Many pros believe that spin absolutely has an affect on the putt.  Some players are completely sure that applying roll on a putt helps it out of the fringe.  Others believe applying roll to a putt reduces the chance of a rollover on a steep downhill putt.  Some believe that backspin helps slow a putt and gives you a better chance of reducing rollovers.  And many pros just laugh because they think that spin simply has no effect on the putt.  The stance from IT has been that spin SHOULD NOT have any affect on the putt, because spin has not been programmed into the game to affect the putt differently.  Yet the pros are the ones playing on a daily basis, so their opinions and results are certainly basis for this debate!

Finally, many pros believe that distance balls putt faster and farther than normal balls.  The evidence behind this is pretty easy to see by doing a couple tests.  I haven’t heard IT refute this one.

THE TAKEAWAY: Do what “you believe” helps you.  If you think that you make more putts by applying spin, then by all means, continue doing so.  But know that there is no true evidence to support this behavior, at least from the programming point of view!  Also know that the farther your ball goes off the tee, the farther it will go on the green during a putt, albeit not a very significant amount.
PLAYER CLAIM: Pulling back to A or C on downhill putts helps prevent rollovers.
IT CLAIM: This behavior has some affect, but it’s not programmatical.

It’s widely believed that you need to pull the trackball back to A or C on downhill putts to help prevent the chance of a rollover.  I follow this advice and I believe in it.  However, IT also claims that nothing is programmed into the game to support this theory.  IT did bend on this claim for another reason, though.

Due to the trackball design, it’s possible that a pullback to A, but especially C, slows down the putt due to the design of the trackball.  Angled pullbacks create different reads on the sensors of the trackball, so the evidence supporting this theory may just be physical, due to the design of the trackball and NOT the programming of the game.

In addition, most players hit downhill putts with less force anyway.  When you slow the putt down, it’s got the best chance to go in.

THE TAKEAWAY: Continue pulling back to C on your downhill putts of 5 or more, and try to hit them softer than normal putts.  The combination of the physics of the trackball with the slower velocity should certainly help you minimize your rollovers.
PLAYER CLAIM: Backspin adds elevation to your shot, while roll reduces it.
IT CLAIM: Spin has no effect on the height of your shot.

This one isn’t much of a debate.  While IT says that backspin and roll have not been programmed to alter the height of your shot, there’s overwhelming evidence supporting the contrary.  Specific player tests have proven that backspin gives you a little more elevation on your shot, while roll makes your shot fly a bit lower than with no spin applied.

THE TAKEAWAY: If you are ever in need of a bit of extra elevation, put backspin on your shot.  To reduce the height of your shot, apply roll.  This is, of course, considering distance and the function of the spin itself in addition to elevation.

Let’s say you have a 50-foot putt, Up 5.  You ram it straight ahead, but somehow you miss just left.  To this point, you may have just shaken it off and assumed you didn’t hit the ball as straight as you thought, but in reality, there might have been some break there that you didn’t see.

Here’s what you do: first, take into account the break when lined up with the hole.  Let’s stick with our 50-foot, Up 5 example.  Now, turn your golfer once to the left.  From here, we see there’s an additional break of Left 2.  Now go back and turn your golfer one turn to the right of the hole.  From here, we see it’s still just Up 5.

Hmm — so what does this tell us?  It means that there is actually a little break to the left, even though it’s not reflected when you’re lined up straight!  What you do is average out the breaks you see when turning once left and turning once right.  So in this case, you have to figure that there’s actually additional break of Left 1 on this putt, and you should aim just slightly to the right on your putt.

This practice is most important on uphill putts, because the slope right or left is magnified with uphill putts since your ball is slowing down as it nears the hole.

I’m in the habit of doing this almost all the time on putts outside 30 feet or so.  It doesn’t cost you anything, and it can certainly save you some strokes!

So here’s the deal: any balls known for adding distance to your shot (e.g. the yellow distance balls from 2008 or the Freaks from 2009) also add speed and distance on the green!  They come off the club hotter, reducing the amount of break you need to play on your putt, and they also go longer, possibly enabling you to make that 55-foot up 10 putt that may be impossible with a different ball.

On the downside, they are also more apt to roll over, so you have to be extra careful on severe downhill putts.

