Plumb Bobbing

Plumb bobbing is a green-reading technique. The golfer holds the putter loosely by the top of the grip so it hangs vertically. It works like a plumb line, a weighted string that hangs straight down. They close one eye (their dominant eye) and line the shaft up with the ball. The shaft's position relative to the hole then gives an estimate of the general direction of slope and break. If the hole appears to sit to one side of the vertical shaft line, that side is read as the low side. The ball is expected to break toward it.

Plumb bobbing was widely taught and commonly used for decades. That was especially true before Stimpmeter green-speed data, systematic feel-based methods, and detailed green-reading materials became widely available. Its main practical limitation is that it only estimates the general direction of the slope between two points. It gives no real information about how much a putt will break. It also misses subtle slope changes along the actual line and the effect of grain. All of those matter for anything beyond a very rough directional estimate.

Modern short-game instruction generally treats plumb bobbing as a supplementary check, not a primary reading method. It is useful mainly as one more data point to confirm or challenge a visual read. It is not a standalone technique a golfer should rely on exclusively. Golfers who still use it usually pair it with a walk-around visual read. They do not trust the plumb bob alone to set the actual line and speed of the putt.