Putting Speed Setting

[JohnMeyer]

Hi all,

As Catman was discussing a possible change to allow 80% Putt Speed setting in order to negate the wild green speeds that occur when set to Fast and to also possibly better reflect a true to life putting feel I thought Id try out the Putting Swing Speed and distances on the various green speeds and then finally see how 80% and 100% settings compare to real life distances

As a precursor to this I am fully aware and believe that each persons individual putting stroke can vary greatly, with a vast variety of grip styles as well as strokes, so these results may well be very particular to my stroke, which is a 10 finger grip and gate style stroke but hopefully the software results for speed relating to distance should be the same throughout everyone's setup,

I carried out the test on the 1st green at Warwick Hills and found an area which had no movement left to right (as indicated by no moving balls on the grid) and only 1" fall to the pin. I did however aim left of the pin in order to allow for shots to exceed the distance to the pin which was 25 feet. All shots were taken from the same spot, and the green speeds and putter speed % altered within the same practice session to try and keep the results as accurate as possible.

So I started off initially comparing real life putting distance to that achieved at 80% and 100% speed setting. I selected Medium Speed Green Setting as I though this would be the most similar to what I consider a standard putting green best reflecting the small 10ft putting green that runs off in from of my hitting platform, which has a cup that I set 8ft from the Optishot.

I took multiple putts to the left of this hole initially at 100% Putt Speed Setting. I found that when laying up either just short,in the hole or directly to the left of it, ie within an inch or so that the Optishot software read this as a Putt Swing Speed of 3mph, travelling average 10-11 feet. I made this putt many times and the results were pretty consistent.

Changing no other settings I then set Putt Speed to 80% and made the same real life putts to the cup on my putting green. Optishop read these as a Putt Swing Speed of 2mph, With a distance on 7-8ft

I then went on to check the 3 green speeds for Distance to Swing Speed variances. Below were my findings, which were consistent at both 80% and 100% Putting Speed Settings. I did however find it near impossible to get 1mph Swing Speeds when set at 100% Putt Speed so most of those readings were taken when putting at 80% Putt Speed Setting. Also anything over 59ft was displayed in yards on Optishot so have been converted below to feet at 3ft to the yard. I didn't go any higher than 7mph Swing Speed as didn't have enough green


....................................Slow Green................ Medium Green ...............Fast Green

Swing Speed........... Distance Travelled ........Distance Travelled......... Distance Travelled

1mph _________________0 - 2 ft________________0 - 3ft_________________ 0 - 5ft_______

2mph_________________ 2 - 7 ft_______________ 3 - 8ft _________________5 - 12ft_______

3mph_________________ 8 - 12ft______________ 9 - 16ft ________________13- 26ft_______

4mph________________ 13 - 18ft______________17 - 27ft________________27 - 39 ft______

5mph_________________19 - 30 ft_____________28 - 41ft________________40 - 62 ft______

6mph_________________31 - 42ft______________42 - 57ft________________63 - 77ft_______

7mph__________________43ft + _______________ 58ft + __________________78ft+________

As you can see the results re pretty consistent with the increase in green speed as expected and also with my earlier test when I said that on Med Speed green at 80% Putt Speed Optishot read it as 2mph Swing Speed and it travelled 7-8 feet, and at 100% Putt Speed said it was 3mph and 10-11 feet

All in all I will state again that this may well only relate to my particular setup and with my swing but from these results above, and in particular my real world distance comparison test I would personally very much like to see a move to 80% Putt Speed setting.

Hope you find it all of interest, Im now gonna have a little rest having hit god know how many hundreds of putts this afternoon

Cheers

John


EDIT

Please also note I believe the range of distances relating to Swing Speed are due to the Optishot only displaying Swing Speed with no decimal places, ie a Speed of 2.0 would be bottom of the range, 2.9 being top of the range, unless rounding up occurs so would then be 1,5 and 2,5 etc etc. this would explain the range of distance within in effect the same Swing Speed as displayed on Optishot

[CatMan]

Great Stuff John,

And I would encourage other Players to weigh in on this only after doing some testing yourselves.....''

Thanks

CatMan

[CatMan]

EDIT

Please also note I believe the range of distances relating to Swing Speed are due to the Optishot only displaying Swing Speed with no decimal places, ie a Speed of 2.0 would be bottom of the range, 2.9 being top of the range, unless rounding up occurs so would then be 1,5 and 2,5 etc etc. this would explain the range of distance within in effect the same Swing Speed as displayed on Optishot

I agree with this John, I saw that as well...

[Buckeye]

Well I checked the procedures thread it still says 100% bolded and underlined.

Sorry have been out of town for the Holydays.

Just briefly reading it seems we are considering adjusting our putter speed to match his carpet? Am I following correctly?

I mean we all play different speed greens in the real world. Hell some courses around here might not cut the greens for a week or two while the nicer courses cut and roll every morning.

Just trying to figure out what you guys have come up with now. Is it 80% exactly for everyone? Or is it a range between 80% and 100%? Can I set it to 90%? 82%?

