What does it take to break 70?

[Obee]

8 hours ago, bortass said:

 

@Obee, if I may ask. How does one develop a multifaceted short game and golf imagination? Maybe this is obvious to all of you good players posting here but for a hacker like me I'm clueless. Took up the game late in life, so no formal coaching. My short game is "okay" for a 24 index.Short game isn't my main focus right now since I'm bleeding strokes in my approach and driving but eventually I need to improve that area and am pretty sure I can. I just am not sure how outside of practicing the basics that I already know.

This is a tough question to answer at your level, unfortunately. If the way I post connects with you, and you truly love this game, you need to seek out an instructor who is willing to work with you as a whole person.

 

Those guys are out there, for sure. Monty here on this forum seems to really "get" instruction. There are plenty of others, as well. Much of what I post about, however, is geared toward the already advanced player. If you want to PM me, I'm happy to help. 🙂

[magnus7319]

12 hours ago, Obee said:

This is a tough question to answer at your level, unfortunately. If the way I post connects with you, and you truly love this game, you need to seek out an instructor who is willing to work with you as a whole person.

 

Those guys are out there, for sure. Monty here on this forum seems to really "get" instruction. There are plenty of others, as well. Much of what I post about, however, is geared toward the already advanced player. If you want to PM me, I'm happy to help. 🙂

 

If I can chime in here @Obee and @bortass - I may have taken up the game way earlier in life than you (as a kid) but that doesn't mean you can't act like a kid... what I mean is... I would spend hours and hours in the yard at my childhood home with a wedge and a golf ball and invent games, hit the ball around the yard, over trees (over the house) etc, etc.. set up imaginary holes, have fun... I lived in the country so my yard (and my cousin who lived next door - who golfed too) was huge and we could hit darn near a full wedge from one end of my yard to the other end of his... anyway... my point is this: to develop imagination and touch you need some unstructured practice... and the more unstructured and fun you can make it, the more you will do it, and the more you do it, the better you'll get at it. Eventually you will find that you'll never encounter a pitch or chip or flop on the course that you haven't hit 100x at home... 

[acekun]

15 hours ago, Obee said:

 

I documented much of my journey, here: 

 

 

I read through most of this thread. I was curious when you were tracking putting distances, were you walking it off or do you use an app?

 

Also, what have you found to be the most significant putting statistics to track? My putting is terrible (right now -- having the attitude that it will get better). I average 34 putts a round and feel like I rarely make putts outside of 3 feet. 

[Obee]

35 minutes ago, magnus7319 said:

 

If I can chime in here @Obee and @bortass - I may have taken up the game way earlier in life than you (as a kid) but that doesn't mean you can't act like a kid... what I mean is... I would spend hours and hours in the yard at my childhood home with a wedge and a golf ball and invent games, hit the ball around the yard, over trees (over the house) etc, etc.. set up imaginary holes, have fun... I lived in the country so my yard (and my cousin who lived next door - who golfed too) was huge and we could hit darn near a full wedge from one end of my yard to the other end of his... anyway... my point is this: to develop imagination and touch you need some unstructured practice... and the more unstructured and fun you can make it, the more you will do it, and the more you do it, the better you'll get at it. Eventually you will find that you'll never encounter a pitch or chip or flop on the course that you haven't hit 100x at home... 

 

Thanks for this, and that's what I basically would have told him. It's about learning how to use the implement (the wedge). Learn what it can do. Experiment! Back in stance. Forward in stance. Weight forward. Weight centered. Face shut. Face pancaked. Hands forward. Hands back. Learn to use the TOOL.

[Obee]

36 minutes ago, acekun said:

I read through most of this thread. I was curious when you were tracking putting distances, were you walking it off or do you use an app?

 

Also, what have you found to be the most significant putting statistics to track? My putting is terrible (right now -- having the attitude that it will get better). I average 34 putts a round and feel like I rarely make putts outside of 3 feet. 

 

Just good estimates from years of playing golf and pacing off distances. Always erred on the shorter side. So if I had a putt that I'm certain was 9 to 10 feet, I would say it was 9 feet in my spreadsheet. I probably under-represented my average feet of putts made by 5 to 10 feet a round.

[Pepperturbo]

15 hours ago, PixlPutterman said:

....with a steel shafted driver lol

 

Really...  I can't imagine that but some of us are different. 

