Hmm I’ll try to be a little more aware my next few rounds and report back. I want to say I’m basically always looking at the hole. There’s definitely a limit to being able to look back over your shoulder, but I’m not sure I’ve had a putt that broke so much right to left that I couldn’t look at the hole.
I know I will look at like an aimpoint or stopping point on crazy downhill putts or if I’m on the top of a ridge/shelf I’ll look at where I want my ball to enter the slope. I guess that’s kind of the same idea.
The “instinctual” part is what stuck out to me. It’s funny how much of Sasho’s stuff is (very understandably) attempting to turn golf into a solvable math problem. And this felt like the opposite to me. Totally reactive and sensory.
It’s literally just nine holes of very average golf, so who knows if it’ll stick around, but I really genuinely enjoyed the experiment.
This is the hard thing with doing something like this. Miss a few 4’ or 5’ in one round and you might give it up. Its one of those areas that tracking your data over time would be really helpful to compare and see if your 3putt avoidance and make% etc change. Something that makes me hesitant to try is purely lack of being able to compare results meaningfully
I know for me when I first started doing it back in college, I’d say I stayed relatively flat from inside 6 feet or so (that’s more about read and starting it on line). But, I got EXPONENTIALLY better from like 8-20 feet.
Totally. I was going to go heads-up for a round a couple months ago and it was working great in practice. Missed a 3 footer on the 2nd hole and completely abandoned it, even though I miss plenty of 3 footers with conventional putting. I think I’m gonna give it another shot.
First crack at it today. Felt very weird. But the results were fine? Slightly worse than avg for me in the app. The misses were very good. Nothing more than 18 inches or so. I need to experiment a bit w looking at the hole, or a spot near it where I want to see the ball roll through into the hole
I had some issues freezing a bit over the ball, but once I just said trust it, it was mostly fine
Even more so than regular putting I really did better when I could clearly see the entire putt in my head before pulling the trigger.
It was also SUPER windy and the airport base next to the golf course was doing some military touch and gos, so was a bit harder to focus than usual.
Haven’t made it to the course yet to test, but putting around my office and reading this thread I have an interesting thought to try:
heads up looking at the hole or a spot the full distance of the putt feels like my head is pulling too much and I feel too disconnected from the ball. But! I tend to focus on the high point of the putt anyway and visualize that when I’m putting heads down anyway, so I want to try putting “half heads up”, ie finding that high point and focusing on it where I can still see the ball in my peripherals. Will report back
I gave it a try for 9 holes yesterday and 18 holes today. Totally anecdotal but it felt great for 8 - 25 feet. I had a couple putts from longer range where the speed wasn’t as dialed (typically hit it too far past the hole) but its hard to tell if they would’ve been better with my normal technique.
I tried it yesterday just playing a few holes. Zero practice before. I will say speed was inanely good. However I never “felt” like any them were going in if that makes sense. Auto 2 putt but i didn’t feel like I was going to roll any in. Was very weird to try. I will continue to dabble in it I think
Putted looking at the hole today and made a bunch of putts, only missed one 5 footer and that was a misread. Not sure I’m going to it full time just yet but definitely intrigued and going to work on it
When I tried it I would line up normally and then go heads up and putt. I don’t think the idea is to just completely stare at the hole eve as you’re setting up.
I basically felt like I was reversing my regular routine once I had my putter lined up where I wanted it. Looking back and forth but ending looking at the hole instead of the ball
Sorry I wasn’t clear…I’m doing my normal pre shot routine prior to hitting the putt and lining up normally. But if the line was outside the hole i found myself looking at the hole and not my target line.
That would be nuts if I actively just tried not to look at the ball at all
I think I need to do a better job picking a spot on the line, lining up to that, then going heads up. I was kind of all feel. Speed was pretty good though.
