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

[braycobb]

JohnMeyer....are you using the original turf top from Optishot or an aftermarket turf? The thicker aftermarket turfs do have an effect on the readings and generally require the settings to be boosted slightly to achieve real world results. However, I have a thicker turf and don't need to boost the numbers. All of my irons are pretty accurate (+_ 3 yards on average) except for my 56 and 60. I also need to set my driver at 95% for real world results.

[Maxxx]

Hey John, My thick turf did slow down my irons. I think that the club head digs in a bit and slows it down. I try not to take a "divot" but I do hit down on the ball.

Cheers

Mildly off topic but do any of you find your irons not play a little short when set to 100%. IRL I hit 9 iron 145 carry, consistently and have done for years. I took my club set based on GI irons so that may be causing the problem but have increase distance setting to 110 to acheive this on optishot. Pretty much the same through my irons 6 iron through to SW. Driver however I know distance setting down to 93% to acheive my 260 which is what I hit pretty much every time I hit a straight drive, as backed up by trackman data for the x2hot at 102-106 swing speed which is what Optishot reads it at. And I think you know where I stand on my putter Not saying anything is right or wrong or anyone should do anything, just wondering if anyone else has similar experience with irons. Im still using old deep red tour fatshaft irons which I think were known for being long, and people do comment how long and high I do hit my irons.

[JohnMeyer]

Having had yet another nightmare on fast greens Ive done a bit more research on the subject and fast green settings dont seems to be that far off to be fair.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimpmeter

Stimpmeter testing is done at ball speed of 1.83m/s, and at this speed on fast green should travel 8.5ft (average).



This gives a figure for calculations of 4.64 ft per 1m/s of ball speed at 8.5 Stimp



http://www.isb.ac.th/HS/JoP/vol3iss2...s/1Putting.pdf

From this article ball speed is 2.03 x Putter Head Speed (in m/s)

m/s = mph x 0.447

so this gives 2.03 x (0.447 x Putter Speed Mph)

Ball Speed = 0.907 x Putter Speed MPH


Stimp Meter to Putter Speed Calculation

1.83m/s = 2.03 x (0.447 x Putter Speed MPH)

1.83/2.03 = 0.447 x Putter Speed MPH

(183/2.03) / 0.447 = Putter Speed MPH

Stimp Meter = Putter Speed of 2.02 MPH


So Stimp meter is equivalent to putter speed of 2.02MPH


From the calculations above this can be confirmed by using (at 8.5 Stimp,)

Distance travelled = Ball Speed x 4.64ft

Ball Speed = Putter Speed (Mph) x 0.907

Therefore Distance Travelled = Putter Speed (Mph) x 0.907 x 4.64

1mph putt = 4.21ft

2mph putt = 8.41ft

2.02mph putt = 8.5ft (Stimp)


As we dont know how the Club MPH figures are rounded then ill just use the averages of the ranges from my earlier testing and it would appear that the Stimps are roughly in line to USGA.



However when the swing speed increases, the ball speed to putter speed relationship no longer seems to apply, this may be the case in real life, I cannot find any conclusive data. You would expect that if the relationship was maintained then a 5 mph putt on 8.5 Stimp Greens (fast) should travel 21.02ft

On Optishot my 5mph putt on the 1st hole travelled 47ft

Now this is either:
1.True to life as the putter to ball speed relationship does indeed increase at higher speeds, OR
2.Optishot Greens run too fast at higher swing speeds

In the article above the tester did seem to get spurious results as his putter speed increased so this may well be true and as such could be conceived that the greens do indeed run true to life.

I still dont like them though lol

[madspeed]

Although I play my rounds with a real ball and the correct setting within Optishot, I find putting to be the most accurate when not hitting a ball but leaving the settings intact. Has anyone found this to be true?

[JohnMeyer]

I sometimes wonder if there is the odd reflection picked up from the ball, but on the whole find there to be no real difference. I believe tournament guidelines are that a ball must be hit at all times so I haven't really tested it too thoroughly

[psgolfer]

Having had yet another nightmare on fast greens Ive done a bit more research on the subject and fast green settings dont seems to be that far off to be fair.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimpmeter

Stimpmeter testing is done at ball speed of 1.83m/s, and at this speed on fast green should travel 8.5ft (average).



