Do you putt out?

[Ronzo]

I always putt out. And it irritates the crap out of a lot of people I play with, including my son and his father-in-law.

 

They are very casual players, and I'm known as a guy who takes his game seriously, even though I suck. I have no idea how you can measure your actual progress at this game if you don't play by the rules. They are intrinsic.

[golf.suLLy]

Interesting poll. I recently stayed at hotel on a course where my room overlooked a green. After awhile I started counting and of the 22 people that played through only 7 put the ball in the cup.

 

I putt everything out for some of the same reasons already mentioned.

[jmtigers]

Nothing irritates me more than this situation:

 

My playing partner and I are both equally having a bad bad hole or maybe its the toughest hole on the course. I make a nice 5+ footer for bogey or double and my partner who I spent the last 10 minutes riding through the woods with chunks a chip on the green then knocks a long putt 6ft past. Then he proceeds to just pick it up and move on.. with the "gimmie a 6 for that one"

[EJ Mac]

I always prefer to putt out and get a little peeved when someone bats my ball back to me calling it good. It's not good until it's in the hole.

[ezra76]

When not in tournament play, the group I play with usually give putts that are tap-ins to save time. The only thing I am a stickler about is anything for a birdie (or better). I always putt those out (old Harvey Pennick saying, its not a birdie if you didn't putt it).

 

Same here. I'm a good chipper so put it inside a foot quite a bit. My playing partners always knock those back to me. I do it playing alone most of the time as well. If there is basically any chance I could miss the thing, I'll putt it. No point in lining up a 13inch uphill putt for a bogey save. I'm going to make that 100% of the time as I'm sure anyone would. Some days I'll just knock it in with my wedge blade for the heck of it. I guess I'd have to mention I have a solid, consistant preputt routine. If I choose to putt a 9 incher, I'm going through the whole thing. If you want to wait that 1:10 for me to do it all, so be it, lol. Also, as someone else mentioned, ESC only allows me to enter double at worst. If I miss a bogey putt, chip, whatever, I usually pick it up.

[Sawgrass]

I always prefer to putt out and get a little peeved when someone bats my ball back to me calling it good. It's not good until it's in the hole.

 

 

The situation you describe used to absolutely kill me too, particularly if I was potentially heading for my personal best, which it is my firm policy to believe every time I step on the first tee. It bothered me until I realized that the rules cover this. So now I just replace the ball at no penalty and sink it. While it's an awkward situation for a minute, I've never once had someone do it again after I pleasantly thanked them and then replaced the ball.

 

One other comment: I remember watching a PGA tournament years and years ago when Travino and Nicklaus were in the heat of a competition. Travino left a ball on the lip, moved to it and passed his putter by the ball, then tapped it in. He turned to Nicklaus and said, "I intended to hit that." He was describing his "whiff". I don't think anyone in the world would have known that his first pass was anything other than a waggle. He took the extra stroke. Impressed the hell out of me. (Wish I could remember if he won anyway. Anyone else remember this moment?)

 

 

 

If Lee Travino can miss a one inch putt, I can too. So I putt it every time.

[kekoa]

I always putt everything out whether its 2 ft or 2 in. I actually struggle w/ shorter putts so it helps me practice. Plus it doesn't really save time by giving putts unless the players sit over a putt like furyk. I love it when guys i'm playing w/ slap at a 5 footer after a crappy lag expecting to make the putt. When they miss, they still take the score if they made the putt.i gues thats why i like tournament play. EVERYTHING gets holed out.

[ExRidd]

nobody gives them to you in tournaments. enough said

[DaveLeeNC]

For me this is one of the most awkward situations that I run into in golf.

 

1) I'm playing with some friends in a casual round who are mostly high handicappers (and probably older so probably slow).

 

2) I've got a 15 inch putt and am the last guy to putt out

 

3) Our group is slightly behind and the guys that I am playing with know it and would like to fix that

 

4) The group behind is waiting to hit to the green

 

5) I MUST go through my normal routine on putts that are 15 inches or longer or (history says) I might well miss it.

