Instruction
Research Shows Golfers Should Spend More Time Practicing Short Putts
Putting is an important 40 percent of the game at virtually every level of play. In 2016, the average PGA Tour player needed 29 putts to shoot their average score of 70.85 (41 percent of their strokes). The average 17-handicap golfer needs 34 putts to achieve their average score of 89 (38 percent).
Clearly, not many of us have the physical skill to drive the ball like a Tour player, but almost anyone can putt like a Tour player with the right equipment, technique and practice. There’s been a lot written on the equipment and techniques golfers should use to putt better. What’s not talked about as much is how golfers should practice putting… and from what distances?
For the answer, I studied our ShotByShot.com database recorded at a 17 Slope Adjusted Differential (this was the 12,000-plus rounds when the golfers actually played exactly to their 17 handicap). I had a stronger motive for this research than writing this article. We have added a new product to our ShotByShot.com Strokes Gained analysis: a putting skills test and practice app. Our goal is to provide an additional, simple but intelligent application to accurately test putting skill and focus practice time for meaningful improvement.
Through our research, we learned that a 17-handicap male golfer’s average round includes the following.
Long Game: Only 4.7 GIRs with an average putting distance of 26 feet on these successful GIR’s.
Short Game (shots within 50 yards of the hole):
- 10 chip/pitch shots, successfully hits eight on the green (two errors or missed greens) to an average putting distance of 14 feet.
- Two sand shots. When he successfully hits the green (only 68 percent of his sand attempts), his average putting distance is 17 feet.
Putting (34 total putts including):
- 1-Putts = 3.7
- 2-Putts = 11.8
- 3-Putts = 2.25
- 4-Putts = once in every 20 rounds.
50 Percent Make Distance: The distance from which he will make 50 percent of his putting opportunities is 5 feet. By comparison, the PGA Tour player’s 50 percent make distance is 8 feet.
2-Putt Range: The distance from which he will average 2 putts is 16 feet. This means that outside of 16 feet, our 17 handicap will 3-putt with a greater frequency than 1-putt. The PGA Tour’s 2.0 distance is 34 feet.
I used the data above along with the array of putting opportunities below (first, second and thirds putts) in combination with the putting performance from each distance to project recommended practice. As you can see below, 68 percent of the average golfer’s putting opportunities fall from 15 feet and closer and 41 percent from 5 feet and in.
The chart below displays our average 17 handicaper’s 1-putt and 3-putt percentages by distance range.
Finally, I charted the 1-putt percentages from 3-10 feet for the average 17- and 10-handicap golfers.
Practice Recommendations
- Time? Putting is worth 40 percent of the time you are willing to devote to your golf practice.
- 70 percent of your practice putting time should be devoted to increasing your 1-putt percentages on short putts and extending your 50 percent make distance.
- 30 percent of your putting practice time should be spent improving your distance control on lag putts in the 20-50 foot ranges and extending your two-putt distance.
Short Putts: Star Drill
Distance Control: Lag Putts
Place a tee 20 feet from a target or hole. Use two or three balls and practice lagging them back and forth until you can consistently get the balls to the target, but no farther than 2 feet past the hole. Repeat the drill from 30 and 40 feet trying to leave the putts no farther than 3 feet from the target.
You can test your putting skill and record your practice at www.shotbyshot.com.
The LPGA Tour is kicking off its 2026 season this week at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, and the pros are dealing with something most Florida golfers rarely face: freezing temperatures.
“It’s colder here than in the UK at the minute, which is a first,” said England’s Charley Hull during Wednesday’s media day at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
Even Lydia Ko, who lives at Lake Nona, seemed surprised by the cold snap. “We’re pretty much getting to below zero in celsius here, which maybe in other parts of the country they would be thankful, but when you’re in Florida it is a little bit of a surprise,” she said.
If the world’s best players are adjusting their games for cold weather, recreational golfers should, too. Here’s how to play smart when the mercury drops.
Understand What Cold Does to Your Game
Before you change anything, you need to know what you’re fighting against. Cold air is denser than warm air, which means your ball won’t fly as far. Period.
Hull noticed this immediately during practice rounds at Lake Nona. She mentioned hitting a gap wedge into the 18th hole during a previous win but needing a 4-iron during Tuesday’s practice round. That’s a difference of four or five clubs for the same shot.
Action item: Expect to lose 5-10 yards on every club in your bag when temperatures dip below 50 degrees. Plan accordingly and don’t be stubborn about club selection.
