Use of Ball Line as an Alignment Aid in Putting

Abstract

When standing sideways to the ball, it becomes very difficult to see the veridical line of putt to the target and players often misread the direction. The purpose of the study was to determine if using a line on the ball aids putting. Twenty-four expert and twenty-four novice players each made a total of 40 putts, 10 putts each with and without using a line on the ball at distances of 1 m and 4 m away from the hole. When using a line on the ball, players were asked to stay behind the ball, align the ball line toward the target line, and then make the putt. Using a ball line did not aid in any aspects of putting including bias, accuracy, and consistency. In addition, experts who use ball line neither align nor perform better than those who do not use the ball line.