Golf: Fault No. 3

Some people may say this is not a fault. However, because this part of the game keeps people from improving, I am calling it a fault. Fault no. 3 is putting. If you were going to give people a putting handicap similar to their regular handicap, it would be at least 2 higher than their handicap. There might be a few exceptions, but not many. Why can’t most players putt that well? I feel that there are some underlying issues that players do not think about and therefore are lacking awareness of just how bad they are. There is more information on putting than on any other aspect of the game. This blog is not going to go through ways to putt or how to putt. I have done previous blogs on the subject. I am not sure all this information on putting is doing much good. I think one of the reasons people putt so poorly is that they simply are not aware of how bad they are. I know every golfer complains about their putting, but that is just part of the game. Even though they complain, I think there is a feeling that on a lot of days they do not do that bad. They are wrong. Let’s look at a couple of things that cause players to overestimate their abilities on the green.

I think putting stats are very misleading at times. The basic stat that you should allow 2 putts per green is very generous. If you follow this rule and think that 36 putts is a good putting round, you are way off base. Here is how you should feel: 30 to 32 putts is an okay day on the green; 27 to 29 putts a round is a good day on the greens; anything 26 putts or less is a great day on the greens. If your round has anything over 32 putts, then you had a bad day on the greens. Another misleading stat is how the pros putt. The latest stats show that from 8 feet, the pros make 50% of their putts. However, when you see one of the leaders on Sunday putting from inside 10 feet, the graphic may say that he has made 48 out of 49 putts from 10 feet or less. Granted, some of those putts could be under 2 feet, but that is a 98% rate. That means somebody out on tour that week is making only about 5 to 10% of those putts; those are probably the guys that missed the cut. The bottom line is this: the top 10 on the leaderboard on Sunday are putting at a rate that we can only dream about. If you are going to improve your game, putting is the best way to do it. It takes no extra strength. The ball does not leave the ground. So how do we do it?

Putting is always what makes or breaks the hole. Because of this, we put too much emotion into the results. Even so-called stoic pros seem to finally succumb to lipped-out putts or bad strokes with signs of emotion. All of these emotions lead to a general lack of awareness of what is really going on. You need to pay more attention to what is happening on the greens. You need to start on the first putt of the day. This should dictate how you putt the rest of the day. We have all had these days where, on the first putt of the day, you make a really good putt. Maybe it goes in, or maybe it doesn’t. The putt was well struck on the intended line you wanted and with very good speed, ending up just a couple of inches away from the hole if it did not go in. Right away, you should feel that you have it. You have the touch for the greens on that particular day. Don’t fight it or try to figure it out; just go with it. Then there are the days that the first putt you hit is terrible. You leave it 4 feet short or long. You did not hit it on your line. You did not even read the putt right. Maybe it broke a lot more than you thought or a lot less. Maybe it even broke the opposite way you thought it would. Whatever the problem was, you need to correct it immediately. If you are short, make sure the next putt of any length is long. If the opposite is true, make sure the next putt is short. Correct your line right away. Play more or less break depending on what went wrong on the first putt. Instead of getting upset about missing the putt, just be aware of how you missed it and correct immediately. Once you increase your awareness of what is happening on the greens, the better your chances are of improving that score.