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I love books. I find it impossible to walk past a bookstore, especially second-hand bookstores, as I am always guaranteed a good find. And, true to form, I found a copy of the “putting bible” for five bucks at one such store. What a bargain.
Dave Pelz wrote “Putt Like The Pros” over 15 years’ ago and it still rates as one of the classic golf books; a must in any golfer’s library.
Pelz was a college golfer on the same team as Jack Nicklaus. But he didn’t follow the PGA path of his infamous team-mate, instead he became a physicist and was at the heart of America’s space exploration in the 70s and 80s.
And it was this scientific aptitude, along with his amazement at Nicklaus’ skill with the “flat stick”, that propelled Pelz into researching the mechanics of putting.
Statistically, putting represents 43% of the game; in reality it is more than 50%. So it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to understand an improvement in putting is the surest way to lower your golf score.
Pelz contends that putting is a science, not a black art. To back this up, he built two mechanical putting aids, the True Roller and Perfy, the bionic putting man to assist his research. The True Roller enabled Pelz to research the outside influences that impact on a putt that was rolled perfectly online. His findings were amazing.
His first obstacle was the unbalanced golf ball. In tests on a perfectly balanced billiard table, using the True Roller, putting from eight feet (I will use Pelz imperial measurers throughout this article), he was getting a variance of as much as one inch. Pelz discovered that no more than one ball out of 24 was perfectly balanced! (Note: this was in 1989, manufacturing may have improved. In fact, Wilson’s recent introduction of the True ball addresses this problem.)
Secondly, there was the question of distance. Differently manufactured golf balls travelled different distances and the biggest distance differential between balls was 34 inches!
Once Pelz satisfied himself that the True Roller and the ball would indeed roll the “perfect” putt he took to the golf course. How many putts do you think you can make from three, six and 12 feet? Pelz estimated, using a sample of golfers of varying abilities, they would make 75% of six-footers and 50% from 12 feet. He was way off base. In fact, even if you developed a very consistent stroke and putted on an excellent surface, expectations like these are unrealistic. Why?
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