The quiet eye: the science of alignment in putting

07/03/2025

A research theory developed during the analysis of countless sports applies compellingly to alignment in putting, argues Dr Paul Wood, VP Engineering, Ping.

Putting is, in many ways, the simplest movement in golf. Being a good putter comes down to three basic skills: controlling the initial direction of the putt; controlling the speed; and reading greens.

Our company was founded on the basic engineering principle of spreading the mass in the putter head to increase the Moment of Inertia (forgiveness) and help off-centre hits roll on a line and with speed more similar to centre hits.

More recently, our TR Face Technology has helped enhance distance control by giving an even speed response across the face of the putter. There is a lot of technology helping players with speed control.

A very interesting challenge is understanding how the putter might help a player start the ball on the intended line more consistently. Different players line up better with different head shapes and alignment features. This doesn’t necessarily mean having perfectly square alignment at address – most of the best putters in the world have a bias in their address alignment and all players show variations in impact angle and alignment. The iPing screen shot over the page shows a comparison of my data for five putts with two tour players. My natural tendency is to point the putter face a little right of target at address (an open face) and therefore using iPing, the impact angle shows up as closed (relative to address) at impact. Angel Cabrera shows the opposite tendency, while Louis Oosthuizen is very close to 0.

We have seen nothing in our data to suggest that players who are “zeroed out” are inherently more consistent delivering the face at impact. Our real performance metric is to measure the ability to regularly hit the intended start line. This field of understanding how the shape, colour and features of the putter affect alignment is part engineering, part psychology and part physiology.

Alignment archetypes

More than 10 years ago, we conducted research aimed at identifying some general rules we could use to categorise players who would perform well with particular alignment features. We asked a large group of players to try putters of all kinds of shapes, sizes, colours and alignment cues.

We then used a technique called “cluster analysis” that groups together players with similar preferences and performance outcomes.

For example, it would identify that “John” is pretty similar to “Jane” in terms of optimum putter alignment archetype – they are in the same “cluster”. What we found was that the vast majority of players fall into four different archetypes based on the primary feature they use for alignment.

Quiet eye research

In sports research there is a term known as the quiet eye, which refers to the final, steady gaze a player or athlete holds on a specific target right before they make a critical movement, like shooting a basketball or swinging a golf club. This focused look usually lasts longer in skilled athletes and helps them concentrate, make better decisions and perform more accurately.

You could think of it as locking in on the target to block out distractions and prepare the body for action. There is a large body of research proving this effect in a number of different areas. In the most simplistic terms, if the design of the putter can create a more consistent and focused gaze, the player is more likely to make a good stroke and hole more putts.

We partnered with academic experts in the field to dig deep into this interesting area, leading to us purchasing eye tracking glasses which tell us exactly where a player’s gaze is focused before, during and after the putting stroke.

The image shows an example of the kind of image we see in our eye tracking tests. These “heat maps” for an individual player with a particular putter allow us to see how the player’s gaze pattern moves around (or not) before the putt.

We have seen over and again that the alignment features of the putter can have a major effect on players’ gaze patterns and therefore their quiet eye duration in putting.

To the left, you can see eye-tracking heat maps for a particular player looking at an image of a Ping Ketsch putter with no alignment line and with a long alignment line. In this case, the line caused this player to focus their gaze more intently along this central area of the putter.

We would say that the line is most likely going to help this player hole more putts.

Finally, we have linked the research on the different alignment archetypes with this research and shown that when a player describes a putter as “suiting the eye” there is a high likelihood that this shows up in their eye tracking analysis.

Also, when a different player might describe the same putter as “full of distractions” for them, we are just as likely to see this manifest in poor performance data.

“In sports research there is a term known as the quiet eye, which refers to the final, steady gaze a player or athlete holds on a specific target right before they make a critical movement”

This image shows eye tracking heat maps for a player looking at a putter with no alignment line and with a long alignment line.

Our four player archetypes for alignment aids

Each of our four archetypes has an example putter that would suit them. The first archetype are players who use the top rail as the primary alignment aid and will often pair this perpendicular alignment feature with a small line behind it but sometimes they prefer a simple dot or even nothing at all. Often players will comment that they like a very “clean top rail”. Typically, other lines and shapes on the putter tend to be considered distracting to this golfer.

The second group of players predominantly use a ball-width alignment feature such as parallel lines a ball-width apart or some kind of optigraphic shape such as the ball-sized hole in the middle of the Fetch putter. Some blades can have ball-width alignment lines too. This player will often use language such as “this putter frames the ball well”.

The third archetype are players who putt well with mallet-style putters and find great value in a long alignment feature. For other players, a long alignment style can sometimes feel like “too much”, but for this group it helps provide confidence in the alignment. We hear comments like “I find lining it up automatic with this putter”. The final group of players are most comfortable with an alignment feature that extends all the way up to the ball. Often this type of player will comment that the top rail actually gets in the way of effective alignment.

For all these archetypes, we’ve tended to find that they have their best performance with a putter that enhances the alignment feature they are primarily looking to use.

Implications for PGA Professionals

Over the years, we have found that many players don’t give much thought to why certain putters just “suit their eye”. With just a little prompting on which of these four alignment archetypes they identify with most, you can help golfers narrow down their choices in the putter corral.

Our eye tracking research indicates when a player perceives they can line up their putter easily, it is likely that they are achieving a better Quiet Eye in their pre-putt routine and they usually have better performance. This is a great example of a time where, as a coach working with a player, you can feel confident about trusting your senses to help the player Play Their Best.

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About Paul Wood

Paul Wood is VP Engineering, at Ping.