Layer Up Without Restricting Your Swing
Hull admitted she wore three pairs of pants during practice. While that might be extreme for most of us, staying warm is critical to playing well in cold conditions.
Your muscles need warmth to function properly. When you’re cold, your body tightens up and your swing gets shorter and faster. Neither of those things help you hit good golf shots.
Action item: Wear multiple thin layers instead of one bulky jacket. Look for golf-specific cold weather gear that stretches with your swing. Keep hand warmers in your pockets between shots. And don’t forget a good hat because you lose significant body heat through your head.
Take More Club Than You Think You Need
This is where ego gets in the way of good scores. When it’s cold, the ball doesn’t compress as well off the clubface. Combined with denser air, you’re looking at serious distance loss.
The pros at Lake Nona are dealing with a course that measures 6,642 yards but plays much longer this week. If they’re adjusting, you should too.
Action item: Take at least one extra club on every approach shot. In temperatures below 40 degrees, consider taking two extra clubs. It’s better to fly the ball to the back of the green than to come up short in a bunker.
Adjust Your Expectations on the Greens
Cold weather affects putting in ways most golfers don’t consider. The ball is harder and doesn’t roll as smoothly. Your hands are cold, making it harder to feel the putter. And if there’s any moisture on the greens, they’ll be slower than normal.
Ko mentioned that she still sometimes reads the greens wrong at Lake Nona despite being a member for years. Cold weather makes that challenge even tougher.
Action item: Hit putts more firmly than usual. The ball needs extra speed to hold its line on cold greens. Take a few extra practice strokes to get a feel for the speed before you putt.
Embrace the Mental Challenge
Hull said something interesting about cold weather golf: “I like the mental toughness of it.”
That’s the right attitude. Everyone on the course is dealing with the same conditions. The player who stays patient and doesn’t get frustrated by the extra difficulty will come out ahead.
Action item: Lower your expectations by a few strokes. If you normally shoot 85, accept that 90 might be a good score in 40-degree weather. Focus on solid contact and smart decisions rather than perfect shots.
Warm Up Longer and Smarter
This might be the most important tip of all. Cold muscles are tight muscles, and tight muscles get injured easily.
World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul revealed she’s been protecting a wrist injury that bothered her late last season. Cold weather makes those kinds of injuries more likely if you don’t prepare properly.
Action item: Spend at least 20 minutes warming up before your round. Start with stretching, then hit easy wedge shots before working up to your driver. Keep moving between shots on the course to maintain body heat and flexibility.
The pros at Lake Nona this week will adapt and compete at the highest level despite the cold. You can do the same at your local course by following these tips and keeping a positive attitude.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “Playing Through” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
Brooks Koepka is back on the PGA Tour, and whether you love him or hate him, the guy knows how to win when it matters. After his LIV Golf stint, the five-time major champion returns this week at the Farmers Insurance Open.
What makes Koepka fascinating? He doesn’t fit the mold. His swing isn’t textbook. He doesn’t obsess over mechanics. Yet he’s won three PGA Championships and two U.S. Opens, regularly making it look easier than guys with prettier swings.
So, what can average golfers learn from someone who treats the game so differently? Quite a bit.
Stop Overthinking Every Shot
Koepka describes his approach as “reactionary” rather than mechanical. While most tour pros grind over swing thoughts, Brooks sees the target and hits it. No mental checklist.
This might be the most valuable lesson for weekend golfers who’ve watched too many YouTube swing videos.
How to actually do this:
On the range, hit five balls where you stare at the target for three seconds prior to addressing the ball. Don’t think about grip or stance. Just burn that target into your brain. You’ll be shocked at how pure you hit it when your brain focuses on where the ball is going instead of how you’re swinging.
Next time you play, give yourself a rule: Once you pull the club, you’ve got 15 seconds to hit. Koepka is one of the fastest players on tour because he doesn’t give his brain time to sabotage him.
If you feel tension in your hands at address, you’re trying to control too much. Koepka’s grip pressure is famously light. Loosen up until the club almost feels like it might slip, then add just enough pressure to hold on. That’s your swing thought: soft hands, see the target.
This approach works better under pressure. When you’re standing over that shot with water left and OB right, the last thing you need is a mental checklist. See it, feel it, hit it.
Play to Your Strengths (Even If They’re Not Pretty)
Koepka uses a strong grip that wouldn’t pass muster in some teaching circles. But he’s built his game around what works for him, elite driving distance and recovery skills. He doesn’t try to be someone he’s not.
