radiman
#TheGrandaddy2019
That's all well and good. I've left the flag in during practice rounds many times in the past. I have had many putts hit the flag and miss. I will just stick with what I've done for the past 20 plus years.But its already been proven via many thousands of rolled balls that the amount of times it helps outweigh the amount of times it would ever hurt. Even a partially leaning flag was proven to be favorable and that actually seen an increase in helping more than hurting. The only rare time it was slightly favorable to remove it was when it leaned so far over that the ball could not fit between the pin and the hole edge. Also to your point.....a hole is round and has no sides. There is no such thing as sides. And so is a pin round. It also has no sides. It makes no difference which 'side" a ball rolls in from. Now...if you want to talk of coming into a hole from an of center line like when liping out or barely falling in from an edge thats one thing, but still the ball will just do what it normally would anyway and the pin would have no effect. As for balls hitting a pin?....again, its been proven via thousands of balls that the pin itself (even a leaning one) will help more times than it will hurt. The idea that a breaking putt is somehow an exception is just not so.
Also, if I have a breaking putt and the ball is going to enter the hole from the side relative to where I am facing, I don't want anything possibly getting in the way if my speed isn't perfect.