Seems the simple idea of keeping the rust off the swing during the off season is getting mighty complicated and the rules are changing all the time.

[CatMan]

Good Question and I personally think a range is ok but that's me... Please move this to the Putter Thread John Created.. These are good Questions Mike and encourage you to do some of your own testing..

[MrHogan]

Well done John thats a great effort for the community

[JohnMeyer]

Mike I agree totally with what you are saying in may respects, and as I say my results are based on what I found. I don't think I'm alone in that I find I have to slow my putting stroke down in order to achieve the distances. The issue was raised so I carried out some testing that is all. I would have thought the aim is to provide a real a simulation of golf as possible and in mine and maybe others opinion, following on from testing that with Putt Speed set at 100% a true to life swing results in the ball going a lot further than in would do in real life.

I am more than happy to keep it at 100% and adapt my stroke (like i believe everyone has to) in order to make putting a viable option, but I would have thought it better that the game be altered to reflect our stroke already in order to make it realistic as possible. We do it with irons (and I did my driver too), where we set distances etc to match our average real world, why not the putter?

I don't see how having everyone set at 100% or allowing people to have different is any difference, as long as the setting is made to reflect real life, not just to make putting easier.

As I say not trying to complicate things or even change the rules. The issue was raised so I tested it, on all I had, MY carpet, to match MY expected putting stroke, as per the guidelines that we use already for our irons. I would say that if you feel that setting to 90% accurately greater reflects your putting stroke then all the better.

Equally though leave it to 100 and just don't do fast greens, as again in my opinion there are far far too fast in relation to swing speed vs distance.

[Buckeye]

but I would have thought it better that the game be altered to reflect our stroke already in order to make it realistic as possible. We do it with irons (and I did my driver too), where we set distances etc to match our average real world, why not the putter?

A couple weeks ago John it was discussed and decided that everyone can play their clubs at 100% and it was not required to adjust your game to your real swing.

I suppose that is what caught me off guard with this putter talk. I thought it was announced prior to the British that realism was not the goal. 350+ yard drives and 200 yard pitching wedges was acceptable and now we are worried about the realism of 10 foot putts?

Just confused, that is all.

[Buckeye]

For what it's worth the last round of the British I think had fast greens and high winds, only two people shot over par that round. I wouldn't say putter percentage was a problem there.

[JohnMeyer]

Yeah thats fair enough, and again think there's nothing wrong with people being allowed to play everything at 100% and not reflecting there real life swing as like you say its merely to keep the rust off. I just thought that if you did want to try and reflect it as best you can then I'm all for it, and for me when Catman said he was considering 80% putter, when i checked it I found for me that it was indeed better and more reflective. The other thread was probably the wrong place for talking it through, as more of a testing to see what effect it has like discussion. I persoanlly hope it does become rules that we can change it, as Im personally trying to recreate as accurate simulation as possible with obvious limitations,but until then will obviously keep to 100 and just play it far more gently

---

[Buckeye]

John, I too, wanted to play as accurately as possible to our real swing. It was most of the others who disagreed.

[HWoods]

A couple weeks ago John it was discussed and decided that everyone can play their clubs at 100% and it was not required to adjust your game to your real swing.

I suppose that is what caught me off guard with this putter talk. I thought it was announced prior to the British that realism was not the goal. 350+ yard drives and 200 yard pitching wedges was acceptable and now we are worried about the realism of 10 foot putts?

Just confused, that is all.

Made me LOL

[Buckeye]

Made me LOL

Well it's true isn't it?!

[Buckeye]

John, so you get caught up on the back history I will provide you some links to previous discussions regarding "realism".

Page 6 of this thread:

http://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/optishot/20084-the-british-open-at-old-scots-15th-21st-dec/page6

This entire thread:

http://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/optishot/21488-for-informational-purposes

I think there are a couple others as well.

[JohnMeyer]

All read and understood, and see where everyones coming from. I get why people are concerned about driver, and to me I think the rule is right, you can set it to a MAX of 100% on Driver, but can lower it if you wish, Irons must be set to real world distances, just the putter rule that I do think is wrong but see the reasoning behind it. Does make it equally as difficult for everyone I guess, but think there is space for adjustment to allow people to be happy with there putter and a rule change to allow between 80 and 100 would be an acceptable rule change. If you are happy and putting well at 100% then could keep it there, if you prefer it lower then lower it. If you honestly believed it made putting "easier" to play at 80 but chose to keep it at a 100 then that;s your call. Id like to believe people would make it the setting that most reflected there natural putting and in line with how they'd judge a putt in real life.

Just my 2 cents (or pence) and would be nterested to see if those who do score low on fast greens at 100% do so because they've had to massively adjust there stroke or they do believe that the stroke they make on Optishot would give the same outcome if on a real "fast" green

Ill of course leave it up to those who are far more experienced in these matters, just providing the info as asked

See ya all out there at Warwick