Here’s how to build your game like Brooks:
Look at your last five rounds and figure out where you’re actually gaining strokes. Bombing it off the tee, but can’t hit greens? Lean into it. Play courses where distance matters more than precision. On tight holes, grip down on your 3-wood instead of trying to thread a driver through a keyhole you’ll miss seven times out of ten.
Koepka knows he can scramble, so he’s not afraid to miss greens. If you’re deadly from 50 to 75 yards, start leaving yourself those distances on the par 5’s instead of going for them in two every time.
Know when to take your medicine. Koepka in the trees at the PGA? He’s punching out to 100 yards, not trying to bend a 6-iron around three oaks. You’re in the rough with a flyer lie and water short? Hit your 8-iron to the middle and move on. That’s not playing scared, that’s playing smart.
Save Your Best for When It Counts
Here’s a wild stat: Koepka’s putting average in majors is often more than a full stroke better per round than in regular events. He elevates when pressure is highest.
How does an amateur tap into that gear? It’s not about trying harder, it’s about caring differently.
Here’s what actually works:
Decide which rounds matter to you. Club championship? Member-guest? That annual trip with college buddies? Circle those dates and treat them differently. Koepka doesn’t care much about regular tour events, but majors? That’s when he locks in.
Two weeks before your big round, change your practice. Stop beating balls mindlessly. Play nine holes in which every shot has consequences. Miss the fairway? Hit from the rough on the next hole too. Three-putt? Twenty push-ups. Koepka’s practice intensity ramps up before majors because he’s rehearsing pressure, not just swings.
Develop a between-shot routine that resets your brain. Koepka is famous for his blank expression after bad shots. Try this: After any shot, take three deep breaths while walking, then find something specific to notice, a tree, a cloud, someone’s shirt. That’s your reset button. By the time you reach your ball, the last shot is gone.
The Bottom Line
Brooks Koepka’s return reminds us there’s no single path to success in golf. His “substance over style” approach proves that results matter more than looking good.
You don’t need a perfect swing; you need a reliable one that holds up under pressure. You don’t need to hit every shot in the book; you need the shots you can count on. And you don’t need to play great every time; you need to play great when it matters.
Welcome back, Brooks. Thanks for the reminder that golf is ultimately about getting the ball in the hole, not winning style points.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “Playing Through” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
Blades Brown made a big impression last week in the California desert, and not just because he’s only 18. He put up numbers that would catch any weekend golfer’s attention. Most of us won’t hit 317-yard drives or find 86% of our greens in regulation, but there’s a lot to learn from how Brown managed his game at The American Express.
Here are three practical lessons from his performance that you can use on your own course this weekend.
Step 1: Give Priority to Accuracy Over Distance Off The Tee
Brown’s driving stats are impressive. He averaged almost 318 yards off the tee, ranking 12th in the field. More importantly, he hit 76.79% of his fairways, tying for fourth place in the tournament.
Think about that ratio for a second. Brown could have swung harder, chased more distance and tried to overpower the course. Instead, he played smart golf and kept his ball in play.
Your Action Item: Next time you’re on the tee box, ask yourself a simple question before pulling the driver. Do you need maximum distance here, or do you need to be in the fairway? If there’s trouble lurking or the hole doesn’t demand every yard you can muster, take something off your swing. Grip down an inch. Make a three-quarter swing. Do whatever it takes to find the short grass. Brown’s approach illustrates that fairways lead to greens, and greens lead to birdies. He made 22 of them last week, along with an eagle.
The math is simple. When you’re hitting three out of every four fairways like Brown did, you’re giving yourself legitimate looks at the green with your approach shots. That’s when scoring happens.
Step 2: Commit To Hitting More Greens
This is where Brown really separated himself. He hit 62 of 72 greens in regulation, an 86.11% clip that tied for first in the entire field. Read that again. An 18-year-old kid tied for the lead in one of the most important ball-striking statistics in professional golf.
How did he do it? By keeping his ball in the fairway (see Step 1) and giving himself clean looks with mid-irons and wedges.
Your Action Item: Start tracking your greens in regulation. You don’t need a fancy app or a statistics degree. Just mark down whether you hit the green in the regulation number of strokes. Par 3s in one shot. Par 4s in two shots. Par 5s in three shots.
Once you know your baseline, set a goal to improve it by 10%. If you’re currently hitting five greens per round, aim for six. The beauty of this approach is that it forces you to think strategically about club selection and shot shape. Brown’s strokes gained approach number was positive (0.179), meaning he was better than the field average. You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be on the dance floor more often.