[bortass]

@Obee and @magnus7319 That is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for posting it. I have bigger fish to fry right now but once I improve my full swing, I'll be going back to my wedges and I will start to mess around more with them.

[Habitual Flipper]

  

2 hours ago, magnus7319 said:

 

If I can chime in here @Obee and @bortass - I may have taken up the game way earlier in life than you (as a kid) but that doesn't mean you can't act like a kid... what I mean is... I would spend hours and hours in the yard at my childhood home with a wedge and a golf ball and invent games, hit the ball around the yard, over trees (over the house) etc, etc.. set up imaginary holes, have fun... I lived in the country so my yard (and my cousin who lived next door - who golfed too) was huge and we could hit darn near a full wedge from one end of my yard to the other end of his... anyway... my point is this: to develop imagination and touch you need some unstructured practice... and the more unstructured and fun you can make it, the more you will do it, and the more you do it, the better you'll get at it. Eventually you will find that you'll never encounter a pitch or chip or flop on the course that you haven't hit 100x at home... 

 

Don't have much to add other than the best my short game has ever been came after being jobless for a summer and was able to chip golf balls at my cottage every day for 2 months (along with playing quite a bit). Shot a -2 (70) that summer with a double bogey. Living in the city now and with COVID, my short game practice has faltered and it shows on the course. 

 

Great thread by the way, lots of awesome information and anecdotes.

Edited October 1, 2020 by Habitual Flipper

[PixlPutterman]

9 hours ago, Pepperturbo said:

 

Really...  I can't imagine that but some of us are different. 

TM Original One Mini with x100. I like the heft

[Keen2bDumb]

Play ridiculously conservative. I'm serious.

 

Too many people lose strokes playing too aggressive. They 3-putt because they try to hole a 20 footer, they short side themselves, and driver is a great weapon until at some point you realize you don't always need it.

 

Breaking 70 is an attitude. You have to play safe a lot, and not take stupid risks. 

[Ty_Webb]

Couple of thoughts. Dustin Johnson shot -30 a few weeks ago in a tournament. He was on the fat side of the pin 71% of the time. A lot of scoring is about picking the right target and going after that aggressively. 

 

Hit driver as much as possible. Closer to the hole is pretty much always better unless there are hazards lurking. 

 

Play a lot. Golf is a game with a lot of variance, even if you don't change much. There's luck in shooting low scores. The more you play the more chance you have for that luck to play out. What I mean here is for the pros, 8 foot putts are 50/50. If you wind up with 6 of them in a given round, roughly speaking, 1 time in 64, you'll hole none of them, 6/64 you'll hole 1, 15/64 you'll hole 2, 20/64 you'll hole 3, 15/64 you'll hole 4, 6/64 you'll hole 5 and 1/64 you'll hole all 6 of them. Every now and again, you'll hole all 6 of them on the same day that you hit 14 greens. That's how you shoot in the 60s. Combine that with not making silly mistakes and you're all set. That's how you do it once. To do it regularly, you have to make sure that you're frequently hitting 12+ greens and you never get yourself into big time trouble. 

 

This one I know is easy to say and hard to do, but try to view every shot as its own little world. Figure out what you want to do, pick your target, your club etc., go through your routine and hit it. Doesn't matter if it's 9 holes out on your own on a summer's evening, or coming down the stretch in your club championship with a chance to win. Do the same thing every time.

 

 

[GoTime]

I am currently a +1.2 but about to drop down to reality around 0 (I think) after a -4.9 diff falls off. In my last 20 I have averaged 66% GIR and 32.2 putts. When I go below 30 putts it's usually because I've missed a ton of greens.

 

Anyone have any tips/methods to track what the underlying root cause is for high'ish putts? I know it's probably a mixed bag but would like to strategize in this area and make a concerted effort to improve it.

[b.helts]

1 hour ago, 000 said:

I am currently a +1.2 but about to drop down to reality around 0 (I think) after a -4.9 diff falls off. In my last 20 I have averaged 66% GIR and 32.2 putts. When I go below 30 putts it's usually because I've missed a ton of greens.

 

Anyone have any tips/methods to track what the underlying root cause is for high'ish putts? I know it's probably a mixed bag but would like to strategize in this area and make a concerted effort to improve it.

proximity to the hole. Make notes of your birdie putts for greens you hit. Distance, short left, short right etc. 

