Reading your putts correctly is one of the single-most important factors in a good short game. Your dominant eye is the one through which the thumb stays still.įor more information on Thomas Golf Putters: One eye will cause the thumb to “move,” while it will remain in basically the same place when looking through the other. Close one eye, then open it and close the other. * To determine your dominant eye, hold one arm straight in front of you, with the thumb pointing up and aligned with an object in the distance, such as a tree. One final note: Do not use this method on a putt that has more than one break. Practicing this on a putting green with a familiar break will help you determine if you're performing the plumb-bob correctly. Did plumb-bobbing give you the right line, or not? Try plumb-bobbing and make note of the results on confusing putts. Those who dismiss plumb-bobbing often point out that many greens feature multiple slopes in different directions, creating intersections that can fool the eyes. You may also notice that the hole tilts in one direction. If the high side is to the right, for example, the putt will break left.

Looking through only your dominant eye* (with the other eye closed), note whether the green to one side of the shaft appears higher than the other.

The shaft should form a straight line from the ball (bottom) to the hole (top).

Using your thumb and forefinger, hold the putter just below the grip so that it hangs perpendicular to the green surface, in front of your face, with the clubhead just off the ground.

For longer putts, you may want to stand upright.

Get into a crouch 5-15 feet behind the ball.

But sometimes it can be tough to determine with the normal technique, and that's when plumb-bobbing comes in handy. It's not necessary to plumb-bob every putt, since the slope on most greens is fairly obvious. In other words, in which direction the ball will break. In essence, plumb-bobbing can tell you which side of a putt's line is higher. One of the game's greatest putters – and a noted traditionalist himself – Crenshaw is exhibit A in the argument for plumb-bobbing. Better Recreational Golf Little things that make a big difference.The practice of “plumb-bobbing” a putt's line draws scowls from some golf purists, but the method can be an effective way to determine a putt's break. The Golfing Self Harness your mental game the right way. Both the hole and the ball disappeared behind the shaft (below). The theory of plumb-bobbing is that the hole (in this case) will appear to the right of the shaft, meaning the putt will break to the right. Then I closed my right (non-dominant) eye. I lined up the shaft so it covered the hole and the ball.

I held the putter between my thumb and index finger and let it hang down. The idea of plumb-bobbing is that the putter would make the direction of the break clear in cases like this. This is a good test putt for this experiment, because many golfers looking at it would not be certain that this putt would indeed break to the right. I found a 12-foot putt with three inches of break from left to right. I also took a metal track that can be used to roll a ball to determine the true contour of the green. Most putters to day are built asymmetrically, and do not hang straight down, which makes their use for plumb-bobbing suspect from the very start. This putter has the advantage of being symmetrical from front to back, so that when it hangs down as a plumb bob it hangs down 90 degrees to the earth. Then I went to the range with an Acushnet Bulls Eye putter, built in the early 1960s.

I decided to give it as fair of a test as I could.įirst I read all the stuff on the Internet about how it works (there doesn’t seem to be complete agreement on this point). So I thought, maybe she and they are on to something. I even saw Karie Webb plumb-bob a putt of under two feet, for cryin’ out loud.

Some people say it’s bunk and other golfers swear by it. I have this thing about plumb-bobbing and putting.

The plumb bob