Erik - the Mark Crossfield comments were nowhere near his Golf Digest article so no, I had no way to connect them.
You could've found the video I was talking about. I connected them for you in that way.
You take his 4'-5' estimate as gospel
No, I don't. He sounded sure of his conclusions, though, and it sheds a little light on his conclusions.
Let's fill in the Cal Poly study in the context of Molinari's speeds (i.e. hitting the back rim and bouncing in the air). Cal Poly rolls balls off the perfect putter at a speed going 5' - 7' feet by the hole.
The Cal Poly "study" can't be given much weight at this point, as they seem to have rolled about nine balls at each, and from 32" away you could see balls hit different parts of the hole even in the badly shot video they presented. It's not a finished study, but let's count it anyway.
You continue to suggest these results are outliers...
That's not an accurate statement at this point. I'm saying that EM's test found the red area in my quickie graph, that's all. The size and shape of the red area would change based on things like the thickness of the flagstick and other little things, but I continue to feel as though the data of all tests shows the red area will be smaller than the green area (and likely less vibrant, too, if vibrancy shows a strength - less vibrant for 10%, more vibrant for 30%).
Jim, I'm just going wherever the data leads me. I couldn't care less what it ultimately shows. I have a hypothesis, which has held up so far, but scientific hypotheses are wrong all the time, and sometimes the best discoveries come with a disproven hypothesis.