 

I have times when I get a little hooky. Because of this most of my shots are Left of the hole and as a consequence most of my birdie putts are left to right, and often downhill. harder to make. 
 

proximity, distance and location, is important to knowing why you aren’t converting as many birdies as you could with nice GIR numbers. 

[Ty_Webb]

1 minute ago, b.helts said:

proximity to the hole. Make notes of your birdie putts for greens you hit. Distance, short left, short right etc. 

 

I have times when I get a little hooky. Because of this most of my shots are Left of the hole and as a consequence most of my birdie putts are left to right, and often downhill. harder to make. 
 

proximity, distance and location, is important to knowing why you aren’t converting as many birdies as you could with nice GIR numbers. 

 

Agreed. Total putts is a strange one. You can have 33 putts and have gained strokes putting and you can have 26 putts and have lost strokes putting. This is the real strength of strokes gained is it lets you see why you have a lot of putts. It could be virtually anything. Poor putting, poor short game (not enough short first putts), too conservative with approach play (hitting to the middle of the green all the time can leave you a lot of 30+ footers - no one is going to average under 30 putts if they have nothing but 30 footers all day). It could also be something like playing a course with big greens. If your approach play is a little off, but the greens are huge, you're hitting a bunch of long putts that on a course with small greens would be chips. I think the pros average in the 27-28 range for putts per round, which is a combination of them being good putters, chipping it dead more than half the time they miss the green and hitting the occasional approach shot close.

 

Basically you could have 32 putts because you:

- hit 18 greens, including a couple par fives in two and made 6 birdies and shot -6

- hit 13 greens, holed nothing, chipped it close three times and made one 12 footer for a par and shot +1

- hit 7 greens, missed a bunch by a lot, chipped mediocre and missed a bunch of makeable putts and shot +12

- worse

 

32 putts on its own tells you nothing specific about your game. Just that likely there is room for some improvement somewhere (since nobody on the planet lives in that first bullet point all the time)

[Obee]

1 hour ago, Ty_Webb said:

 

Agreed. Total putts is a strange one. You can have 33 putts and have gained strokes putting and you can have 26 putts and have lost strokes putting. This is the real strength of strokes gained is it lets you see why you have a lot of putts. It could be virtually anything. Poor putting, poor short game (not enough short first putts), too conservative with approach play (hitting to the middle of the green all the time can leave you a lot of 30+ footers - no one is going to average under 30 putts if they have nothing but 30 footers all day). It could also be something like playing a course with big greens. If your approach play is a little off, but the greens are huge, you're hitting a bunch of long putts that on a course with small greens would be chips. I think the pros average in the 27-28 range for putts per round, which is a combination of them being good putters, chipping it dead more than half the time they miss the green and hitting the occasional approach shot close.

 

Basically you could have 32 putts because you:

- hit 18 greens, including a couple par fives in two and made 6 birdies and shot -6

- hit 13 greens, holed nothing, chipped it close three times and made one 12 footer for a par and shot +1

- hit 7 greens, missed a bunch by a lot, chipped mediocre and missed a bunch of makeable putts and shot +12

- worse

 

32 putts on its own tells you nothing specific about your game. Just that likely there is room for some improvement somewhere (since nobody on the planet lives in that first bullet point all the time)

 

The BEST putters are usually 27.5 to 27.9 putts per round, average. The WORST are usually slightly above 30. Tour average is almost always right about 29, actually. Has been for years. It was actually about 30 during the 80's, so putters on Tour have gotten about a full stroke better, on average. Much of that would be better green conditions.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Obee

[PixlPutterman]

6 hours ago, Keen2bDumb said:

Play ridiculously conservative. I'm serious.

 

Too many people lose strokes playing too aggressive. They 3-putt because they try to hole a 20 footer, they short side themselves, and driver is a great weapon until at some point you realize you don't always need it.

 

Breaking 70 is an attitude. You have to play safe a lot, and not take stupid risks. 

 

I have noticed this, when I quit acting like I need to score on every hole and just let the opportunities come, I have played more consistent

[Obee]

1 hour ago, b.helts said:

proximity to the hole. Make notes of your birdie putts for greens you hit. Distance, short left, short right etc. 