It’s simply this — if you’re going to miss, miss on the high side! That means that if the putt breaks left, make sure you miss right if you miss at all, and vice versa for right-breaking putts. Why? Because you have a much greater chance of rolling over the edge if you miss on the low side! With the exception of severe downhill putts, you’ll start to notice that if you miss on the high side, at least you’re safe, and then you can tap in the for the two-putt.

It just seems that the ball loses its momentum if it’s on the high side, and it will stop on the green before rolling over — but, if you miss low, it’ll keep on rolling, often over the edge.

SO, to prevent throwing away at least 2 strokes instead of 1 or 0, make sure that you play enough break to be on the high side of the hole if you miss! This can be a big difference between salvaging a good round and having a blow-up hole that ruins your round altogether!

Obviously, this topic had several different opinions, with no one being able to nail down exactly what you can expect from longer putts.

To expand, I wanted to see if someone knew the distance(s) that the “governor” for your putter changes to allow you to get longer putts to the hole. Let’s say I have a 60 foot putt with 3 degree break. I don’t know whether to play the break as if it’s a 30-foot putt, or as if it’s like an 80-foot putt. I don’t think I have to play as much break on the longer putt because of the extra power, but I’m wondering where those break point(s) are so I can know what to expect when the ball leaves the putter.

Some people think the 50-60 foot mark is where you see a change. The so-called “turbo putt” happens for long distances outside 60-65 feet, and it’s a long-lived IT glitch that they’ve been trying to fix for 10 years. With 2008 Live, the turbo putts are more inconsistant than they were before (anything outside 65 feet is guess work, especially in the 80-100 feet range). More specifically, the “turbo” distance seems to be within 86-116 feet.

Others claim there is no “strong putter” or “weak putter.” There is no set distance where it changes, and the reaction you get all depends on the hole and the specific putt.

A common recommendation is to try to hit EVERY putt the exact same speed. Speed control on putting is HUGE, as it allows your muscle memory to remember the angle and speed of every putt. The only time to hit a putt any softer is when you have severe down slope — like 9 or 10 degrees. For putts like these that also have side slope, you can either pull back to the A (or C) and hit it slightly softer. For straight downhill putts, you can pull back straight just a tiny bit to B and hit it very softly to 2.

Another example: a 50-foot putt on flat ground will always play the same. A 50-foot uphill putt will change speed depending on how much slope you’re going up (for an up 10, expect the ball to be dying in the hole).

One final note for long putts — if you use your thumbs to putt, play more break on a longer left putt and less break on a longer right putt. If the putt is uphill, of course, you’ll need more break on both of those.

Any additional comments are welcome as we try to nail down specific details of longer putts, if any more details even exist!

So how do you avoid this happening to you? Well, there’s a couple things you can do. First off, be aware of the holes that are infamous for this behavior. Here’s a list of some holes where you have to be careful: Cumberland #18, Cypress Cove #s 16, 17, and 18, Misty Springs #s 16 and 18, Eagle Crest #s 16, 17, and 18, Bayou Bay #17, and Summit Lakes #s 17 and 18. Basically, when you get to a sloped green one of the final 3 holes on any course, be careful!

Secondly, there’s a trick to avoiding the rollover — if you have a downhill slope of 6 degrees or more, pull the trackball back to A or C before you putt. This should help keep the ball in the cup if it’s traveling too fast, but it doesn’t always work! It’s best to combine this trick with controlling your speed.

“I’ve been testing this theory this past week and have learned a few things, mostly that I can’t putt. LOL. I’m still trying to proof this, but I’m working on the hypothesis that there are different ranges for the putter. For example, the putter is preset for 20 feet, 40 feet, 60 feet and 100 feet. Thus, a 19 foot putt is going to break severely with a 20 foot putter, whereas a 21 foot putt barely breaks when you have the 40 foot putter. Also, you can’t reach a 20 foot putt with an up 10 degrees with a 20 foot putter. Unfortunately, you don’t get the choice of what strength your putter will be. I’ll update this when I have more accurate numbers, until then, let’s just say that this is an unproven tip.”

Since, there have been several replies. This was Dannyboy’s original reply:

“I’m 99% sure they do it based off of a percentage. Just guessing here, but I think it’s set at about 125%. (up to 120 ft though)

And the reason some putts come off different is a couple things.

