Putting accuracy

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Putting is an interesting and important aspect of golf but also provides lessons of potential interest for a wide variety of fields. For example, when folks watch professional golf tournaments on television, the selection of putts may result in a very distorted view of putting accuracy. In fact, on average, the tour professionals miss and make 50% of putts from six feet. If one misses a putt, say to the left, there are many possible explanations. For example, the putting person may have misread the slope of the green. Or, in the case of Bermuda Grass, they may have misread the grain. Or, they may have hit a perfect putt but a puff of wind came up and blew the ball off course. Or, they may have hit the ball off the center point of the putter causing the putter to twist and send the ball offline. Or, they may have hit a shot, not with a straight back and forth motion but with an arcing motion that put the ball on a bad line and put sidespin on the ball. In other words, there are many reasons that a putt may go astray. However, human beings will typically fix on one of these as "the" reason that their putt did not drop. Unfortunately, the feedback in real golf is extremely ambiguous.