 

That is a damned awkward situatiion - golf purity or not.

 

dave

[atlanta golfer]

I will give and take short putts in a friendly round or when doing match play - I go with the group. No sense being the odd man out in a social setting. But normally I like to putt everything and I do so in most of my rounds.

 

What really strikes me is when playing with strangers - people give themselves all sorts of putts that are 2 and 3 feet out which are missed maybe one out of 4 times by the typical golfer. They won't actually pick it up, but they will casually putt it, and then when it doesn't go in, they will putt it again while it is still moving.

[roll - gybe]

I had a thought on this.

 

I have a buddy who is about a 2. He plays on the weekends and his game has rust, and about 99% of the time he is a little hung over from chasing tail on Friday night.

 

 

In years past, I have seen his short game be really sharp, but right now he isn't playing enough. He is a 2 because he stripes it.

 

He is also a pretty good putter. But he picks up 4 footers that he says he can make. He putts others out.

 

Now we have this other friend who gets very competitive, but he is really wild. We make him play provisionals and we rag him pretty hard about playing by the rules. It gets under his skin, and it can be really entertaining. Great friends right?

 

Anyway, the wild guy likes to try to get back at the 2 handicapper by demanding he putt out. The thing is the guy makes them all. I cannot recall seeing him miss one in about 6 years. Maybe one, but I'm a little hazy on it. It's pretty funny, when the wild kid makes him putt out, and the guy inevitably holes it, the trashtalking always goes up by a factor of 3 or 4. It ususally starts with something like, "That putt was so easy it was like breathing. Now this fairway looks pretty tight for your hook."

 

So, just because someone isn't putting out doesn't mean they can't.

[jjj912]

When not in tournament play, the group I play with usually give putts that are tap-ins to save time. The only thing I am a stickler about is anything for a birdie (or better). I always putt those out (old Harvey Pennick saying, its not a birdie if you didn't putt it).

 

Same here. I'm a good chipper so put it inside a foot quite a bit. My playing partners always knock those back to me. I do it playing alone most of the time as well. If there is basically any chance I could miss the thing, I'll putt it. No point in lining up a 13inch uphill putt for a bogey save. I'm going to make that 100% of the time as I'm sure anyone would. Some days I'll just knock it in with my wedge blade for the heck of it. I guess I'd have to mention I have a solid, consistant preputt routine. If I choose to putt a 9 incher, I'm going through the whole thing. If you want to wait that 1:10 for me to do it all, so be it, lol. Also, as someone else mentioned, ESC only allows me to enter double at worst. If I miss a bogey putt, chip, whatever, I usually pick it up.

 

Are you saying it takes you one minute and ten seconds to make a nine inch putt? If you spent that much time on every stroke and shot an 80, you would spend an hour and a half just hitting the ball. If you were part of a foursome and each one of you took that long, the group would spend six hours just hitting the ball, to say nothing of the time required to travel between shots. Out of curiosity, just what exactly are you doing in your preshot routine? Or have I misinterpreted what you wrote?

[Bomb and Gouge]

I putt out 100% of the time.

 

Once in a while, I'll play w/ people I don't know and they'll hit my ball back to me if they deem it a "gimme". It used to piss me off but now I just roll w/ it.

 

If they give me something more than a few inches, I'll politely inform them that I prefer to putt out.

[jjj912]

When not in tournament play, the group I play with usually give putts that are tap-ins to save time. The only thing I am a stickler about is anything for a birdie (or better). I always putt those out (old Harvey Pennick saying, its not a birdie if you didn't putt it).

 

+1

 

Putting out every time, even in a casual round with friends is only going to end up in slow play.

 

Maybe I'm missing something here, but it seems to me that if playing tap-in putts takes so much time that it is worthwhile to not putt out, then the group has a pace of play problem that is a far bigger than a few tap-in putts.

