Each year, Nature offers us the month of May to ask forgiveness for February. Well, as you read this article in June, I hope nature did indeed receive forgiveness!! This year I will leverage the Tremblant Express forum to produce a series of articles that will reveal certain truths about various aspects of the game.

We did notice that the changes to the rules in 2019 brought us into some new territory and even addressed some goofy situations (e.g. knee height drop). Let’s start with a truth about putting.

Science indicates that you should keep the flagstick in

This is the current subject of the hour, as science challenges a conventional approach to putting. There is no doubt in my mind that for putts longer than 20 feet, there is a net gain to keeping the flag in. You get a sense of depth that will help your speed control. When you’re putting in the “paying zone” (15 to 5 feet), the chances of success increase dramatically.

The conventional approach prompts us to remove the flag, and yet science confirms that the loss of power caused by the impact of the ball on the flag pole is to our advantage.

I was always of the opinion that on average, a ball would ricochet away from the hole if it did not hit the pole directly during a nice shot with firm speed. Science contradicts my opinion, so it will be interesting to see if science is right as we watch the accumulation of statistics on the PGA Tour in that regard.

However, I still plan to be conventional first and foremost. When I‘m in a favourable position and close to the hole, I’ll remove the flag. And you?

By the same author: Performance on the green (Click the image below)