Putting alignment

[Godfather]

It seems like my SkyTrak was easier to putt straight. It seemed to have maybe a little left/right forgiveness on putting.

With the GC2 it is impossible for me to consistently hit a straight putt even though I hit the same spot on my screen consistently. I am a good putter and it’s driving me nuts. This makes tournaments very frustrating when I have a 7 foot putt and know I have very little chance of making it even if it’s dead flat. Throughout the tournament, I am constantly adjusting the GC2 left or right, but then the next putt is still off one way or the other.

Does anyone else have this problem with the GC2? Could it be my mat is making the ball wobble on its path and the GC2 is picking up on this where SkyTrak would forgive it?

[andygg1986]

Yes, I agree that putting with the GC2 can be frustrating. You can go into the GSX sliders and move the putting forgiveness so that all putts go straight (the equivalent of the straight putting patch with Skytrak), but that doesn't seem too fair to me. My compromise was moving it to 2, so anything between -1.5 and +1.5 degrees reads as straight and anything outside that range reads as the recorded value. It is still annoying because some straight putts definitely read outside that range, but at least when I'm feeling lazy I can just aim left or right with my putter instead of the arrows on the screen. You could try taking a couple of yardsticks and rolling a ball straight between them and just seeing how much the horizontal angle varies, then set your forgiveness accordingly.

[mikeingp]

Yeah, I have a lot of trouble with short putts on my GC2. It seems like putts longer than 10-12' are ok as they read fairly consistently but the shorter ones, less than 10', regularly read 2 - 3 degrees offline even though they are hit down the middle. I've got a couple fibrebuilt panels cut into my hitting mat & I just assumed that was the problem - great panels to hit irons off but fairly uneven for putting across. On short putts the ball probably bounces around a little more. It's annoying for sure...I miss far more 7' putts than I do 12' ones.

[wbond]

Sounds a lot like skytrak and probably a hardware limitation. It's easy to test, take alignment rods, tape them together, put the ball on top and then hit a few 5-7' putts and see what the readout is. The ball goes dead straight and if it reads something else, you can confirm the hardware limitation. If all of them read straight, then you know the mat or something else is coming into play.

[Godfather]

This was a great idea and the result shocked me!

[mthunt]

Yes, I agree that putting with the GC2 can be frustrating. You can go into the GSX sliders and move the putting forgiveness so that all putts go straight (the equivalent of the straight putting patch with Skytrak), but that doesn't seem too fair to me. My compromise was moving it to 2, so anything between -1.5 and +1.5 degrees reads as straight and anything outside that range reads as the recorded value. It is still annoying because some straight putts definitely read outside that range, but at least when I'm feeling lazy I can just aim left or right with my putter instead of the arrows on the screen. You could try taking a couple of yardsticks and rolling a ball straight between them and just seeing how much the horizontal angle varies, then set your forgiveness accordingly.

The slider isn't degrees, it's percentage. It goes to 100, not 90. You are allowed by tour rules to set the slider to 5. 5 is enough IMO. You can also use the 0HA patch. I believe the issue is the mat. The GC2 tracks the ball longer than the skytrak so if the mat isn't perfect and it wobbles on a rough mat you'll get that reading. Try the 5%. To test this I putted off a board for a while. Didn't move.

[Godfather]

I did some putting experimenting on 8 foot putts. It is these short putts that are the worst for sure.

I believe it is my mat and not just that it is bouncy, but something about its reflectiveness or something like that maybe. The reason I say that is because it was even way off when I used two alignment sticks for a putt to ensure the putt went straight. Then using another mat piece I was able to get straight short putts! See the pics below.

Typical 8 foot miss:


Alignment sticks (ball rolled evenly along the sticks above the mat):


Putting turf strip used and it was straight!!!


OMG I made a short putt!!! Miracles do happen!!!