This gives a figure for calculations of 4.64 ft per 1m/s of ball speed at 8.5 Stimp



http://www.isb.ac.th/HS/JoP/vol3iss2...s/1Putting.pdf

From this article ball speed is 2.03 x Putter Head Speed (in m/s)

m/s = mph x 0.447

so this gives 2.03 x (0.447 x Putter Speed Mph)

Ball Speed = 0.907 x Putter Speed MPH


Stimp Meter to Putter Speed Calculation

1.83m/s = 2.03 x (0.447 x Putter Speed MPH)

1.83/2.03 = 0.447 x Putter Speed MPH

(183/2.03) / 0.447 = Putter Speed MPH

Stimp Meter = Putter Speed of 2.02 MPH


So Stimp meter is equivalent to putter speed of 2.02MPH


From the calculations above this can be confirmed by using (at 8.5 Stimp,)

Distance travelled = Ball Speed x 4.64ft

Ball Speed = Putter Speed (Mph) x 0.907

Therefore Distance Travelled = Putter Speed (Mph) x 0.907 x 4.64

1mph putt = 4.21ft

2mph putt = 8.41ft

2.02mph putt = 8.5ft (Stimp)


As we dont know how the Club MPH figures are rounded then ill just use the averages of the ranges from my earlier testing and it would appear that the Stimps are roughly in line to USGA.



However when the swing speed increases, the ball speed to putter speed relationship no longer seems to apply, this may be the case in real life, I cannot find any conclusive data. You would expect that if the relationship was maintained then a 5 mph putt on 8.5 Stimp Greens (fast) should travel 21.02ft

On Optishot my 5mph putt on the 1st hole travelled 47ft

Now this is either:
1.True to life as the putter to ball speed relationship does indeed increase at higher speeds, OR
2.Optishot Greens run too fast at higher swing speeds

In the article above the tester did seem to get spurious results as his putter speed increased so this may well be true and as such could be conceived that the greens do indeed run true to life.

I still dont like them though lol

John, how much time do you have on your hands? Are you a retired instruction manual writer? Just kidding, man your posts are mini novels.

[JohnMeyer]

haha. Am spending a lot of time nursing a sick calf so have to sit and watch it for hours on end in the evenings so have a bit of time on my hands whilst its sleeping/not requiring constant attention

[SFR]

Bottom line for stimp is that a ball rolls off the stimp meter at 4.1 mph. No faster no slower. If that ball then rolls 10 feet on a flat green it is to be said that the stimp on that green is a 10. If it goes 11 feet then it's 11 etc.

If the optishot will tell you ball speed of a putt then you need to swing your putter (most likely easier without a ball in place) to try to get a swing speed that will produce a 4.1 mph ball speed. I don't think you can calculate all putters the same with smash factor as some faces on putters are soft and the ball will come off slower and some faces are harder and thus a faster ball off the face. Also where the optishot reads club speed only it will use its own smash factor it has been set to. Also you can't use a simple formula like if you swing to get an 8.2 mph ball speed that it should travel 2 times as far as a 4.1 mph ball speed because that is not how putts roll.

On my GC2 it shows ball speed so I can see what ball speed a putt comes off the face. I try to get my putt speed set so that on average a ball will roll 10 feet with that 4 mph range of ball speed. I have no idea of the club speed to get that but if I were to guess I would say between 3 and 4 mph as other sims seem to use a smash factor on putters of about 1.2 or 1.0.

If you use your chart of distance and putt speed then your slow greens are running over 12 on the stimp. I would think that slow could be more like 8 with 10 med and 12 fast.

[JohnMeyer]

http://www.isb.ac.th/HS/JoP/vol3iss2/Papers/1Putting.pdf

This article says that ball speed (m/s)= Putter head velocity(m/s) x 2.03

Coverting m/s to mph = 1 mph = 0.44704 m/s

ball speed = Putterspeed mph x 0.44704 x 2.035

Ball speed = 0.907 x Putterhead velocity (mph)

So stimp ball speed = 4.1mph = 0.9097264 x Putterhead (mph)

Stimp ball speed = 4.5 Putterhead speed Mph



I mixed my m/s and my mph in earlier calculations

It is as you rightly say, greens play very very fast lol And they say putting on Optishot is easy...

Cheers SFR, seems the article from the physics journal wasnt far out after all, just my maths was wrong, and optishot greens are indeed lightning fast. Ive just hit a 23 putt round though so cant complain, but did require a putter setting of 80% and some very delicate swinging