I came across this blog from John Mittler writing on the Minigolf News website and it did make me smile about the comparison of play between golfers and minigolfers.
Minigolf players rarely have their eyes exactly over the ball. In fact, it is often impossible for a minigolf player to have his eyes over the ball — for example, when your ball has stopped on the other side of an eternite lane. To play the putt while having your eyes over the ball would require that you stand in the middle of the lane — and that is forbidden by the rules.
Because minigolf players don’t have their eyes over the ball, they suffer from some optical illusions, which golf professionals want to avoid with their strict “eyes over the ball” rule.
Minigolf players sometimes see the hole in a different direction than where it actually is… an optical illusion! One of the minigolf lanes where this has most significant effect is when putting at the Volcano on beton courses. The volcano illusion.
Has anyone encountered this illusion?
Some minigolf players try to avoid this optical illusion, which is what sounds the safest course of action. This is done by aiming a mark between the ball and the hole, some 20 cm in front of the ball. This aiming mark will not be much above ground level, so the optical illusion will be smaller.
If the putting green were made of glass, and a + sign were painted at the middle of green on ground level, it would be easy to notice this optical illusion, and always aim at the + sign, rather than at the hole. But the putting green is made of solid material, and the player cannot see the center of green on ground level.
What are your thoughts?
