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Plumb Bobbing, the Futile Pursuit

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Plumb Bobbing - Golf

In Latin, the word for the metal Lead is Plumbum.  Hence the surveying term “plumb” meaning to hang straight down like the lead weighted string line of the surveyor’s transit tripod.  The lead weight itself, usually with a pointed tip, is called the plumb bob.

Way, way back when I started to play golf in the late Fifties, there used to be a six hole ‘practice course’ set within the bounds of the 18 hole San Francisco Muni, Harding Park.  After buying a ‘monthly’ ticket for a buck twenty-five, there was no other charge for kids to use the ‘practice course’.  One could play or practice until one couldn’t take it any more.  I think adults paid about 6 bucks for the monthly ticket.

In addition to the gang of teenagers who were out there every summer’s day, there were a few real characters who frequented the place.  In particular there was this goofy looking 35 year old named Johnson.  You would invariably find him on the fourth hole, hitting bag after bag.  His routine never varied.  He wanted to play on the tour.  He never made it.

We all thought Johnson was a little looney.  He had a big scoop swing ala Byron Nelson and, other than trying to qualify for a few local pro events, he never actually played much.

One of the things that added to Johnson’s comic aura was his explanation of “plumb bobbing”, which he claimed to have invented.  I don’t think I have to tell you what that is.  Everyone who plays golf has seen it, and probably tried it.  Users swear by it.  Non users just laugh because they don’t know what to make of it.

Johnson, who was, I believe, a part time physics professor at SF State across the street from the course, longish blonde hair wafting in the breeze and black horn rimmed glasses askew, would spend hours explaining it to anyone who wanted to listen.  I listened.  I just didn’t “get it”.  Of course, the same could be said for a lot that went past me in those years.

I can’t play golf these days without seeing somebody ‘plumb bob’ it.  I always ask them, “How does that work?”  Or, “what do you see?”  And I always get a serious description of the basic methodology.  Of course nobody actually knows how it works.  Or can explain the physics of it.  And that always makes me smile.  I wish I could listen to Johnson’s explanation again.  Maybe it would make some sense to me now.

Plumb bobbing presumably gives one the ‘break’ on a putt.  But after years of trying it, thinking about it, and experimenting with it, to say nothing of listening to hundreds of moronic explanations, I can state categorically that it’s stupidity of the highest order.  And I always think of poor old Johnson, hair flying, pushing up his glasses, defending his ‘invention’ to us incredulous teenagers.

Johnson was trying to establish a scientific way of determining if there was any slope in the green between his ball and the hole.  In that way, he could definitively ‘read’ the break of the putt.

The methodology was as follows: get the same distance behind the ball as the ball is from the hole.  Squat.  Hang the putter so that it’s plumb.  Using only your master eye, cover the ball with the shaft of the putter.  Then look up and see where the hole is.  If it’s to one side or the other of the shaft, that’s the break.  The relative distance in the gap between the shaft and the hole equals the amount of break.

Over the years a variety of deep thinkers and golf teachers have tried to refine the technique in futile attempts at … making it work.  A more modern version has one standing as close as possible to the ball, etc., etc.  Another version says ‘squat’ behind the ball, still another has one standing behind the ball.  Another says ‘hold the putter waist high.’  On and on they go.

It’s all tripe.  First of all, the putter will not naturally hang plumb just because one grips it high on the handle and lets it hang straight down.  The center of gravity of the club head will throw it slightly off one way or another.  If you really want it to be plumb, experiment with a nearby structural plumb line like a doorway or building corner or the edge of a window.  Line your putter up so that the shaft perfectly obscures the plumbed building line.  You’ll see that you have to rotate your putter head to an exact compass point before you get a perfectly plumbed putter.  And every putter is different in this regard.

Okay, we’re past problem number one.  Now problem two has to do with your head, eyes and body position when you are looking at the plumbed line.  The hole will only appear to one side or the other IF your head and eyes are correctly oriented.  Your head has to be perpendicular to the ground beneath you, and your eyes have to be parallel to it.

Here, let’s imagine an isosceles triangle, where the two sides are longer than the base.  Okay, now there’s a plumb bob hanging from the top, or the apex, of the triangle.  It hangs directly down the center of the figure.  But, if you tilt the base of the triangle — raise one corner or the other — the plumb bob will shift sideways accordingly.  And the apex of the triangle will move sideways as well.  The more you tilt the base, the more sideways movement you get.

When you’re on the green plumb bobbing the putt, the top of the triangle is the part of the shaft covering the hole.  The plumb bob is the part of the shaft covering the ball.  BUT, if the green beneath you is tilted, if one corner of the base is raised, when you stand perpendicular to it, the plumb bob will swing sideways in order to point straight down.  When you move the plumbed putter over so that the ball remains covered, the top of the triangle, the handle of the putter, will move as well revealing the hole.  The slanted base of the triangle makes the plumb move sideways.  And when you keep the ball covered, the hole is revealed.  This is the physical basis for Johnson’s idea.

The reason why this is fairly impossible to put into practice is that        quite naturally, when there’s a slope to the ground beneath your feet — when one foot is lower than the other — you compensate by holding your head erect, that is on a 360/180 axis.  You do this so that everything looks normal to you instead of cockeyed, which it would if your head was on a different axis.  So you’re not going to uncover or reveal the hole unless your head is perpendicular to the ground.  Are we clear on that?

I hear you Lead Heads saying that you can adjust your body to perpendicular so that you get the proper head angle, thus seeing the hole and the break.  Okay, okay, hear me out.

That brings us to problem number three.  Even if you are compulsively correct with the first two issues above, you are only going to get a reading that pertains to the ground upon which you are standing!  You’re not going to get a reading on the ground between your ball and the hole.  Picture the surveyor’s transit: it only tells you the slope of the ground underneath the transit.  Not the slope of the ground in front of the transit.

In other words, the whole effort is gratuitous and bogus.  It doesn’t matter if you’re Johnson’s equidistance from the ball/hole behind the ball or right behind the ball, or standing or squatting or standing on your head or plotting the whole thing out with NASA scientists.  It doesn’t work.  The basic idea is flawed.

Let’s put it another way so that even a physics professor can understand: you can’t plumb bob from behind the ball.  It will only give you information about the ground you’re standing on.  So, as we say in New Jersey, Fuhgeddabouddit.

Now, the idea that one might be able to ‘see’ that the plane of the green between the ball and the hole is not perpendicular to a plumbed line is certainly valid.  And if that’s what you’re looking for when you plumb the putt, good for you.  Go for it.  Every other golfer in the world is doing the same thing without the plumbed putter confusing the issue, by just relying on their 360/180 head orientation to provide the vertical reference.

But we are all imperfect.  And as such, need crutches.  Need reinforcement.  Need help.  And since putting is largely a matter of confidence, any positive reinforcement should be welcomed.  Ergo, the following…

If you can’t give up the Lead Head idea, here’s how to use it: go stand between the ball and the hole.  Straddle the presumed line.  Hang the putter plumb from your belly button.  Look down at the putter head.  Study it.  If it favors one foot or the other, you’ve discovered categorically that the surface under your feet slopes. Therefore the putt breaks.  Viola!

Of course if you do this a lot, you’ll be suspected of violating some local ordinance against lewdness, so keep an eye out for the Legion of Decency.


(Photo Credit)

 

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