What the hell is a plumb bob? It’s a tool used most commonly in carpentry to ensure something is vertical. In its basic form it’s just a weight attached to a string… when it comes to golf however, you see many players using their putter for this purpose. The plumb-bob technique has mixed feelings with golf professionals, some swear by it, some think it’s useless and others think it’s a joke. I’ll leave you be to make your own judgments… here’s how to do it properly:
When lining up your putt, stand behind your ball in line with the hole. Next hold the butt end of your putter between your thumb and index finger s at arms length so it hangs loosely. Looking through your dominant eye (I’ll explain how to ensure you’re doing this below), line up the ball with your putter shaft. From this position take notice of where the hole appears – if the hole is on one side of the shaft, the putt breaks in that direction.
This technique is most used when a player is unsure about the break of the putt, for obvious reasons it will not work on double-breaking putts, and should not be used when you already know where to putt is breaking. But you may want to incorporate into your pre-shot routine.
Determining your dominant eye is easy, simply create a triangle window with both your hands and get a distant object within the window. Now close your left eye, if the object does not move, you’re right hand dominate, if it does, your left.
Give it a shot!