[Bomb and Gouge]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but it seems to me that if playing tap-in putts takes so much time that it is worthwhile to not putt out, then the group has a pace of play problem that is a far bigger than a few tap-in putts.

 

 

Obviously.

 

Here's a lit of a few things that can actually SLOW things down on the course:

 

(These are often causes...but not ALWAYS)

 

-Beer/Alcohol

-Beverage carts

-Golf carts

-Not playing ready golf

-Marking your ball on the green when you're not in someone's line and just a few feet from the hole

-Playing from tees that don't suit your handicap/skill level

-Looking for balls that are clearly GONE

-Not hitting a provisional and having to take the 'walk of shame' back to the tee

-Holding your follow-thru and posing.

-Waiting until it's your turn before looking at a putt from different angles

-Not using a drop area

-Filling out a scorecard before leaving the green (causing people behind you to wait longer)

 

 

Oh, and if you use a caddie, give him/her the rangefinder and trust them! Don't use the rangefinder and make the caddie walk-off the distances.

[atlanta golfer]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but it seems to me that if playing tap-in putts takes so much time that it is worthwhile to not putt out, then the group has a pace of play problem that is a far bigger than a few tap-in putts.

 

 

Obviously.

 

Here's a lit of a few things that can actually SLOW things down on the course:

 

(These are often causes...but not ALWAYS)

 

-Beer/Alcohol

-Beverage carts

-Golf carts

-Not playing ready golf

-Marking your ball on the green when you're not in someone's line and just a few feet from the hole

-Playing from tees that don't suit your handicap/skill level

-Looking for balls that are clearly GONE

-Not hitting a provisional and having to take the 'walk of shame' back to the tee

-Holding your follow-thru and posing.

-Waiting until it's your turn before looking at a putt from different angles

-Not using a drop area

-Filling out a scorecard before leaving the green (causing people behind you to wait longer)

 

 

Oh, and if you use a caddie, give him/her the rangefinder and trust them! Don't use the rangefinder and make the caddie walk-off the distances.

 

You left off a few of my favorites:

 

1. Telling elaborate jokes and stories on the tee, when the fairway and perhaps the entire hole, is all clear.

 

2. Ordering a custom cooked-to-order lunch at the turn.

 

3. Carefully walking to the back of the cart, after the shot, thoroughly cleaning the club just used, putting the headcover on, and then placing it back into it's exact spot where it belongs in the bag. Then and only then, getting into the cart so that the driver can move 20 feet forward to his ball.

[Bomb and Gouge]

Waiting for the green to clear when it would take the shot of a lifetime to actually hit it that far.

 

What's the worst that could happen? You'll roll the ball up to the green- they might not even notice it!

[bortass]

I have no idea how you can measure your actual progress at this game if you don't play by the rules. They are intrinsic.

 

+1

[Pepperturbo]

I putt out, but have been seen to take a putt inside of a 12" presuming its flat and there's no game. If there is a $$ game or I am the giver of strokers in a game I will speak up to NO gimmes especially when someone is putting for NET Par, Birdie or better.

 

That said, I have a group of friends that I play with now and again that take all kinds of liberties with TROG including what constitutes a gimme. When I am in their company, I play by the rules and let them play their game as it is. At that juncture I am not playing with them for the sake of winning $$ I am playing with them for camaraderie.

[Bomb and Gouge]

I love guys who take gimmes after they attempted the putt and missed.

 

"I'm giving myself that one!"

 

Why even make the stroke then?

[Ronzo]

Here's an idea, how about instead of teeing off, just drop one in or near the fairway? I understand it's a fairly major breach of the rules, but I guarantee it will speed up play by a lot. and we all hate slow play right?

 

I like your style, bro. ;)

[Mr Mizuno]

When not in tournament play, the group I play with usually give putts that are tap-ins to save time. The only thing I am a stickler about is anything for a birdie (or better). I always putt those out (old Harvey Pennick saying, its not a birdie if you didn't putt it).

 

+1