SUNRIVER —

Carol Woodruff stands on the green eyes closed, hands on her putter, which is dangling from her crossed arms.

It appears as though she is having a religious experience.

But Woodruff is not praying on this sunny afternoon on the practice green at Sunriver Resort’s Meadows course.

No, the 71-year-old Sunriver resident is searching for a line on a putt. And the way she does it probably looks nothing like anything you’ve seen before.

“Every time I play with anybody (they comment about it),” says Woodruff, a regular in Sunriver’s club games. “It’s because they don’t see it anywhere else.”

Woodruff might look like a self-described “little old lady,” but she is also a pretty good golfer with a short game as precise as an airport’s radar.

As she seeks a line on a putt, she might look like she is making a call to a higher power. But what she is actually doing, she explains, is analyzing each undulation by “feeling” what the green offers with her feet.

Possessing an analytical mind — she is retired from a career in accounting — Woodruff first surveys from a distance the general slope of the green.

She then stands along the line of each of her putts, chips and bunker shots, with her left shoulder pointed toward the cup. And when she takes her stance, she feels the break of the green by noting which way her body begins to lean. For longer putts and chips she performs this task multiple times, all along the presumed line.

If she leans forward slightly, she knows it is a subtle left-to-right break. If she feels gravity pulling at her with more force, she knows the break is more severe.

“That’s all I am doing,” she says.

Woodruff makes it sounds so simple, but her method looks so strange in person.

What you will never see her do is kneel behind her ball to stare down her putting line or plumb-bobbing to get a good read — you know, like just about every other recreational golfer.

“I always thought plumb-bobbing was kind of weird,” she says. “I don’t know what in the world they’re seeing.”

Woodruff plays with a handicap index of about 14. But with a drive that goes about 150 yards, she does not have the distance off the tee to gain an advantage over any golfer.

Her short game, though, makes up for a lot.

“Since I don’t hit very far, I need to eke out some putts and some chips,” says Woodruff, who also opts not to wear golf gloves to improve her feel.

Appearance aside, does it all work?

Count Martie King as a convert.

King, a Bend resident and a member at Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond, was paired against Woodruff two weeks ago at Crooked River Ranch in a team event between the Central Oregon clubs.

She was floored by Woodruff’s uncanny accuracy.

“I watched her sink birdies from off the fairway, make impossibly long putts, and an eagle from 130 yards out at Crooked River’s 15th hole,” King says. “It sounded hokey when she first did it, but after constantly putting the ball in or being within inches every time, I’m a believer.”

King’s reaction is not at all uncommon, notes Tom Woodruff, Carol’s husband of 39 years.

“Nobody else does this kind of thing,” says Tom Woodruff, who also does not use his wife’s technique. “So people will just stand there and ask me, ‘What is she doing? Is she praying or what?’ It does look very strange.”

Why doesn’t every golfer adopt her method?

Though I tried, it is not so easy to copy.

“I think the reason why it is kind of weird or difficult is because people are so visual,” Carol Woodruff says.

Scott Barton, a mini-tour player from Bend and a Sunriver assistant professional, agrees. He’s tried a few times to feel his way around a green, with little success, and doesn’t think Woodruff’s method is for every golfer.

But having played with Woodruff, he’s impressed with her creativity.

“She’s very efficient and a really good putter,” says Barton, who has played with Woodruff several times over the past two years. “She’s found something that works for her, and more power to her.”

Woodruff, a native Oregonian, has been getting a line on her golf shots like this for 20 years — about when the former tennis instructor first learned to play golf. Then living in Southern California, Woodruff took up the game at a hilly course in Burbank.

The greens there were tough to read visually because every green was sloped subtly in one direction, she says.

“What you see is not what you got, because everything kind of ran toward town,” she recalls.

Woodruff got a tip from a former LPGA Tour pro to feel the green, rather than simply stare down the line.

So it began.

Golfing in her sneakers (she says her method of lining up shots does not work as well in conventional golf shoes), Woodruff tracks every nook and cranny on her line.

She is quick to point out that she did not invent the technique, but “I’m probably a little extreme.”

“Most people who do this probably walk sideways (along the line of their shot),” she says as she demonstrates on the Meadow practice green. “You wouldn’t even notice they were doing it.”

Woodruff has become a student of golf, quoting short-game gurus and the like.

And she is not afraid to critique the putting styles of even the best golfers in the world, saying they tend to “jam” the ball into the hole rather than play the natural break.

Still, she’s not expecting others to pick up on her routine.

“It works for me,” Woodruff says.

After watching her analyze the Sunriver practice green, maybe I should try something different, too.