The Putting Pulse
“One area that’s not talked about enough is putting,” Small said. “It’s the most precise of part of the game. So how can we help people — do they have the right putter, the right ball?” The arm wave once again. “We have three pieces of technology. The first is the Science and Motion Putting Lab. We get 28 different parameters for putting. It helps identify right away where to start the teaching process. Instead of, ‘Well, your stroke looks pretty good,’ we can see inefficiencies here that lead to inefficiencies there.”
Small pointed to a trio of screens revealing the data culled from his own stroke. It gave him high marks for strike, timing and consistency but one screen showed his aim was closed, the resulting path too far left. “So all of a sudden we have a place to start — how can we make it a little better from a coaching standpoint? And all this stuff is measurable, so we can create a chain and see how you progress.”
Next came the Quintic Ball Roll: “It’s a launch monitor for putting. Everything about impact. Where is the bottom of your stroke, when does the ball stop rolling, what was your rate of acceleration — very important things. What we find out is, for instance, the difference between using an insert putter and a non-insert putter. There’s a huge difference because the ball is going to come off faster or slower depending on the insert. So if you want a softer feel, initially your putts will come up short by three or four feet, or vice versa — if you go to a non-insert putter you’ll hit it too far. Or if you change golf balls. For instance, if you’re at a corporate event and they give you some of the new distance balls, and you use them — suddenly you can’t putt anymore. So we get to a lot of secrets about how people can putt better, and it’s all based on science.”
