Home | About | About this Site | Contact | Site Search
A useful technique for
makeable putts within six feet.
IN SHORT Aiming Method X is one of the ways to aim on sloping greens. |
Most holes are cut on a gentle slope. The USGA recommends that the green surface in the holing out area should be as nearly level as possible and of uniform grade, but it need not be exactly level.
The degree of slope for a fair hole location will be governed by the speed of the green. As the green speed increases, the potential for an uncontrollable slope also increases.
Aiming Method X is a useful technique for finding the aimpoint (target) for a breaking putt that you have a 50% or better chance of holing. For the average golfer this could be for putts within six feet.
In the close vicinity of the hole there is typically a single break (rather than the possibility of a double-break when you are putting from a greater distance).
Think of a CD which if you tilt it slightly has a single high point (12 o'clock) and a single low point (6 o'clock). The line connecting the high point to the low point is known as the Fall Line, the true downward direction of the slope.
Once you have a reasonable idea of the direction and steepness of the slope at the hole, you will be in a position to decide where to aim. This will depend on hard you intend to stroke the putt as there is more than one path to the hole.
Bear in mind that the faster your ball is travelling at the cup, the less chance there will be of the hole capturing it. For a putt to succeed the ball must drop at least half its diameter before it hits the back wall.
The way to find your aimpoint after determining the Fall Line is to:
By understanding how the local Fall Line through the hole influences the break of your ball, you will increase your chances of holing more makeable putts.
To read more about this technique which I have called Aiming Method X, visit Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone web site and his article titled 'See the Spider'.
Image Source
1 = www.gimptalk.com