Line On Ball

[cometgolfer]

Using a line on the ball to assist with putter aim seems to be common practice among many tour professionals. My understanding is that you have do some other "things" correctly to get the full benefit, but it can help with "side-of-the-ball" versus "behind-the-ball" visual issues.

I'm curious as to how many of them also use it on tee shots to assist in their alignment? Seems like I saw Tiger tee up with the line parallel to the clubface for a tee shot at Dubai over the weekend.

Alignment is such a key aspect of playing it would seem that any chance to let your equipment help you out would be worth the effort.

CG

[Overkill]

Using a line on the ball to assist with putter aim seems to be common practice among many tour professionals. My understanding is that you have do some other "things" correctly to get the full benefit, but it can help with "side-of-the-ball" versus "behind-the-ball" visual issues.

I'm curious as to how many of them also use it on tee shots to assist in their alignment? Seems like I saw Tiger tee up with the line parallel to the clubface for a tee shot at Dubai over the weekend.

Alignment is such a key aspect of playing it would seem that any chance to let your equipment help you out would be worth the effort.

CG

CG

Using a line is becoming very common both on the greens and off the tee.

On tee shots some Pros have the line parallel to the clubface because looking down at it bothers them visually.

However, I would not take a manuf. at face value that the line is in the best location. If you put one of the most popular balls on a "scope" you will find that the line on the ball and the "scope" do not often match. Because of this, I am aware of one pro who wants all the balls he gets scoped by the manuf. before he gets them.

Something to think about////

[Yoda]

Using a line is becoming very common both on the greens and off the tee.

On tee shots some Pros have the line parallel to the clubface because looking down at it bothers them visually.

However, I would not take a manuf. at face value that the line is in the best location. If you put one of the most popular balls on a "scope" you will find that the line on the ball and the "scope" do not often match. Because of this, I am aware of one pro who wants all the balls he gets scoped by the manuf. before he gets them.

An insightful post, OK, as usual. Thanks!

Please tell us a bit more about the "scope", i.e., what it is, how it is used and its availability to the average golfer.

P.S. I assume you're at Pebble this week. Good luck!

[cometgolfer]

CG

Using a line is becoming very common both on the greens and off the tee.

On tee shots some Pros have the line parallel to the clubface because looking down at it bothers them visually.

However, I would not take a manuf. at face value that the line is in the best location. If you put one of the most popular balls on a "scope" you will find that the line on the ball and the "scope" do not often match. Because of this, I am aware of one pro who wants all the balls he gets scoped by the manuf. before he gets them.

Something to think about////

Overkill,

Thanks for the insight.

Do tell us more about the "scope".

CG

[Overkill]

An insightful post, OK, as usual. Thanks!

Please tell us a bit more about the "scope", i.e., what it is, how it is used and its availability to the average golfer.

P.S. I assume you're at Pebble this week. Good luck!

Yoda

Sorry about that, I was talking about a type of Gyroscope; by spinning the ball at high speed you can locate its balance point and mark it with a line or a dot.

I believe that a ball struck where it is in balance will fly straighter and have a truer roll ; we all know how a ball flies when it gets a glob of mud on one side which really puts it out of balance.

I'm sure we all like to think that when we buy top line balls that they are just that, top line; however, I have had some vibrate so much they would not stay on the Gyro.

The one I use is made by Technasonic but I'm sure there are others; they can be found in most Golf stores (PGA for sure) and on-line.

We are at Pebble, off the first tee in the morning/////

Thanks, and I hope this helps

[Yoda]

Yoda

Sorry about that, I was talking about a type of Gyroscope; by spinning the ball at high speed you can locate its balance point and mark it with a line or a dot.

The one I use is made by Technasonic but I'm sure there are others; they can be found in most Golf stores (PGA for sure) and on-line.

Thanks, OK. I have one of these machines.

I thought maybe some new kind device had been devised to somehow 'scope' -- x-ray or calibrate or something -- the balls without putting them on the 'spin machine'. Thanks for clarifying. I've learned a new term!

[Uppndownn]

And Overkill continues to leave no stone unturned!

OK,

Scoping or spinning a ball reveals "how it wants to spin". Does the mark you put on the top of the ball in the scope become the farthest point away from your player at address?

Thanks and good luck at Pebble and throughout the season. With your attention to detail, you take a lot of what others see as luck out of the equation.

Overkill rocks!

UPP in snowy Ohio

[Overkill]

And Overkill continues to leave no stone unturned!

OK,

Scoping or spinning a ball reveals "how it wants to spin". Does the mark you put on the top of the ball in the scope become the farthest point away from your player at address?

Thanks and good luck at Pebble and throughout the season. With your attention to detail, you take a lot of what others see as luck out of the equation.

Overkill rocks!

UPP in snowy Ohio

UPP

With the Gyro I use, once the ball is spinning in balance you can either put a line around the ball or a dot on the side. If you don't mind looking at a line ( I don't) you aim it in the direction that you want the ball to fly or roll. So, as you putt, you would be looking down on the line.

If you use the dot, you place the ball on the green or a tee so the dot is aimed between your feet.

By the way, in case someone is wondering, it is not against the rules of golf to put a line all the way around a ball.

[cometgolfer]

I have to admit that I've thought about getting one of these but always talked myself out of it. I'm one who sort of believes that balls today are manufactured better, are more consistent, etc. Reading OK's comments got me thinking about it again and I decided to use some $ I had on a gift card to get one.

I marked up a few sleeves of new PV1's I had laying around. I then took 4 or 5 and "re-scoped" them. All returned to the same orientation.

Assuming the concept is to determine if the ball has an internal weighting "issue" then I would assume this tells me that each of the ones I re-scoped does (or it would be more of a random settling point on a 2nd spin).

Is it enough to make a significant difference? Not sure. If nothing else I did my thing to stimulate the economy.

CG

[Uppndownn]

The fact that the balls generally return to the same orientation proves the point, at least for me. It takes one more variable out of the equation.

UPP in snowy Ohio