Putting uphill to a hole

[Shorty]

For many golfers, while attempting to hole the ball when putting uphill to it, it’s been observed from watching on TV many golf professional tournaments, that the ball stops below the hole more often than it does above the hole. The frequency ratio for these occurrences is at least 10 to 1. The message here, I believe, is that players under estimate the effect of slope on the distance traveled by the ball. These results are understandable considering that knowledge of green slope effect on ball travel is difficult to come by, even on the practice green.
The percentage of ball-hole distance required to compensate for the effect of green slope on putting to the hole is defined as the Delta Factor. The units for it is %/unit golf slope. From computer analysis, as an example, for a medium speed green of 8.5 ft, the delta factor is about 15 % per unit slope. Since green slopes of 3 units are not unusual, this implies that a 45 % delta factor would be frequently encountered. Ignorance of the delta factor is most likely the major explanation for this putting error.

[GolfJunkieSr]

Re: Putting uphill to a hole

Putting, chipping, or pitching and rolling the ball to a spot past the hole has always worked well for me when having an up hill target. If it's 10 feet up hill to to the hole, then I might need to hit a 15' putt. Past experience on up hill shots will give me an idea on how hard to hit the ball. By picking a spot past the hole of the target, the golfer will instinctively hit their shot harder , which allows the ball to cover the up hill distance.

I can appreciate the "delta factor",and kudos to anyone who can understand, and/or explain it. The bottom line is that the golfer just needs to have the courage to hit the ball harder on an up hill shot. That courage is gained by practicing those up hill shots to the hole. Even after years of practice the ball will sometimes still not make it to the hole for the head scratching golfer. GJS