Believe me....it's not you.

steve

Ed,

This is the man who routinely tells his audience that putts "hook" and "slice" so in a contest of who is the idiot my vote goes along with Steve's. It ain't you.

In Johnny's defense, I believe he was using the term "fault line" like it is used in geology--which means (according to my dictionary) "a break in the continuity of a body".  

Perhaps he uses the term so to distinguish between the actual fall line?

Brent, The fall line, is where two slopes, vectored in different directions meet, to form the straight line. Almost like a Double break straight, except this is actually straight..

 I assume it is the vector where, or how, the surface drainage flows linearly.

OK, now I understand the meaning. A lot of greens at my home course have tiers but the transition between them doesn't tend to be along a "fall line", it's more of a (sometimes irregular) curve like I'd imagine seeing along a "fault line" where there's been an earthquake. So maybe both terms have utility but they're describing different things with a "fall line" being the linear subset of possible "fault lines" beween sections of a green. Or something like that.

To me "fault line" connotes something abrupt and obvious wheras "fall line" could very well be the meeting of two slopers which are quite subtly different. Maybe if I played on similar greens to those on Tour I'd agree that Johnny Miller should be using a term with more subtle connotations.

Tom,
  I like Johnny Miller as a broadcaster too. However, when he decides to "teach" people about architecture I would prefer that know what he is talking about. When someone such as Miller has a forum to spout off in such as Golf Digest I don't think it is too much to ask, given the number of readers he is reaching.

"A 'fault line' marks the precipice of a tier or slope where the ball will take the break and roll away from the slope toward the green." (Johnny Miller in Golf Digest, January, 2005)

Like Ed, I've usually heard the term "fall line" in a skiing context.  In skiing it means the direction down a slope where pull of gravity will move an otherwise force-neutral object, like a ball or water.  

It is actually a very useful concept in golf, especially in putting.   If you can figure out "the fall line" above the hole, then lag putting becomes much easier.  I think the term has come up now and then on this site.  

I looked the concept up online and it turns out that "fall line" has a related but distinct meaning in geology.  According to allrefer.com a fall line is "boundary between an upland region and a coastal plain across which rivers from the upland region drop to the plain as falls or rapids. A fall line is formed in an area where the rivers have eroded away the soft rocks of a coastal plain more quickly than the older harder rocks of an upland region. Such erosion follows a crooked line along a coast."  So there is a long fall line inland from the Atlantic, generally the point at which large boats can no longer pass.  

It seems this second definition of fall line could also apply to golf--  the line at which one level drops down to another level could be called a fall line.  Probably the meandering line at the top edge of a ridge seperating two tiers, or the meandering line at the bottom of a ridge seperating two tiers.  

As for Miller's "fault line"  I am not so sure where he gets that one.   One can have an abrupt vertical break at  a fault (where the movement has been up and down), but one can also have horizontal movement which will not necessarily result in a vertical drop.   Not sure what he means by "away from the slope and toward the green."

Perhaps he overheard a conversation between skiers in Salt Lake where they were discussing throwing themselves off a precipice and down a fall line, liked the sound of it and he thought he'd apply it to golf . . . . just a guess.  

David,
   The last word is hole, not green. Thus the confusion. Thanks for coming out to Rustic the other day, I had a great time.

Ed -

Thanks for starting this thread. I have been debating this all year. Two guys i know regularly use fault line...i have suggested to them  its fall line. When the JM article came out it didnt take them long to let me know. I vote for  FALL LINE

What is the purpose of speech and communications?  Did anyone fail to understand what JM meant by using (or misusing) the term fault line?

Some 15 years ago, I worked for a woman who was less than careful with her use of the language.  She kept talking about mute points, and it took me awhile to figure out that she really meant to say "moot".  As a diversion, me and a couple of colleagues started using the phrase "mutant point" in her presence, and she never corrected us.  She knew that we were talking about mute points.  Not long ago I heard a very smart looking guy spouting about something very complex, and then he blew it all off by saying that it was all "mute".

Perhaps Mr. Miller and my former boss knew exactly what they were doing.  Due to their pedagogary, we all now know what a fall line (and a moot point) is.  

Johnny Miller stupid? yeah like a fox....
Fall...fault...we all know what he means.

Johnny Miller stupid? yeah like a fox....
Fall...fault...we all know what he means.

I am still not sure what he means.   ". . . roll away from the slope . . . "  What slope and what does he mean by "roll away from" it?  If the ball was just at the precipice, then shouldnt it be rolling down the slope, not away from it.   I still am not sure what he means.   Seriously.  

I dont think he is talking about what is known as a "fall line" in skiing and (sometimes) in golf.  But I am not sure what else he could be talking about, or its relevance.  

Mike Young, The arc the ball travels is neither the fall, or the fault line.

In JM's colloquialease, It's MY opinion he uses "fault" to describe the ridge line of the feature, not the eliptical decaying orbit the ball travels.

Typically these ridge lines are precipises, and some have contrary slopes on the opposite side of that ridge line.

Fall Line, in the context of putting, is as I described above.

i.e.
 You have a back right pin to a green that slopes from back to front and from right to left. There is ONE spot, from above, and slightly right of the hole, (approx 45 degrees) where the putt will not break, because it is being evenly influenced by both slopes. Ergo straight. That is the Fall Line.

If the ball had been slightly more right of this SPOT, the putt will break slightly left. And if the ball had been slightly left of the SPOT, it will break right.


Any other use of the term, when talking about putting, is, IMO, inaccurate.