Putts per round... do you keep track of stats?

[gticlay]

A tale of two puttermen

So I've been stuck at a 10 to 9 handicap for two years. The end of this year was a HUGE breakthrough for me as I dropped it all the way down to 8.2 and finished up before the handicap freeze at 8.4. There are basically two puttermen inside of me - one stands behind the ball, reads the putt, and either puts it in the cup or barely misses for an easy 2 putt. The other one cannot get a feel for speed - stands behind the ball, can clearly see the line, but cannot feel the speed. Now, at an 8 handicap it's not like I blow the ball 10 feet past or 10 feet short but if you are not in tap in range for the second putt - after a chitty one - nearly anything can happen (3 putt anyone? (cool) )

So what's going on? A 'good putting' day will consist of somewhere between 27 to 31 putts. A bad putting day will almost always be from 32 to 37 putts. That's a 10 stroke swing and putting is pretty much ALWAYS the difference (for me) between a 70's or really low 80's round and an 85 or something I don't want to shoot.

I have one theory - I play golf at two types of courses - one type is a shaggy $12 for a round course or the local Municipal run (where I learned to golf for the first time). The other is your nicely groomed course with fast, tricky greens. I think my 'putterman brain' may get confused. I play each type of course once per week - the junky greens on a weekday and the nice course on a Saturday - in the summer anyway. In the winter (daylight savings kills the weekday round) I play at wherever I feel like it. BUT, around the Seattle area greens get pretty shaggy and VERY wet so they generally putt like poop.

SO - I'm thinking I need two putters!!! One for the shaggy, slow greens and one for the nicer courses. The shaggy putter would probably be a lighter head and good for giving the ball a nice umph to get to the hole. The quick green putter would be a little heavier and good for keeping my stroke smooth and consistent.

What say you fellow putterheads?

[Diesel]

i don't think a 2 putter setup is ideal IMO...

 

it should only take a green or 2 to get a feel for the speed that day, heck a green will feel different from 8am and noon... i'd stick with one putter and get there early and putt the practice green for 15-20 misnutes, and just roll balls to the edge to get your speed down...

[choeppner]

I have used the 2 putter approach before. Had a heavy head for the slow greens and A light head for the faster ones. Was too much trouble though. Gone back to the 1 putter approach. That way, I know the putter, and after a couple of putts on the practice green, I know what I need to do that day for the greens.

 

-CHRIS-

[gticlay]

I've got to agree with most posters here - two putters seem like an uncomfortable thought to me.

 

gticlay ... if you don't mind an observation, I do not think there's two puttermen in you, I think there's a single one - that now has enough muscle memory developed to line up putts consciusly, but hit the ball almost unconsciously ... but that sometimes but gets his mind too involved in the stroke. From what you described, I actually believe the difficulty you're having is quite a bit more with the mental aspects of putting than with the greens or the equipment.

 

(In fact, I'll bet you're finding this to be the case more and more often on almost all your strokes ... getting from a 25 or 20 handicap to a 10 is generally 90% swing mechanics and the physical side of the game and 10% the mental side ... but trying to crack and maintain a single digit handicap is - IMO - usually the reverse).

 

Personally, because I'm now getting older (almost 50) and play with a lot of younger guys, I simply cannot beat them with distance (age just does that, Father Time inevitably steals flexibility), so I've had to compensate by playing smarter strategic golf, and putting an extreme emphasis on short game accuracy (where strength doesn't matter) ... putting being the most important. Below is the approach I've developed over the course of years ... may not work for you, but may give you a couple of things to think about.

 

I grew up with Ben Hogan as my idol, and he was almost psychotic about repeatability (he was not a feel player, he'd practice a single backswing hundreds of times a day, for instance, trying to make it identical every time). So my entire approach to consistant putting is composed of attempting to reduce the number of variables to the minimum possible, and then, during pre-round putting practice, establish the baseline for the course.

 

My set-up and stroke are completely classical - i.e., dull and straightforward. Feet exactly shoulder length apart. Ball about a half inch forward in my stance. Grip has the left hand high, but my left index finger is on top of my right pinkie (i.e., not the Vardon grip I use for irons). My hands do nothing - my shoulders stroke the ball.

 

With that set-up, swing line and tempo are the two main contributors to consistancy. So far as line - I don't have any putter aids ... rather, my office at home has a rug with parallel lines in its pattern, a couple of which are only slightly wider than my (Scotty Studio Design 1.5) putter head. And every now and then during almost every day, I'll line up correctly, and just swing like a pendulum between those lines (i.e., not stopping and taking individual strokes, but just a continual motion - a couple of hundred swings only takes 5 or 10 minutes). My stroke is straight-back straight-through, so I don't need a crved putting aid.

 

In doing this, I'll always pick a backswing distance (2 inches, or my back foot, or twice the distance of my stance or whatever) and try to make certain that the pendulum swings smoothly, and always goes exactly as far on the follow through as it does on the backswing. I'll also make certain the tempo remains as close to identical as I can get it (usually by actually playing music of some sort in the background).