 

I have times when I get a little hooky. Because of this most of my shots are Left of the hole and as a consequence most of my birdie putts are left to right, and often downhill. harder to make. 
 

proximity, distance and location, is important to knowing why you aren’t converting as many birdies as you could with nice GIR numbers. 

 

You know what I took from that post?

 

You need to stop getting hooky and missing left.

 

[PixlPutterman]

2 hours ago, 000 said:

I am currently a +1.2 but about to drop down to reality around 0 (I think) after a -4.9 diff falls off. In my last 20 I have averaged 66% GIR and 32.2 putts. When I go below 30 putts it's usually because I've missed a ton of greens.

 

Anyone have any tips/methods to track what the underlying root cause is for high'ish putts? I know it's probably a mixed bag but would like to strategize in this area and make a concerted effort to improve it.

Me too. I have had some sub 30 putt rounds but I hit less than 50% of greens

[PixlPutterman]

1 hour ago, Ty_Webb said:

 

Agreed. Total putts is a strange one. You can have 33 putts and have gained strokes putting and you can have 26 putts and have lost strokes putting. This is the real strength of strokes gained is it lets you see why you have a lot of putts. It could be virtually anything. Poor putting, poor short game (not enough short first putts), too conservative with approach play (hitting to the middle of the green all the time can leave you a lot of 30+ footers - no one is going to average under 30 putts if they have nothing but 30 footers all day). It could also be something like playing a course with big greens. If your approach play is a little off, but the greens are huge, you're hitting a bunch of long putts that on a course with small greens would be chips. I think the pros average in the 27-28 range for putts per round, which is a combination of them being good putters, chipping it dead more than half the time they miss the green and hitting the occasional approach shot close.

 

Basically you could have 32 putts because you:

- hit 18 greens, including a couple par fives in two and made 6 birdies and shot -6

- hit 13 greens, holed nothing, chipped it close three times and made one 12 footer for a par and shot +1

- hit 7 greens, missed a bunch by a lot, chipped mediocre and missed a bunch of makeable putts and shot +12

- worse

 

32 putts on its own tells you nothing specific about your game. Just that likely there is room for some improvement somewhere (since nobody on the planet lives in that first bullet point all the time)

My buddy and I keep a side score (and bet on it)

 

score + putts - greens - fairways

Helps even out the putts by rewarding you with greens/fairways hits lowering your total

[Obee]

1 hour ago, Ty_Webb said:

 

Agreed. Total putts is a strange one. You can have 33 putts and have gained strokes putting and you can have 26 putts and have lost strokes putting. This is the real strength of strokes gained is it lets you see why you have a lot of putts. It could be virtually anything. Poor putting, poor short game (not enough short first putts), too conservative with approach play (hitting to the middle of the green all the time can leave you a lot of 30+ footers - no one is going to average under 30 putts if they have nothing but 30 footers all day). It could also be something like playing a course with big greens. If your approach play is a little off, but the greens are huge, you're hitting a bunch of long putts that on a course with small greens would be chips. I think the pros average in the 27-28 range for putts per round, which is a combination of them being good putters, chipping it dead more than half the time they miss the green and hitting the occasional approach shot close.

 

Basically you could have 32 putts because you:

- hit 18 greens, including a couple par fives in two and made 6 birdies and shot -6

- hit 13 greens, holed nothing, chipped it close three times and made one 12 footer for a par and shot +1

- hit 7 greens, missed a bunch by a lot, chipped mediocre and missed a bunch of makeable putts and shot +12

- worse

 

32 putts on its own tells you nothing specific about your game. Just that likely there is room for some improvement somewhere (since nobody on the planet lives in that first bullet point all the time)

 

I am confident in saying that your putting is absolutely part of the problem if you are averaging anything more than about 30.5 putts per round as an amateur. If you are truly averaging 31 to 33 putts per round (using the Tour definition of "it's only a putt if you are on the green," not "on the fringe, but using a putter"), then your putting is definitely part of the problem.

[PixlPutterman]

10 minutes ago, Obee said:

 

I am confident in saying that your putting is absolutely part of the problem if you are averaging anything more than about 30.5 putts per round as an amateur. If you are truly averaging 31 to 33 putts per round (using the Tour definition of "it's only a putt if you are on the green," not "on the fringe, but using a putter"), then your putting is definitely part of the problem.

