Just plumb crazy?
Pros debate value of putting technique
Left edge, right edge, three balls out. Inside left, inside right, there's never a doubt.
The late, great Dr. Seuss could have used that in a book on the art of plumb-bobbing to read a putt. Certainly, it would have been perfect fodder for his sense of humor, for when it comes to questions about plumb-bobbing, the quizzical looks, comical anecdotes, and baffling head shakes follow. With plumb-bobbing -- the technique for reading a putt by standing behind your ball and holding your putter vertically in front of your eyes -- there are those who do and those who don't have a clue.
''I watch guys do it all the time and they're doing it wrong," said Lee Janzen, a faithful plumb-bobber. ''They don't know what they're doing."
Janzen certainly can't be talking about Chris Smith, because the 2002 Buick Classic champion has never gone through the routine in his pro career. In fact, said Smith, ''I had two brothers and they were high school and college age and they decided you had to plumb-bob. So they were trying to teach me how to plumb-bob and I did it for two days and decided it was the biggest waste of time."
Smith laughed, as did Billy Andrade when he remembered the one time he ever plumb-bobbed in a PGA Tour event. It came years ago at a stop in Houston ''and I had played with these guys in the pro-am who were plumb-bobbing," said Andrade. ''I told them, 'You guys don't have a clue what you're doing.' So when I got to the 18th hole on Sunday, I saw them sitting up in the stands and I decided to plumb-bob this 20-footer I had and they just laughed."
The putt?
''I missed it," said Andrade. ''Plumb-bobbing is overrated."
That's not a sentiment shared by a couple of Andrade's pals from the Rhode Island golf fraternity, because joining Janzen on the plumb-bobbing bandwagon are Dana Quigley and his brother Paul. To them, learning to plumb-bob -- the term comes from a lead weight that is used as a crude level -- is as essential as learning to keep drives under the Ocean State breezes.
''I plumb-bob all my putts and plumb-bob all of Dana's and all of Brett's putts, too," said Paul Quigley, a multiple winner of the Rhode Island State Amateur who caddies for son Brett on the PGA Tour these days. ''It's the way I grew up."
And you, Dana?
''Absolutely. I do it on every putt. It gives you an indication [of the break], but, of course, nothing is absolute," said the 10-time Champions Tour winner.
Quigley then paused, and said there was one thing that was absolute: ''If you don't know what you're doing, you'll only confuse yourself."
Down to the basics
OK, so let's hurdle the confusion and simply explain just how you go about plumb-bobbing. Those who do it agree that you must stand directly behind the ball . . .
''I've heard that you should stand whatever your height is away from your ball, but I generally stand 6-10 feet behind the ball," said Paul Quigley.
''But you need to straddle the line, I think," said Brad Faxon.
So, once you figure out where to stand, you hold up a putter . . .
''I use a wedge," said Paul Quigley, who shrugged. ''But only because Brett always is already holding the putter."
OK, you hold up a wedge or a putter . . .
''But the trouble is," said Janzen, ''that a lot of putters you can't do it with because they're not face-balanced or heel-balanced. They move too much. I see guys doing it with the wrong putters all the time."
All right, so the trick is to get a wedge or the right putter, and line it up over the ball, then . . .
''I think you're supposed to close one of your eyes," said Faxon.
''You have to know which is your dominant one, then you close the other one," said Mark Zyons, Andrade's caddie.
So, we're all agreed that you close one eye, right? Not quite.
''I know most players do, but I always keep both eyes opened," said Ben Crenshaw, who is E.F. Hutton when it comes to the subject of putting. ''I still do it. I see two shafts, the real one and the transparent one. I look for what's on the inside edge of the transparent one."
And if you have one eye closed, like Paul Quigley, ''you're looking at the cup to get a perspective of how far to start the ball out to have it end up at the hole. The putter will have a balance point, so you look up the shaft and you see an area left or right of the hole."
Left edge, right edge, three balls out. Inside left, inside right, there's never a doubt.
Enter, please, a Stanford graduate to shed light on all of this. Notah Begay, your feelings on plumb-bobbing?
''I think it is extremely overrated in terms of the physics concept called parallax," said Begay. ''Most people don't understand the concept. A lot of them never took a physics course. But, if you're totally lost, it definitely can help."
