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Plumb Bobbing - Valid or exercise in futility?

Plumb Bobbing - Valid or exercise in futility?

  • Yes

    Votes: 15 18.5%

  • No

    Votes: 66 81.5%

  • Planet X

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    81
mancest said:
Didn't you hear? He got really into bike riding! I am sure we will see him again at the tour de france or something... probably not on the golf course though...
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Not to get too far off topic, but Camillo has played in 8 events this season and made the cut in all but one. He's actually been playing pretty well this year.
 
I don't even know what they are looking for when they do the plumb bob, or as I call it...dumb Bob.
 
When I get to the point where I plumb bob a putt, I hope one of my partners beats my brains out.......with my putter no less.
 
Faldo was talking about plumb bobbing a little while ago..... He said that if you can figure out how your putter hangs normally then it might help and then he said that you rarely see anyone plumb bobbing anymore.

Coincidence? Or is Faldo secretly reading THP trying to be more relevant? :bulgy-eyes:
 
I think it can be a useful tool to confirm or deny a slight break you're having trouble reading. I've seen pros doing it on the teevee and read about it. I can't see how people can rely on it, but with slight breaks and especially on dormant greens I will sometimes question my read. Use a club as a plumb to check the level and see that it does indeed (or perhaps does not!) break the direction I thought I saw. More than that takes more expertise than I have, if it works at all. I think I've actually used it on the course 5 or 6 times, but there were a few misses that I wish I had at least tried to plumb.
 
Not sure where the slow play comments are coming from. I have never thought of myself as particularly slow, in fact I tend to play faster than most that I play with. Why would people think that it takes a lot of time to do? It may take me 3 seconds to do and if I am not putting first, if I feel the need to do it on a particular hole I have already done it before putting.
 
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DawgDaddy said:
Not sure where the slow play comments are coming from. I have never thought of myself as particularly slow, in fact I tend to play faster than most that I play with. Why would people think that it takes a lot of time to do? It may take me 3 seconds to so and if I am not putting first, if I feel the need to do it on a particular hole I have already done it before putting.
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I've never played with you yet, DD, but most people I see plumb bobbing are slow as hell on the greens. Some aren't. Most are. In my experience.

And most aren't any better than average putters. The best putters I've seen don't do it.
 
I tried it once. Didn't get it. There's plenty of very time-consuming ways to try to read a putt. Some of them work. Plumb-bobbing probably isn't one of them.
 
I think it is a valid option. If I am stuck on a read I will sometimes revert to plumb bobbing


Proud Member of #TeamParadise
 
Yes, I Plumb Bob. I use it to pick a spot on the green that is on my line. Those who object to it must not understand how to do it.
 
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I don't do it unless it is just for fun, my playing partners become alarmed and confused.:act-up:
 
DawgDaddy said:
Not sure where the slow play comments are coming from. I have never thought of myself as particularly slow, in fact I tend to play faster than most that I play with. Why would people think that it takes a lot of time to do? It may take me 3 seconds to so and if I am not putting first, if I feel the need to do it on a particular hole I have already done it before putting.
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Nothing slow about DawgDaddy, I had to stop and think to realize that he does plumb bob because he does play at a good pace. Hey, he rolls the rock pretty good as well and makes lots of putts. Oh yeah, one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to tee it up with as well.
 
DawgDaddy said:
Not sure where the slow play comments are coming from. I have never thought of myself as particularly slow, in fact I tend to play faster than most that I play with. Why would people think that it takes a lot of time to do? It may take me 3 seconds to do and if I am not putting first, if I feel the need to do it on a particular hole I have already done it before putting.
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You ain't most people, brother.
 
I'll do it when I don't know where the balls going to break maybe to help force a decision when I pick my line. Its worked some times but not enough data to appropriately validate.
 
I've tried everything in my golfing life, including this. I never found it to help me, But, that's me. Can't answer for anyone else.
 
I asked my coach how to do it. He showed me. It worked and made sense.

I may pull it out if I get stuck, but saying its useless means you don't understand how it works.
 
crazygolfnut said:
Yes, I Plumb Bob. I use it to pick a spot on the green that is on my line. Those who object to it must not understand how to do it.
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chicogolf said:
I asked my coach how to do it. He showed me. It worked and made sense.

I may pull it out if I get stuck, but saying its useless means you don't understand how it works.
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That's what I said, and what I bet most people think. But still, most people I have seen do it are only average putters. So either they don't do it right or they must really suck when they don't do it. And as I said before, the better putters I know do not do it.

Smallville said:
I don't know how to do it. I've have read the instructions and think I am doing it correctly, but I don't see crap. It's kinda like those Magic Eye 3D pictures. It took me 30 years to finally figure them out.
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I hear ya. I was addressing the folks who said its useless.
 
I have spoken to several people about this and the general feeling is that it's a waste of time. And they have never known anyone that actually knows how to do it. That being said we all felt there were exception to the rule.

I personally don't think it works but that just my opinion. The guys I have witnessed doing it never make their putts and quite often miss read their putts anyway
 
Never tried it. I don't think I could effectively read the green this way.
 
Would someone actually care to explain to me how it works? For the life of me, I can't work out how this would be useful for anything golf related.
 
Mark_UK said:
Would someone actually care to explain to me how it works? For the life of me, I can't work out how this would be useful for anything golf related.
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Stand with the ball directly between you and the hole. Dangle the putter between your index finger and your thumb and then close your less dominant eye and look down the line directly at the ball and hole with the dominant eye. Unless the putt is straight the hole will appear to be on one side of the shaft or the other. The putt will break in that direction. It is no good on double breaking putts nor does it take into account grain or slope. It is only for those tricky putts when you really cannot decide if it is straight or has a slight break.
 
I "plumb bob" but it's not to determine the break. For me it is simply a straight edge to find a point in front of the ball in line with where I want my putt to start. If it's a straight putt, I align the side of the shaft with the center of my ball and the center of the cup and then find a point about a foot in front of my ball on that line that I want to roll the ball across. Same with breaking putts. I first determine the break, then use the shaft to find a mark somewhere in front of the ball I want to roll the ball across that is line with how far outside of the hole I want the ball to start.

I do the same with my club shafts on full shots, except I point the shaft skyward instead of hanging it between my fingers. For me it's just a straight edge to find something to align my setup to that is close to the ball.

Mark_UK said:
Would someone actually care to explain to me how it works? For the life of me, I can't work out how this would be useful for anything golf related.
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If the putter were perfectly perpendicular I can see how it could provide info on general slope. To be accurate, one would first have to use a level to determine if the putter shaft, when properly held, would hang in a perpendicular position. If so, theoretically it could help.


That said, it only increased the confusion when I tried it. But then I have not tested my putter to determine "The angle of the Dangle".
 
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