A Look Into the Poll Question: Geoff Mangum

Name: Geoff Mangum
Location: Greensboro, NC
Famous Students: Shaun Micheel
Notable Works: Optimal Putting book
Notable YouTube Vids: 'One Best Delivery Speed For Touch From Physics', 'Fall Line Definition'
Web site: http://www.puttingzone.com/

I got introduced to Geoff Mangum as he was referenced quite a bit by David Orr in Orr's posts around the web. Later on, Orr and Mangum collaborated on the YouTube video 'One Best Delivery Speed For Touch From Physics.'




In my 'comeback' which is only about 3 weeks long, I knew I was a pretty darn good putter. However, there was still a lot of things about putting that confused me. One of them was Dave Pelz's 'optimal speed' being 17 inches past the back of the cup. I was very confused by this. For instance, I would hit an uphill putt that would go 24" past the cup and think that it looked like the putt was rolled way too hard, but since it wasn't too far away from 17" past the cup, the speed was fine.

Mangum debunks this theory and many other theories on putting. I've read his 'Optimal Putting' book which is a little hard to understand, but if you're dedicated to learning the book you can get through and learn more about putting than you ever imagined.

It also helped that I share a pretty similar putting stroke philosophy as I like to take it back with my LEFT arm and then let gravity do the work on the thru stroke. While I really didn't learn anything new from that aspect, it at least confirmed what I was doing was pretty close to correct.

Mangum's book 'Optimal Putting' also goes into detail in regards to the neuroscience involved with putting. Here's one testimonial in regards to Mangum's studies of neuroscience:

“Geoff Mangum knows more about visual science than anyone in golf. As the national director of research for the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association (and a golfer), I constantly search the Internet for vision neuroscience to pass along to Optometry teachers at schools around the world, and I am always amazed that I find exactly what I’m looking for ONLY on the PuttingZone.com website instead of on the university websites and other conventional research science sources. I can’t imagine that any other golf instructor knows more about vision in putting than Geoff!” - Dr. Selwyn Super

Mangum probably won't get many votes because he pretty much only teaches putting, but as far as teaching one part of the game goes, there's probably nobody that knows as much as Mangum does.



Next up, Mike Maves.





3JACK