When you hit more greens, you eliminate the need for heroic short game shots. Brown only had to scramble 10 times all week, and he got up and down 70% of the time. That’s solid, but the real story is that he rarely put himself in scrambling situations to begin with.
Step 3: Minimize Mistakes And Stay Patient
Here’s the stat that jumps off the page: Brown made only three bogeys all week. Three. In four rounds of professional golf against the best players in the world.
He also made just one double bogey. That kind of clean card doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you play within yourself, avoid the big miss and trust that pars are never bad scores.
Your Action Item: Before your next round, decide that you’re going to play boring golf. No hero shots over water. No driver on tight holes just because you can. No aggressive pins when there’s a safe side of the green.
Brown’s performance shows us that consistency beats flash every single time. He didn’t lead the field in any single strokes gained category, but he was solid across the board. That’s how you post numbers and cash checks.
Give these three steps a try. Your scorecard will thank you.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “The Starter” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
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Pingback: How to Effectively Use Your Golf Practice Time | High Golf Handicap
hoa
Dec 30, 2017 at 11:20 am
If you’re talking inside the “Circle of Friendship”, that’s good
hoa tuoi dep
Dec 30, 2017 at 11:20 am
That was very accurate for me. Thanks for the reminder!
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Oct 16, 2017 at 1:25 pm
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tivi
Jul 12, 2017 at 1:28 pm
Great article. I’ve always shot between 81-86, with the occasional trip into the high 70’s if I get the opportunity to play more. I ended up breaking my 3, 5, and 7 iron and never got them fixed. It may seem obvious, but when I came back from a long layoff, not having those clubs in my bag had almost zero impact on my scores. This just made me realize even more definitively that I need to work on my approach shots and putting if I want my scores to improve
linh vat phong thuy
Jul 6, 2017 at 6:41 am
A departure from “traditional stats,” the program provided analysis with answers, supported by comparative data.
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Jun 7, 2017 at 5:03 am
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vncoupon
May 21, 2017 at 10:48 pm
Great article with the stats to show comparisons 🙂
sharemagiamgia
Apr 27, 2017 at 4:55 am
Good article with the stats to show comparisons.
nam giam can
Apr 24, 2017 at 10:04 am
Golf is a sport for the nobility
vach ngan ve sinh chong am
Apr 21, 2017 at 5:17 pm
So I ageee with the writer that working on lag putting and short putts in combination makes a lot of sense.
tien dola am phu
Apr 5, 2017 at 11:51 am
Differential (this was the 12,000-plus rounds when the golfers actually played exactly to their 17 handicap). I had a stronger motive for this research than writing this article. We have added a new product to our ShotByShot.com Strokes Gained analysis: a putting skills test and practice app. Our goal is to provide an additional, simple but intelligent application to accurately test putting skill and focus practice time for meaningful improvement.
giaphatland.vn/properties/ban-can-ho-chung-cu-sensation-thao-dien-quan-2
Apr 3, 2017 at 9:54 pm
I’d ask myself why I’m so far away from the hole so frequently when I’m not on the green in regulation. Bad short game. The 17 capper probably puts it in the 6-10 foot range while chipping on his “good” chips. A great chip gets within 3 feet, and a bad one is probably 15+ feet. Why would he spend a ton of time on those 8 footers instead of working on getting closer to the hole? If your good chips turn into 3-5 footers, your great chips are now kick-ins, and your bad ones are now 10-15 feet away, you’re going to start making more putts without even having to make more 8 footers based on the fact that you’re now closer to the hole the majority of the time. Then he can work on those 8 footers after he starts improving his short game.
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Apr 3, 2017 at 6:24 am
Again, I’m not saying that working on your putting is a bad idea by any means; pretty much everyone should do it more than they do. Obviously making more 8-footers is a great thing for anybody’s game, but that definitely wouldn’t be my go-to for this type of player. Unless he’s going to start hitting more greens in regulation (then he’d need more help lag putting most likely), he’d be much better served working on getting his average short game shot down from that 14 foot distance. He’ll likely drop significantly more strokes doing that than making 20% more of his 8 footers.
HW
Mar 16, 2017 at 2:06 pm
Great article. I’ve always shot between 81-86, with the occasional trip into the high 70’s if I get the opportunity to play more. I ended up breaking my 3, 5, and 7 iron and never got them fixed. It may seem obvious, but when I came back from a long layoff, not having those clubs in my bag had almost zero impact on my scores. This just made me realize even more definitively that I need to work on my approach shots and putting if I want my scores to improve.
