manner that the line is on top but pointing directly toward the water hazard. How do we react? At this point the line must be ignored which may take some serious thought processes.

In our Putting Studio we ask students both professionals and recreational players not to use a line on the ball for alignment but rather to make sure their body and stance is properly aligned – a very important requirement in set up – and then try to extend the line of the putt through the putter head for final adjustment. This seems to have been very successful in allowing the golfer to focus on other more important thoughts. We have found that after you have perfected the basic mechanics of putting the next most important area to focus on is “imaging” – which has produced very good results.

Ray, don’t go for a head adjustment but do rely on your belief and imaging the ball rolling  into the hole.
Frank