[Godfather]

I hope it isn’t also causing exaggerated short iron hooks... hmm

[wbond]

Yeah it's very interesting to see the results. I'd hit about 10 putts each at various lengths so you can get a decent amount of reads to confirm hardware accuracy.

[Solstice72]

Since my sim is one month old, I had a new mat. (CCE) I was impressed by the GC2 putting because my expectations were low at the outset frankly. Last Saturday though I was disappointed that putts all had the lefts and I starting to have that sinking feeling (not the putts dropping for sure) that the futility I feared about putting was showing after all.
mthunt you mentioned mats like Godfather, and that totally hits me now as the reason for the poor results last weekend. My mat had the audacity to age, one whole month's worth of aging and now this thread I see. What a bummer.

Weirdly an hour ago I interacted with keither5150 about his latest system addition. Incidentally he said to me "You have a GC2.... you should build a slider. I enjoyed putting on my GC2 with my slider." I haven't gotten his reply yet, I essentially asked him what's that??
You guys probably know what he's talking about, what is it? That putting strip above Godfather?

mthunt then what's the GSX slider setting you're recommending, can you orient me, what that's correcting or doing?

[mthunt]

Since my sim is one month old, I had a new mat. (CCE) I was impressed by the GC2 putting because my expectations were low at the outset frankly. Last Saturday though I was disappointed that putts all had the lefts and I starting to have that sinking feeling (not the putts dropping for sure) that the futility I feared about putting was showing after all.
mthunt you mentioned mats like Godfather, and that totally hits me now as the reason for the poor results last weekend. My mat had the audacity to age, one whole month's worth of aging and now this thread I see. What a bummer.

Weirdly an hour ago I interacted with keither5150 about his latest system addition. Incidentally he said to me "You have a GC2.... you should build a slider. I enjoyed putting on my GC2 with my slider." I haven't gotten his reply yet, I essentially asked him what's that??
You guys probably know what he's talking about, what is it? That putting strip above Godfather?

mthunt then what's the GSX slider setting you're recommending, can you orient me, what that's correcting or doing?

Keith is talking about having the GC2 on a slider so it slide to a putting spot for putting and a hitting mat for hitting. The GSX slider is % forgiveness. Given that the tour allows 0HA putting you can set it to 100% if you like. Mine has been set at 5% since I bought it. sometimes I put by hitting it left or right without moving the alignment aim point.

[Solstice72]

Some definitions. 0HA is heading angle? And a setting of 100% represents what, perfectly straight no matter how struck? Then it's only starting line and distance? 5% allows for what then, minor deviations in stroke (or mat wobble) that still read straight?
Last sentence confused me. I thought you're supposed to putt by hitting it left or right leaving the alignment aim point centered. I never considered the other way are you saying most people change their alignment aim based on the break off of the putt and then just hit a straight putt. Wow. What do you recommend is there a functionally a difference? Sorry about the tedious questions but I will spread the info outwards in the future for the other newbies

[mthunt]

% makes a push or pull more forgiving. 0HA makes all putts start on target no matter what. The only reading given to TGC is ball speed. How you aim is a matter of preference only. If using 0HA you have no choice but the aim the alignment pointer

[Solstice72]

Thanks I got it .  You seem to be not a fan of the boosters for the other clubs why do you play 5 for the putter?

[keither5150]

Solstice72 Here is a photo of the slider. Some GC2 users don't have an issue putting from their hitting strip. My FB matt was terrible. The slider worked fantastic. The GC2 has an HA accuracy of +/- 1 degree so there is a forgiveness setting for putting. If your putt is off 3/4 of a degree, you will still have a straight putt. If your putt is 2 degrees off, it will be 2 degrees off. With putting, every degree matters. When you are pitching or hitting approach shots, if the ball ends up 3 feet left or right...… it doesn't make much difference.

[Holtzeeeeee]

Sorry but where is this putting adjustment? In gsx? I think it may be on the pro tee tab ... but does that apply to tgc2019?

[Godfather]

Yes is gsx and yes it works with TGC2019