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Mar 14, 2017 at 1:42 pm
This is really necessary for the goft player. This information is useful to me. Thank You!
chinchbugs
Mar 11, 2017 at 8:54 pm
In other news….water is wet
Nick
Mar 11, 2017 at 11:53 am
I love the star drilled. I was taught that when I was in college and still use it religiously. I usually try to make 15 before I move a foot back. I’ll start with 3 balls at 3 feet and after I make 15 straight, I’ll go back a foot. Another drill I think is really good is the 3,6,9 drill. Place tees at 3, 6, and 9 feet and the goal is to make three in a row before moving to the next tee. In college we used 10 balls and had to make 10/10 at 3 feet, 8/10 from 6 feet and 6/10 from 9 feet. I saw the new method on one of the golf channel academies with Jim furyk. Once you practice these drills, there won’t be as much pressure on your chipping. These are few additional drills but for a scratch golfer I still do them every time I practice my putting.
Tim
Mar 11, 2017 at 10:33 am
In other news, studies show apples are good for your health and should eat more of them….
Iutodd
Mar 11, 2017 at 8:04 am
I do the “cross” drill where I put balls every 18″ or so out to about 5′ (3-4 balls) and I have to make every one before I rotate 90 degrees and do it from side. I like it because you’re going to make ~100% of your first putt and it’s helpful to see the ball go in the hole.
Radim Pavlicek
Mar 11, 2017 at 4:57 am
Excellent, now I would like to see 6hcp and scratch.
Peter Sanders
Mar 12, 2017 at 11:51 am
Thanks Radim,
All the comparative data is part of the program: shotbyshot.com
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Kelvin Kelley
Mar 10, 2017 at 9:25 pm
Good article with the stats to show comparisons.
Jim
Mar 10, 2017 at 3:54 pm
Um, no kidding. As most weekend golfers just show up swing a couple of times and tee off this isn’t exactly ground breaking news. That said I’ve noticed practicing my putting over the past few years has really paid off along with practicing chipping as well. As more than half your shots are around the green it only makes sense over just bashing your driver anyway.
Jack Nash
Mar 10, 2017 at 2:04 pm
If you’re talking inside the “Circle of Friendship”, that’s good, pick it up.
BallBuster
Mar 10, 2017 at 12:43 pm
The concept is simple to understand, but most of all it worked well for me. I bought one of those Butch Harmon Inside Down the Line putting tracks (I believe this is the method he taught Tiger Woods years ago as Tiger and Butch have both referred to it later in publications after I bought it to confirm it’s legit value for training to me). I used that nightly down my basement putting from 4-10 feet and often hitting up to 60-70 putts at night… plus at the course on a practice green too. I saw my putting stats drop by about 5 strokes on average, which obviously translated to lowering my hcp. I found the lag putting practice wasn’t as necessary as I once thought since my confidence to hit 4 and 5 footers after a mediocre lag putt helped save an extra stroke on that green. As they say, there’s never a bad first putt when you make the second… unless you miss a gimme I suppose!
Tom
Mar 10, 2017 at 12:06 pm
This is news to me?
N. D. Boondocks
Mar 10, 2017 at 11:37 am
Maybe it’s just my home course, but I’d be seriously angering a lot of other golfers also trying to use the practice green if I used that putting drill.
Steve
Mar 10, 2017 at 11:20 am
Maybe I’m missing something, but to me, it looks like research shows that golfers need to work on their short game and lag putting more than their short putts…
If the player is 3-putting from 30ft, I’d argue that it’s not really because he missed a 5-10 footer for his 2-putt; it’s because he left himself a 10 footer for his second putt instead of a tap-in to begin with.
TR1PTIK
Mar 10, 2017 at 11:42 am
Agreed. Using Game Golf, I’ve learned that my best scores come when my short game is dialed and my putting average changes very little.
Using Game Golf’s Strokes Gained feature vs. Scratch for example, my best round (78) showed that I was 1.25 strokes worse off the tee, 2.12 strokes worse on approach, 2.65 worse on short game, and 2.29 worse on putting. My best round so far in 2017 (88) on the other hand has me at 1.1 worse off the tee, 4.61 worse on approach, 9.75 worse on short game, and 2.34 worse on putting.
I’m generally a good lag putter, and have made several putts outside of 10′ even 15′ from a variety of slopes and lies. I’d be much closer to a single-digit handicap if I put more work in on my short game.
