Brain power putts golfers on top

It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing

Top golfers are able to sink difficult putts because they are especially good at using their brain's internal timing system.

Tiger Woods: Timing is everything

That is according to researchers at France's University of the Mediterranean in Marseille, who have been studying the putting skills of 10 top golfers.

Dr Cathy Craig and colleagues found a timing mechanism in the brain visualises the movements that have to be made and assesses the time that is needed to perform them.

Rather as someone who is listening to music can predict the next beat, this mechanism determines the amount of time needed to close the gap between putter and ball - for example, the backswing - and the time needed for the follow-through, she said.

The secret of perfect putting

Similar timing processes are used when people have to catch a ball or play tennis.

The golfers were tested in laboratory conditions, putting towards lines drawn one, two, three and four metres away, Dr Craig said.

Now where did my timing go?

And the researchers, who have published their findings in the journal Nature, even came up with a formula for putting perfection (see above), taking in a golfer's assessment of such things as the speed and slope of the green, which could affect the ball's path.

The key factors in successful putting are balancing Vc (the clubhead velocity just before impact) with D (the amplitude of the forward swing), T (the duration of the overall swing) and P (the duration before the ball is hit as a proportion of the overall swing).

However, all this research will not turn a sketchy golfer into Tiger Woods.

But it might allow manufacturers to develop a system to provide information on how the club swings as a training aid for golfers.