Golfers can stop blaming bad luck for those maddening near-misses.

A new study published by physicsits in the journal Royal Society Open Science reports that the golfer's curse"—the notorious “lip out”, when a putt seems to drop into the hole, then pops out again—is the result of precise mechanics involving speed, line and spin.

Researchers Stephen Hogan of the University of Bristol, England, and Mate Antali of the Széchenyi István University in Hungary identify two distinct lip-outs: the "Rim Lip-out" and the "Hole Lip-out."

The Rim Lip-out

The ball rides the cup’s edge and appears to dip, but its center of mass never drops below green level. Here, “rolling around the rim” beats “pitching into the hole.”

The rim hosts delicate balance points—what the authors nickname “golf balls o

See Full Page