Ian
Mar 10, 2017 at 12:35 pm
you may do better to track this one stat – http://www.golfwrx.com/285949/the-truth-behind-greens-in-regulation-and-scoring/
TR1PTIK
Mar 10, 2017 at 4:16 pm
I remember that one. That was very accurate for me. Thanks for the reminder!
Iutodd
Mar 11, 2017 at 9:39 am
I missed that one somehow. That is interesting. You kind of have to work backwards – and honestly if you’re trying to break 80 or 70 you need all aspects of your game working right?
But if I need to hit at least 7 gir to break 80 (on average) that probably means I need to hit 6-7 fairways and you figure you’ll hit 1-3 of the par 3 greens. I don’t know what percentage of greens are hit from the fairway but if you’re in the trees all the time I’m guessing your percentage of GIR go way down.
But to me even if GIR is a key stat – you’re going to be 30-40 feet away so lag putting is very important. And if you scramble 11 times a round making five footers is also really important.
So I ageee with the writer that working on lag putting and short putts in combination makes a lot of sense.
Peter Sanders
Mar 11, 2017 at 10:57 am
Ian,
I agree that GIR’s is the best of all the old, traditional, 1-dimensional stats. It signifies 2 positives: 1. One’s game has been efficient enough to get there and 2. It is always a birdie putt of some length. The problem with GIR’s is also two fold: 1. The avg. golfer hits less than 5 per round and 2. It provides no answers as to the cause of all the NON-GIR’s.
Peter Sanders
Mar 11, 2017 at 10:52 am
TR1PTIK,
Please correct me if I am wrong but isn’t Game Golf analyzing your putting based upon # of putts? GPS is only accurate to about 8 meters (25 feet) so the GPS systems cannot get short game or putting distances. Putting analysis based upon # of putts is as accurate as balancing one’s checkbook based solely upon the # of checks written.
DW
Mar 10, 2017 at 12:06 pm
I think the argument is saying the golfer in this example has very few 30 ft putts anyway, so being able to 1 putt from 8 feet rather than 2 putt is a gamechanger.
Steve
Mar 11, 2017 at 12:39 am
Well yah, making more putts is obviously a good thing. But how much improvement can you realistically expect? Even the best players in the world are only making around 50% of putts from 8ft… The graph above shows the 17 capper making about 30% of putts from that distance. So even if he becomes as good as a professional from 8ft, which is extremely unlikely no matter how much he practices because he probably plays on muni greens, then he MIGHT pick up a couple strokes per round. Wouldn’t he be better off figuring out why he’s around 8+ft from the hole so frequently, especially when he’s only hitting 4-5 greens in regulation?
If I’m a 17 capper looking at the statistics and see that a pro is only taking 5 less putts per round than me despite shooting 17 strokes lower on average, I’m not thinking, “Oh, he must be making more 8 footers than me.” First, I’d realize that the pro is hitting SIGNIFICANTLY more greens than me, hence the reason he’s only taking 5 less putts per round (2-putts aren’t a bad thing if you’re on the green in regulation). So the obvious solution would be to hit more greens in regulation. Obviously that’s not the world’s easiest task, especially for a 17 capper. So assuming that won’t change much, what’s an easier way to lower my putt total (and total score)?
1) The player in this example is averaging 2.25 3-putts per round. Unless he’s playing on some REALLY difficult greens, he’s not a very good lag putter. A realistic goal would be to try to get that down to 1 3-putt per round. There’s a shot off your score, and you don’t have to make an extra 8 footer to do it.
2) I’d ask myself why I’m so far away from the hole so frequently when I’m not on the green in regulation. Bad short game. The 17 capper probably puts it in the 6-10 foot range while chipping on his “good” chips. A great chip gets within 3 feet, and a bad one is probably 15+ feet. Why would he spend a ton of time on those 8 footers instead of working on getting closer to the hole? If your good chips turn into 3-5 footers, your great chips are now kick-ins, and your bad ones are now 10-15 feet away, you’re going to start making more putts without even having to make more 8 footers based on the fact that you’re now closer to the hole the majority of the time. Then he can work on those 8 footers after he starts improving his short game.
Again, I’m not saying that working on your putting is a bad idea by any means; pretty much everyone should do it more than they do. Obviously making more 8-footers is a great thing for anybody’s game, but that definitely wouldn’t be my go-to for this type of player. Unless he’s going to start hitting more greens in regulation (then he’d need more help lag putting most likely), he’d be much better served working on getting his average short game shot down from that 14 foot distance. He’ll likely drop significantly more strokes doing that than making 20% more of his 8 footers.