I mean technically if you two putt every green from the furthest point from the pin......your iron/wedge game is the problem 🙂

Edited October 2, 2020 by PixlPutterman

[Ty_Webb]

2 hours ago, Obee said:

 

I am confident in saying that your putting is absolutely part of the problem if you are averaging anything more than about 30.5 putts per round as an amateur. If you are truly averaging 31 to 33 putts per round (using the Tour definition of "it's only a putt if you are on the green," not "on the fringe, but using a putter"), then your putting is definitely part of the problem.

 

If you play the old course all the time with its gigantic greens and have a mediocre iron game, you can still hit a lot of greens and wind up with a bunch of 60 foot putts. Hard to get your average down below 2/hole when you're 60 feet away. It's also quite plausible that you have a dreadful short game (I know this) and wind up with very few putts inside of about 10 feet. Indeed, if every hole you had a 10 foot putt for your first putt and you're an average tour putter, you should expect to have roughly 30 putts (1/3 1 putts and 2/3 2 putts). Most people don't hit it that close other than from the edges, so you're really only going to get your putts under 30 if you're chipping it close a few times. 

 

Granted on average it's unlikely you'd never wind up with a bunch of 3 footers for your first putts, but speaking personally, I've gone seasons where I average about 32-33 putts and my strokes gained putting is in the -1 range. Not great by any stretch, but it does mean if I was 0 strokes gained (so average PGA Tour), then I'd be averaging 31-32 putts. My issue is much more about my short game than my putting.

[Ty_Webb]

2 hours ago, Obee said:

 

You know what I took from that post?

 

You need to stop getting hooky and missing left.

 

 

Or aim it a bit further right...

[bortass]

4 hours ago, PixlPutterman said:

I mean technically if you two putt every green from the furthest point from the pin......your iron/wedge game is the problem 🙂

  This highlights something that is important when looking at any stat and that is context. You cannot look at a number in a vacuum and say "aha! I suck because I have a lot of putts" or " I suck because of my approach game". Golf is complex. So maybe my putting 'sucks' because my first putt is never close to the pin and I'm lagging everything. Maybe my approach game sucks because I'm chipping out of the trees all the time. Maybe both suck because I just plain suck 🤣

 

Being a former programmer, I'm used to looking for root cause. I mention this because not everyone thinks this way. I see problem X, I putt a lot, what is really causing this? X is the side effect of something that happened beforehand. Sure sometimes X really is the problem so work on your putting. Maybe it's your approach shots from 100-150 yards(true story). So fix the approach shots and the next issue, if any, will come to light. 

 

This seques into sometimes a problem is a culmination of things that are wrong. Fixed my approach game, so my putting is better but still too high. Oh look my wedge game and chipping have now been exposed as bigger issues. That issue was always there but was masked by the larger issue that my approaches suck. Fix that and maybe now it's my sand game if I end up in bunkers a fair amount of time. So don't get frustrated if when you fix/resolve a problem with your game that it is not a magic bullet that made it all better. There are likely many factors in play. Fixed my putting problems but now I need to hone my mental game so I don't wilt under pressure etc.

 

Be honest with yourself and look at your game in a detached/logical manner. That should help you determine what needs to be fixed and what you can fix. There may be areas of your game where you are either at your peak or any incremental improvement will be like squeezing water from a stone. Your time is likely better spent elsewhere.

 

Hopefully my rambling makes a semblance of sense....

 

 

[Forged4ever]

As good as one's physical game is, their MENTAL GAME must be superior to that!!

 

Trust me here~

 

YOU WILL NOT BREAK 70 UNDER THE GUN without a mental game superior to your physical game😉

 

All the Best in Your Journey👊

RP

Edited October 2, 2020 by Forged4ever

[Forged4ever]

On 9/29/2020 at 9:57 PM, b.helts said:

I didn’t read the whole thread and I’m sure there is a lot of good information and ideas. 
 

My $.02 is 3's.
 

YOU HAVE TO MAKE 3's TO BREAK 70. The more the merrier. How YOU make threes is going to be individual. But you gotta do it. 

AFTER ya master the Mental game, THIS!!!

 

I never heard Pete day this as he didn't want ya concentrating on scores and numbers while you were tryin to bust your 🍒, however I remember hearing Sam say this in my late teens and he said it many many more times over the years~

 

THREES‼️

 

If @isaacbm hasn't posted in this thread, then there's no one in here that knows more about what it takes to bust 70 than @b.helts!