Parallax? A Google search comes up with explanations such as, ''the vision effect of having two eyes viewing the same scene from slightly different positions that creates a sense of depth." But the players put it in their own words. They talk about the need to let the shaft hang straight (''the toe faces toward you," said Crenshaw) and not blow in the wind, then you close your eye that isn't your dominant one (''I think that's my left one," said Faxon) and you line the shaft of the putter directly over the ball and ''if it's left of the hole," said Paul Quigley, ''the ball will break left-to-right."
Maybe.
''Remember, it not an exact science; it's only an indicator," said Crenshaw, whose putting prowess was most evident when he twice won the Masters. But Crenshaw concedes that plumb-bobbing on severe slopes like those at Augusta is not necessary. ''When the break is straightforward, you don't need to," he said. ''It's best when done on flatter surfaces, or when you have the appearance of a flat surface."
On that point, devout disciples of plumb-bobbing are in agreement. But Smith, for one, isn't about to start plumb-bobbing on any surface, flat or not flat.
''Just by looking at guys doing it and knowing and listening to what they're doing, it's way too much information for me," said Smith. ''It confuses me."
He isn't alone, because Charles Howell is another whose next plumb-bob will be his first.
''I don't know how to do it, never have, and don't plan on learning," said Howell. ''I just don't understand it."
It's not for everyone
So how does one learn to plumb-bob?
''I just picked it up," said Crenshaw. ''No one taught me to do it."
''I think I read about it from a golfer in a magazine, tried it, and it seemed to work for me," said Paul Quigley.
''I don't know if it's a lost art, because I don't know if enough guys ever did it to make it an art," said Faxon.
At first, Faxon said, he didn't plumb-bob, but there he was standing over that short putt to win the Buick Championship in Cromwell, Conn., Sunday, and the pose was unmistakable. In a manner that would bring a smile to the faces of his Rhode Island cronies, Faxon plumb-bobbed.
OK, we caught him. ''But, really, I don't plumb-bob a lot because I don't think it reads enough break into the putt," said Faxon.
Perhaps, said Begay, that's because it's impossible to keep the shaft completely still, which is essential to get a true plumb-bob, if you grasp the concept. Now, Begay's degree is in economics, but he didn't sleep through those physics lectures. He knows how plumb-bobbing works.
''In terms of gravity and gravitational pull, I do," he said. ''I understand the concept. But I don't think it fits me."
Nor does it seem to fit his collegiate teammate, for Tiger Woods doesn't plumb-bob, either. Instead, he stalks a putt from every angle, and if you think he's simply figuring out the putt with his eyes, think again. Woods is using that part of his body that relays the most crucial information.
''I read putts with my feet," said Duffy Waldorf.
''Absolutely, he's right," said Smith. ''I pay more attention to my feet than my eyes. It's why I always walk halfway to the hole from where my ball is, especially late in the day when it's hard to see."
Janzen relies on his feet, too, but he falls back on plumb-bobbing for confirmation. Crenshaw understands, committed plumb-bobber that he is.
''It's a second look, certainly, it's a crutch, no doubt about it," said Crenshaw, who used the technique as far back as his amateur days when he played in the Northeast Amateur at Wannamoisett in Rumford, R.I.
Paul Quigley was at those events and remembers vividly watching Crenshaw stand tall behind his ball and hold up his putter to plumb-bob. Quigley figured if it was good enough for Crenshaw, it would be good enough for him, though his own son has never done it, nor have many of the players for whom he has caddied.
''I was doing it one day for Hank Kuehne," said Paul Quigley. ''He looked at me and said, 'Paul, I don't want to know how to do it. All I want to know is, is it left or is it right?' "
Jay Haas has been wondering that for nearly 30 years of professional golf, though he no longer plumb-bobs to find out. Oh, he knows how and everything, ''but by now, I pretty much know if it's going to go right or left."
Begay smiled when told that, but then it was suggested that there must be something to the art of plumb-bobbing because Faxon does it and so do players such as Crenshaw, Janzen, and Jim Furyk, terrific putters, all of them.
Said Crenshaw, ''I can't say that I've overdone it, but I can't say I've underdone it, either."
But he's done it, which is more than a lot of his colleagues can say when it comes to plumb-bobbing. 