1: The game will say 6′ and you putt it in and it says 4′. That is a nice not. So that would be why a putt didn’t feel right when you hit it, the game misread the distance, so it didn’t allow for enough hardness to hit it with.

B: Certain greens play different than the rest. You just need to remember which ones, because they are consistantly different. (quick example: meaning if hole 6 of Summit rolls over on a down 5 putt, it always will in the same situations while every other hole with a down 5 will never roll over)

One thing to remember if you are a thumb putter, a big left breaker is harder to hit because of the way the rollers are set underneath. And when you thumb it, the ball will tend to hop off the rollers at the beginning and not allow you to hit it where you are aiming.
Lots more practice needed for this type of putt.”

Kinzler rebutted with this comment:

“Sorry to tell you, this is 100% false. I have never seen an up 10 putt not get to the hole from anywhere inside 80 feet (although an up 11 or 12 may very well come up short. The only way it won’t get there is if you’re on the fringe (fringe putts may not go more than 7 yards).

Also a 19 foot putt and a 21 foot putt will break the same everytime. There are no different types of putters. The only reason the putt may break differently is the speed the golfer has hit his putt. Obviously the harder you hit a putt the less break you have to play. This is the same theory that you need to play more break on severe uphill putts because the ball is coming off the putter slower. In turn the opposite happens for downhill putts.”

FRO HOU added this point about break:

“Putts longer than 60-70 feet with break play differently than shorter putts. The ball shoots off the putter face and goes out wider than you expect. You have to play a 70 ft left 5 like a left 2.”

Finally, AMJ added this:

“I think there is a “20 foot putter” and a “40 foot putter”. That’s not to say that is how far those putters will go but once you get beyond those distances the putter will go to the next level of putt power.

That’s how I attributed the magic 60′ rollever distance. Once a putt got over 60′ is went to the “90 foot putter” and that’s why putts in the 60-75′ range might have rolled over.”

Make what you will of this conversation topic, but practice will teach you the best how putts act!

For putting in Golden Tee, a backswing just didn’t seem necessary. Since you can’t create hook or slice, why pull back? Well, that’s one of the reasons that you should! You don’t have to worry about pulling back exactly to B — just pull the thing back. Then, as you follow through to your line, it seems like your putts are more “true,” and the cup seems to suck up the ball much more often!

This method works especially well for me on long, sloped putts. You don’t have to worry as much about speed (just follow through smoothly), and I think it even takes some break out of the putt! You’ll probably be scared to try it, like I was at first, but try it for a round and see if you knock a couple strokes off your score!

Contrary to uphill putts, the side slope on downhill putts affects the ball less. So, the best tip here is if you have a 2-degree slope to the right on a downhill putt, you can play it as if the slope were only 1-degree (I’d play about half as much slope as I’d play the same shot on level ground).

As mentioned above, the worst thing that can happen is you putting the ball all the way off the green. I don’t like to hit downhill putts very hard at all, and I don’t recommend it either – I try to feel out the side slope and finesse the ball in the hole. I might miss an extra putt per round by playing soft, but I could also save several strokes by keeping it on the green for the return putt back uphill, if needed.

In Golden Tee, one great tip to know is that you can’t hit a putt so hard that it lips out of the hole. So, a lot of guys really crank their putts to try to take some break out of the shot. The harder you hit a putt, the less the slope affects the break, so the more you can aim right at the hole. The risk in this, of course, is that you can blow the ball way by the hole if you do miss the putt (see section on “Downhill Putts”, especially). Or, you might not be as accurate in your direction if you try to putt it too hard.

Long putts do require a strong shot – the worst thing you can do is leave a putt short and never give it a chance to go in!

Slope vs. distance is a constant battle that you’ll get lots of practice at. On most medium-distance putts of only 1 or 2 degree break, you can aim at the high-side of the cup and make them pretty consistently. When you start to see a lot of break, you’ll need experience to gauge strength vs. direction in your shot. For instance, you’d probably play a 70-foot putt with 1 degree slope, a 35-foot putt with 2 degrees slope, and a 20-foot putt with 3 degrees slope all on the same line. Really, the best thing to do here is get lots of practice, but I can help with some specific tips in certain situations within this section.

I can’t stress enough that the large majority of putts in Golden Tee are missed because you don’t play enough break.  If you aren’t sure, try to err on the side of too much break — you may be surprised to see the ball go right in the hole!