Putting...the hidden equilizer

Take a look at Luke Donald's stats. Why is he 39th on the money list?
STANDARD STATS Rank
Driving Distance 281.6 152nd

Driving Accuracy Percentage 58.44% 167th

Greens in Regulation Pct. 58.92% 197th

Putting Average 1.743 7th

Birdie Average 3.42 47th

Scoring Average 69.58 2nd

Sand Save Percentage 50.00% 102nd

Total Driving 319 203rd
All-Around Ranking 873 120th
Regular Season FedExCup Points 6,001 39th

Money Leaders $1,456,650 39th

Par Breakers 19.02% 72nd

Putts Per Round 27.67 1st

GIR Pct. - Fairway Bunker 45.8% 100th -

hi Greg
its is interesting when you see he is not outstanding in the other parts of his game but his putting is so good.
cheers
bill

It always makes me laugh when I see the driving ranges packed with folks with 2-3 large buckets piled high, and the chipping/putting green is empty, except for the few just ready to tee off who are there only to kill some time.

Practicing putting is basically free (I do have some that charge $2-3 for the chipping and putting areas...and they are nice and worth it).

Chipping (for me) is probably even more important. I can hit 4 completely different shots to the same spot. Knowing the techniques and results for each is essential to reducing your error%. Putting is basic in comparison...1 line and 1 speed (unless you want to talk about taking a slightly higher line with less speed for lagging), but still pretty basic compared to chipping.

This is not to say that this is all you should practice. Balance is the key. But when I see the mats filled and the greens empty...there is a bias going on that is obvious. You should see an equal number on both...in fact probably a bias on the green if you want to be frugal about practice.

Take a week and adjust your routine the other way for a while and see what this does for your game the following week.

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hi Greg
in the summer the wife always looking for her washing basket as i have it out the back green and using it to chip into. only have a small area of about 20 foot but it great trying to pitch right into the washing basket. put a towel in there to stop the ball bouncing back out.
cheers
bill

I've spent the summer chipping and pitching in my backyard. It brings tons of confidence when you miss the green and already know how far you're going to carry a given shot.

I would not say Im a great putter, the greens on my course are not huge. But I certainly notice a big jump in my scores when my putting is not good.

Big difference even from 2 putting to 3 putting. Arguably the simplest part of the game that can be practised almost anywhere.

Might also seem obvious, but Ive only recently started counting steps for putting so I know 5 paces is about 10ft and I know how hard to hit 10ft now.

Worth getting the tape measure out and practising hitting certain ranges. Gives you a wee confidence boost on the greens even if your alignment is wrong you are never too far away to safeguard the 2 putt.

I couldn't agree more ... even if you don't smash it 300 yards and have a wedge into every green you can still score well with a good short game. Well, it's not just short game that's important it's mental attitude and consistency.

I've just looked at the top 20 in dirivng distance on the PGA Tour in 2008 and only 7 have won tournaments. In the top 20 of overall putting, 15 have won tournaments. In the top 20 scrambling, 12 have won tournaments.

Most interestingly, of the top 20 longest drivers there are only 4 in the top 20 of greens in regulation - which means all those bombers they hit, they still miss the green more times than the shorter hitters!!!

Interesting isn't it?

I tend to think if I wanted to buy a better game I'd rather spend money on short game lessons than long driving lessons. Odds are 2:1 in my favour!

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Graham Arnott, teaching professional
Kelrosa Golf Studios
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Full Member: World Golf Teachers Federation (GB&I)

This is my first post and I'm delighted to find a forum where golfers can kick it around.

I've been playing golf since I was 12 (now 53) and always knew the importance of good putting (short game) however like most spent the vast majority of time beating balls on the range leaving putting mostly to hitting a few putts before the round. Sound familiar?

I suffered a rib fracture and was forced to not play for 8 weeks This really turned out to be a blessing. Not being able to hit full shots I started working on my short game. After about a 2 weeks of practice my shortgame showed no improvement.

Then I remembered something I had read by Dave Pelz. Dave stated he was a scratch golfer who played in many local events but his putting and short game were below average compared to other scratch golfers.

Pelz said he set about to correct that by aggressively practicing his short game to find he showed no improvement. The same results that I'm sure thousands of golfers have found when they attempted to improve their shortgame. What he found was just as in the full swing practice in and of itself does little good without a blueprint and that the short game like the long game has certain fundamentals that will produce consistent, repeatable results that will hold up under pressure.

Bottom line: Unless you can find a local short game guru. Get a good blueprint of the fundamentals from Dave Pelz, Stan Utley or any of the other short game gurus and work on those like you would with David Leadbetter, Jim Hardy etc for the long game. If you practice without a Blueprint you'll in all likelyhood find the improvement marginal, temporary and not repeatable under pressure.

Best Wishes Maxxc

Good point, but in my opinion the longer hitters are hitting the ball with such speed that any bad swings result in bigger slices / hooks, giving them less chance to go at greens from the fairway. I reckon out of the long guys on tour, if you find one who consistently hits fairways too, he's prob right up there on the money.

My point - its a combo of length, accuracy and short game but a short game can massively counter if the other 2 are bad. Practice everything i say cos if you start getting reliant on any one aspect, the day that part decides to leave you you're gonna need the other 2 parts to be on form

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Short game is definately very important, but I'll tell you one thing: if you are shanking every shot with your irons the short game will not save you as you will have way too many strokes by the time you get to the green.

My point is that if you are having swing problems with the irons and dribbling everything between the tee box and the green, I know what I would be practicing on....

If you get to the green in two and three putt the result is the same getting to the green in four and one putting. So even by shanking three lousy irons through the rough and squirting one onto the green, if you drain it in the end you will still have the same score.

I understand of course if you can hit the green from 200 yards out every time then you have a much better chance at having a good round but in my example the "5" written on both players cards at the end of the day still add up to "5".


Tim.

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