I thought this was pretty much standard thought.

I agree with this, but aren't we talking about which is more important if your misses are the same? If not then why are we talking about which is more important and not which one we are likely to be off by more on?

edit: our misses on speed are by more than misses on line because we are better at judging line. We know that line is important though and treat it as such. It seems like you guys acknowledge that line is very important, but that you're simply better at judging line than speed. This doesn't mean that speed is more important, but rather that it is harder to get right. Being more difficult does not mean something is more important though.

also, this is why 100% accuracy would be more important because then you can hit one that dies in the heart or was going 6 feet by and they're both in because you had the right line. If you have 100% right speed, but wrong line you can still miss low if there isn't a speed that's hard enough to stay on line and not pop out of the hole or high if you started it too high to die in.

Probably a semantic argument. They are obviously both important but most people make far bigger errors due to speed than to line. Almost all of my 3-putts are due to leaving it way short or blowing it past the hole - not because I was too far left/right. I make mistakes on both but the speed errors are far larger and therefore more costly.

It's actually a fun argument to think about. I'm also in the speed is more important than line camp.

A player who constantly has the correct speed will likely have fewer puts even if their lines are off. The correct speed will lead to more tap ins and fewer putts. If a line is perfect but six feet short or 7 feet past the hole, that will lead to a lot more three putts.

Will it though? If you have the perfect line always then how often are you not going to make the 6-8 footer? You're much more likely to be able to treat a 7 footer as a 10 footer for speed purposes and jam it in the back, right? Even a 3 footer can be pushed or pulled and if its relatively straight like most short putts are there isn't a speed that allows it to track back online.

Yeah, if you don't have a shaft extractor, take it to a store. My local PGA superstore charges $10. Takes them 5min.

If you don't have a shaft puller you really will have a very high likelihood of ruining the shaft. If you do try it yourself, you'll have to get it a little hotter than usual to make it easier to pull and do not twist the shaft. It has to be pulled straight out. I used to do this and I used a torch to heat it because it would heat it up very fast and I could pull it quickly without damaging it, but I did wreck a couple during the learning phase.

I built my own shaft puller since then and totally worth it. I like to tinker a lot with my own stuff and try different shafts a lot.

By definition, on any breaking putt the "perfect line" means you also have the "perfect speed".

Why? The perfect line implies the line that gives you the best chance at making the putt. The speed that gives you the best chance of making the putt is known, so the 2 must go together.

that's what i said

I wish I could putt with a pool cue.

wouldn't the perfect line be the line that gives the best chance of making it given the speed you hit it rather than the perfect speed?

Forgot to mention the shafts don't matter just need the club heads fine so I can put a new shaft in them which are being shipped as we speak.

In that case Nothing to worry about. The clubhead won't be hurt. I use a heat gun or like I said a torch will work too. You'll hear a pop sometimes when the glue breaks free and it'll smoke and smell too. Just put heat on the hossel all the way to the bottom where the shaft ends. Hopefully you ordered new plastic deals that go above the hossel. I think they're called ferules? It's hard to save those.

Yeah I went on line and found the size and ordered the same ferules along with 2 part epoxy used for clubs. I had crappy 50 gram regular shafts in them which just don't work so no need to worry about them.

Speed is a more volatile variable than line. It's much more likely to be 5 feet short or long than it is to be five feet to the right/left. Leaving a 15 foot putt more than a foot or two outside the hole due to face angle being off or path being off is almost never going to happen even for the worst putters.


You can say,
Obviously it's a combination of speed and line and your unconscious mind is doing the complex math, but we are going to have better results picking a line and adjusting how hard to hit the ball rather than "picking a strength" and then trying to figure out what line to hit it on. Your brain uses its experience to draw a mental picture of the line any ball will take. You can start from there and then adjust the intended speed and line variables until you come up with what you think is the best answer or the most likely to be performed.

No one is walking up to a 15 footer and saying "I'm going to apply 10 newtons of force to this ball. Now where do I need to aim?" like your statements make it sound like you're implying.

There are admittedly some shorter putts that have a lot of break in them where you can say "I'm going to hit this through the break", but your brain's first reaction to reading the putt is still the combination of speed and line at the same time.


I think what it comes down to is that saying "speed is more important than line" is a coaching mantra which will generally reduce the number of putts by reducing the average distance left to the hole on second putts.

Line has 2 variables. 1) picking the correct line (as in reading the break correctly) 2) actually starting the putt on that line.

Speed has one variable 1) hitting it with the correct speed so that it would stop X" past the hole if you miss.

I don't think one is more important than the other since they both need to be right to make the putt. One is definitely harder to get right than the other and will leave you farther from the hole when you mess it up. Speed.

I think the idea here is not that speed is more important, but harder to get right and thus maybe should be a bigger part of your practice.

Speed may be more important to work on, but when it comes to whether the ball goes in the hole or not, they both are equally important.

This reads a bit strange, almost like you get to select the line after you determine how hard you just hit it.

There is 1 perfect line and speed for every putt(yes, there are many combinations of line and speed that allow a putt to find the bottom of the cup but they are all deviations from that perfect line/speed). The perfect line is also found by first determining how fast you want the ball to be traveling at the cup, then determining how fast you must strike the ball to achieve that number, and lastly establishing the line on which a ball traveling at the speed you want to hit it will end up at the hole.

If you get over a 20 footer and we know the ideal line is 6" right and 8" past the cup would you rather be guaranteed to hit it with perfect speed or line? I would guess the person who hits it the right speed every time is going to make a higher %. Perfect speed keeps the hole at its maximum size for capturing putts. As you increase speed the cup shrinks, as you decrease speed the ball does not get to the hole.

As Reid stated above, speed is more volatile so limiting the most volatile variable seems like the best thing to do. It is worth noting that it's possible as you get closer to the hole that accuracy becomes possibly as volatile/more volatile, since when you are hitting a 3-4 footer most can hit it with very very similar speeds but in the grand scheme of putting speed is king.

Well, as you get closer to the hole, the less direction "matters" because the margin for acceptable error is greater. If we think of acceptable error in direction as degrees from center, obviously as we get farther away that window tightens and at some point almost becomes so small that it would be a waste of effort to care more about direction than speed.

After trying this today on the practice green and making 19 of 20 6 footers with 4" break, I think there is something to this.

USGA vid on why greens need aeration..

https://www.facebook.com/USGA/videos...79369/?fref=nf

Okay, putters:

Do different shaped putters really matter? I've always had a blade-shaped putter, but my putting sucks ass. Would a different kind of putter make any difference at all? It doesn't seem like it would to me, because the act of putting could be done with a hockey stick or a spatula, in theory... but what do I know?

what is wrong, in your opinion, with your putting? besides missing of course? green reading or speed?

It seems to be mental. When I practice, I do a good job with the short putts and with lagging. I mean, we all need improvement, that's why we practice. But while playing lately, my lag putting is crap (mostly distance) and my short putts are worse. And I don't know why. I'm easily leaving 5-6 strokes on the course every round. Just yesterday, I stuck a 9-ron to within 18 inches and then batted the putt two feet past....and then missed the par putt coming back.

I think I need a routine of some sort, beyond what I do now. I'm trying all sorts of things. So if a new putter might help, I'm all for it!

What ever works for you. That said the blade type putters are usually toe heavy and work better for a putting stroke with more arc and the big ugly things are face balanced and work better for more of a straight back straight through stroke. Mostly what every you make putts with go with it.