![Illustration of putting green](/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/media/images/Hero-Icon_1.png?itok=KIa6tnFE)
Welcome to Pocket Science: a glimpse at recent research from Husker scientists and engineers. For those who want to quickly learn the “What,” “So what” and “Now what” of Husker research.
![Pocket Science icon](/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/media/images/Pocket%2520Science%2520%2528Final%2529_46.png?itok=bN8_FQrf)
What?
In 2019, the PGA Tour enacted a minor but notable rule change: Golfers could, if they chose, leave the flagstick in the hole while putting. The natural question: Should they?
The main benefit, it seemed, was that the flagstick might stop, and potentially drop, a putt that was otherwise rolling too fast to nestle in the cup. But, the thinking went, the flagstick might also deflect putts that didn’t strike its very center.
A few ensuing experiments, and basic analyses of the resulting data, came up with differing answers.
So what?
![Mug shot of researcher Chris Bilder](/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/media/images/Bilder_Square.jpg?itok=5KtI67ul)
Nebraska’s Chris Bilder, a statistician and avid golfer, decided to take a professional swing at the recreational question. He analyzed data from an experiment that used a ramp system to precisely control the ball’s journey toward the hole. That experiment varied three conditions: the presence of the flagstick; the speed (low, medium, fast) of the ball when reaching the hole; and the ball’s position relative to the flagstick, so that the ball either struck the pin squarely, hit it slightly off-center, or just grazed it.
One of Bilder’s analyses found that if a putt was moving slowly when reaching the hole, there was no meaningful difference between removing vs. leaving in the flagstick. At medium speed, though, the estimated odds of holing a putt were 3.45 times as large with the flagstick out. For a high-speed putt, the estimated odds were instead 10 times as large with the flagstick in — though that advantage seemed to arise mostly when a putt was dead-center.
Now what?
Given that golfers are more likely to hit a putt with medium pace, removing the flagstick is more likely to help than hurt, Bilder said.
His takeaway? In most situations, golfers are better off taking out the pin.