 

Very Nicely Played Brotha👊

 

Stay Well Gents🍻

RP

Edited October 2, 2020 by Forged4ever

[Shilgy]

On 9/30/2020 at 9:27 AM, Obee said:

 

Yes. "One-dimensional" short games. Love that.

 

I one-dimensional short game is definitely one of the prime ways to stay a 2 to 6 forever. LOL.

At my club I am known for short game and putting....and yet...

often as we get to the green-from a cart here in Phoenix summertime- I will grab pw  on down....meaning pw, 50-54-58* and putter and will often get the “why not take the whole bag with you” comment. 
How in he world do you possibly know what club you want if you have not even looked at the lie as yet???

[DShepley]

On 10/2/2020 at 12:07 PM, Obee said:

 

The BEST putters are usually 27.5 to 27.9 putts per round, average. The WORST are usually slightly above 30. Tour average is almost always right about 29, actually. Has been for years. It was actually about 30 during the 80's, so putters on Tour have gotten about a full stroke better, on average. Much of that would be better green conditions.

I fit in your category of a guy who used to play to a plus, (albeit on a relatively easy course), who now plays to a 1 handicap and balancing young kids, life and a playing schedule of only 2 rounds per week and very little practice.  My short game and putting is 100% what has kept me there.  That and the fact that I still believe that I am a better player than what I show; believing that you are better is key to improving...if you settle you won't improve.  Part of improving is to truly believe that you left some out there and next time you will get them.  

 

With respect to putting, I feel what separates the best putters I know from the average are that the best log lots of hours practice inside 8 feet.  You have to make most of these!  Further to this, I don't know ONE excellent putter who is ever trying to get a putt down in two!  If they have a putter in their hand, they are trying to make the putt...not hit it close.  This works because they have all sorts of confidence inside 8 feet.  This leads to occasional putts made from the 20 - 30 foot range.

Edited October 6, 2020 by DShepley

[Ty_Webb]

13 minutes ago, DShepley said:

I fit in your category of a guy who used to play to a plus, (albeit on a relatively easy course), who now plays to a 1 handicap and balancing young kids, life and a playing schedule of only 2 rounds per week and very little practice.  My short game and putting is 100% what has kept me there.  That and the fact that I still believe that I am a better player than what I show; believing that you are better is key to improving...if you settle you won't improve.  Part of improving is to truly believe that you left some out there and next time you will get them.  

 

With respect to putting, I feel what separates the best putters I know from the average are that the best log lots of hours practice inside 8 feet.  You have to make most of these!  Further to this, I don't know ONE excellent putter who is ever trying to get a putt down in two!  If they have a putter in their hand, they are trying to make the putt...not hit it close.  This works because they have all sorts of confidence inside 8 feet.  This leads to occasional putts made from the 20 - 30 foot range.

 

Scott Fawcett has a thing about Phil Mickelson. Phil said that he was holing out really well and that was enabling him to be aggressive over his 20-30 footers. For the tournament in question, Phil had hit ten 20-30 foot putts He holed 2 of them, hit 2 past the hole, left one spot on hole high and left five of them short. Of his putts from 10-30 feet. 26 of them in total, only three had gone more than 18 inches past the hole. He holed 6 of them, so we don't know how far past those would have gone, but he was certainly not hitting them well past the hole. 

[DShepley]

49 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

 

Scott Fawcett has a thing about Phil Mickelson. Phil said that he was holing out really well and that was enabling him to be aggressive over his 20-30 footers. For the tournament in question, Phil had hit ten 20-30 foot putts He holed 2 of them, hit 2 past the hole, left one spot on hole high and left five of them short. Of his putts from 10-30 feet. 26 of them in total, only three had gone more than 18 inches past the hole. He holed 6 of them, so we don't know how far past those would have gone, but he was certainly not hitting them well past the hole. 

I bet he was trying to make them all and not trying to lag them close.  You don't have to charge a putt in trying to make it, in fact, when I see most players in a doubles match try to take break out of a putt and hit it hard because their partner is already in for par, they almost always miss.  It's because they are switching to a method of putting that they never use.  The best putters aren't worried about how far they are leaving themselves, three putting doesn't cross their mind and intentional lagging doesn't either.  They may give some putts more attention than others but I don't think they are ever just trying to get it close.