Putting Tips
Updated: 9/7/2015 10:05:18 AM
How many times have you missed a putt by less than the width of a single human hair? That's right, the dreaded "Lip Out"!!
Often overlooked issues that affect your putting success...
Gravity
At normal gravity a ball falls 1 foot in 0.0310809 seconds. This is a standard value, gravity weakens as distance from the center of mass increases. Therefore a ball will feel less gravity at higher altitudes and will therefore roll faster. This effect is increased due to the lower atmospheric pressure experienced at such elevations. To determine the precise effect at your golf course it is recommended you purchase a laser timing device of sufficient precision. Additionally you may wish to bring a vacuum chamber to eliminate the influence of atmospheric pressure on this measurement. This will be important later and pressure will be accounted for in a separate calculation. Perform at least three 1 foot drop tests and average the result to determine gravity effect (Ge) at your location. Note, at some courses located below sea level this may be a positive integer and therefore should be specified as (Ge+) or (Ge-)
Tidal Effect
Angle of incident of the sun and moon as it relates to gravitational influence of the putt.
Full moon, sun and moon at opposition to each other, gravitational influence cancels, no effect on putt.
Value = 0, expressed as (Te0)
New moon, sun and moon in conjunction, maximum gravitational influence on putt.
Value = 1, expressed as (Te1)
Determining the angle between the sun and moon at any other time will allow calculating the sine of the angle expressed as a decimal value.
Value = x, expressed as (Tex)
In order to avoid unnecessarily complicating this discussion and our calculations, we will use the value (Tex) going forward where this value is assumed to be greater than zero and less than 1. Note that the occurrence of both (Te0) and (Te1) occur only at the moment of astronomical incident. The sun and moon of course are always in motion relative to each other. Again, in order to avoid being overly complicated, this motion may be disregarded for a putt of less than 5 Km.
Therefore, at noon during a new moon the maximum influence of the cumulative gravity of the solar and lunar bodies will exert greater attraction on the ball making it roll faster due to the ball exerting less resistance on the putting surface. It is obvious, naturally, that putts made at other times will feel this effect to a greater or lesser extent depending again on the sine of the angle. What is less obvious, however, is the effect of the the direction (or Tidal Vector) of the putt (TeV) relative to the influence of (Tex). A high value for (Tex) combined with a low angle of incident will combine to produce a positive effect (TeV+) when putting towards the sun and a negative effect (TeV-) putting away from the sun causing your putt to roll slightly faster with a positive vector and slower if negative.
Radiation Pressure
Light is in fact a form of radiation. All radiation exerts pressure on the objects it encounters, including your golf ball. In order to maximize your putting efficiency it is important to understand how light affects your ball and how to utilize this understanding to your advantage.
The Huygens v. Newton debate over the nature of light's existence as a wave or a particle dates to the 17th century. It is important to remember that light has been shown to act with the properties of both. Objects reflect or absorb wavelengths of light depending on their color. In this case we see light as a wave. The pressure exerted by light on an object illustrates it's activity as a particle.
A white golf ball will reflect the maximum amount of light, yellow slightly less, orange even less than that. An all black ball will absorb light, whereas blue balls are found to be very uncomfortable in general and can make an 18 hole round seen to take forever...
What this means is, a white ball putted towards the sun will lose energy as the particles of light (photons) strike it and roll slower. When putting with the sun behind you, a white ball will gain energy/speed. This effect is reversed however if using a black golf ball as the ball will now gain energy it absorbs towards the sun and feel a slight drag as it rolls away.
You may have already realized the practical implications of this phenomena. For example, assuming a green sloped from east to west in the late afternoon on a sunny day. A putt struck on a north/south line will break either more or less depending on the position of the sun and the color of the ball. While not permitted under the rules of golf to substitute a ball on the green to take advantage of this, the ball may be marked in any way and at any time. Marking half of a white golf ball with a black magic marker would allow you to reduce the amount of break in this case by orienting one side or the other to the sun.
To eliminate this effect entirely you may either orient a ball marked in this manner perpendicular to the sun or utilize a checkerboard pattern to avoid the effect entirely. The checkerboard pattern is very useful on greens which have a lot of shadows. The effect of numerous shadows interacting with the speed of the ball can be quite complex to calculate.
Rotational Energy
Sadly, the most obvious effects are often the most overlooked. The earth's rotational speed at the equator is just a tad more than 1000 miles per hour. This is clearly a major factor when playing southern courses. Putts struck from south to north will break left, putting from east to west, you will notice an increase in the speed of your putt. The effect diminishes as you travel away from the equator, multiply by the cosine of your latitude to see how fast the Earth is rotating where you are and adjust your calculations accordingly. In the southern hemisphere all the above directions are reversed.
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