 

So ... I can take a number of things to a course ... identical putter, a virtually completely unconscious swing that moves straight, and at a consistant pace. On the practice green then, for the first 5 minutes I ignore holes altogether - I calibrate speed. Just find a flat area, and hit a half dozen putts with a stroke length that is exactly back foot to front foot. I don't try to hit a ball to a place, I just want to see how far that stroke will roll the ball. I then do the same thing with a two inch stroke, and a two foot stroke. Because of all the "pendulum practice", at this point my stroke is consistant enough that I can give an almost perfect stimp reading just from watching how far those three sorts of swings each roll. And doing this gives my body the feel it needs for whatever sort of greens I'm playing on that day. It also helps me adust as the day wears on and the sun moves. As the greens change (which they virtually inevitably do over the course of four hours), I'll notice I'm starting to go long or short, but also know by how much (i.e., it won't take me three bogeys to figure out that the greens have dried up and are stimping 6 more inches)

 

Well - don't want to go on and on about warming up, and there's obviously a lot of other variables involved, but your question was about distance control on greens of different textures and speed. My own view is that keeping the variables that change to a minimum is the way to do it. Make every stroke exactly the same - same set-up, same pre-shot, same tempo, same line, and vary only the length of the stroke to vary distance.

 

From what you have described, you already have a fairly consistant, nearly perfect stroke for some greens ... your actual difficulty doesn't come from that, but rather, from the way you make adjustments to that baseline stroke to account for different green conditions - and I'd bet you very probably wind up altering too many things at once (which, at random times, will sometimes work, and sometimes not work at all - but when it works, you won't know why, and when it doesn't you won't know how to fix it ... producing the sensation that there are "two puttermen" inside of you).

 

I have seen a lot of golfers do a lot of different things - without even realizing it. On slow greens, they'll widen their stance, or unconsciously actually slightly strengthen their grip, or (worst of all) will swing the putter faster instead of longer - a natural mistake, because with almost any other club, we associate distance with swing speed ... but this mistake is often lethal with the putter. On faster greens, I've watched people hunch over, choke up, or (in the opposite mistake from above) slow down their stroke instead of shortening it.

 

I think from everything you've described, your actual putting issue is - consistancy, plain and simple. (Note here that - if you like the approach I've been talking about above as a means of getting consistancy, the last thing you want to do is add yet another major variable ... a different club ... to the equation).

 

Anyway - this is a view of putting that is from a technical golfer (what can I say, I have an economics degree, and was taught to play by my father ... an engineer). I have friends that are "feel" golfers (who can putt as well as I do) who would think everything I've described is ridiculous. I certainly won't claim what I've been talking about is necessarily for you ... but hope it at least gives you some fresh ideas with which to look at your problem.

FIRST - thanks for taking the time to write that out - Whew!

You bring up great points AND some of them I have 'discovered' on my own. When I get to a green and do some practice putts, I always work on distance control first. Yes, I putt to a hole but I just don't care if it misses... left or right as long as it's getting to or slightly past the hole. Some of the stuff you put - like Hogan was a repetitive person and how you groove a takeback etc for a sort of % of effort swing just will never work for me. Like you said, some people are feel players and I am 100% a feel player. I couldn't tell you how much I take back a wedge for a 45 yard shot but I could probably replicate the distance with a PW, SW, or LW with a couple of practice swings to get the feel.

Also, I noticed you guys mention the practice green before you start a round - I often (at least 60-75% of my rounds) have a time limit and just go putter confidence wise. If the first green is a success I would imagine going out there with a lot of confidence but if I blow it on the first two holes it would be difficult to have confidence in my ability. I have never noticed a correlation but I think it's time I did some research on that. The fact that I've taken my game to SD land at all is a miracle since I don't get any practice time in at all - I hit maybe 20 buckets a YEAR for practice and practice putting for maybe 5 hours a year as well. Almost all of my time is playing.

 

That is why I have the Big Moss now - I think that there is a ton of opportunity out there for me if I can just groove my putter - and now that we talk about it, I think some practice, even off course will do me a lot of good.

[choeppner]

when you say you have time constraints, do you mean you just don't give yourself enough time to get to the course and warm up before you tee off? Taking the extra 10 minutes to learn the greens and probably save a couple of strokes is well worth it to me. I normally try and get to the course around 45-60 minutes early so I can warm up the clubs, and learn the speed of the green. There is only so much the Big Moss can do for you. The rest has to be experience from that course, during that day to get a feel for conditions.

 

That's my 2 cents and now I'm broke. LOL

 

-CHRIS-

[gticlay]

Thanks 2000

 

Chris - I just can't make the time a lot of the rounds. I go straight from work, tee it up, get 18 in, go home eat dinner, sleep work the next day. You know the drill!

[choeppner]

Ahh. I understand now. LOL Makes sense (cool)

 

I know the drill well. LOL

 

-CHRIS-

[jamesduncan]

as much as i love the quick 18!, I also try to, once in while, do the leasurely 9 hole practice round. Really helps you get your putter going and work on your short game (hence having less 10-15 footers for par!)

 

Im going to try to add to alot of the great advice on this thread as I'm deff in the "feel" player category, at least once Im on the course.

 

One thing you could try to work on (thats helped me a ton with feel) is this drill, if you get some extra time on the practise green:

 

Take 3 tees and set them up in a line about a foot apart from each other.

 

so like this:

 

O O O

 

 

 

Then standing about 10-15 feet away, hit a putt inbetween the first 2 tees then hit a second putt inbetween the next two tees (hope that makes sense)

 

Alot of teachers call it the Ladder drill. Thiswill help you develop feel. You can vary the length but even this range will help a lot with your 20-30 footers.

 

I cut about 3-4 solid shots off my game by improving my course management this year alone (ie: hitting extra club, not shootting at tucked pins etc) and working on my lag putting (I dont have anywhere to work on my short game unfort)

 

Hope this helps a bit too!

[gticlay]

as much as i love the quick 18!, I also try to, once in while, do the leasurely 9 hole practice round. Really helps you get your putter going and work on your short game (hence having less 10-15 footers for par!)

 

Im going to try to add to alot of the great advice on this thread as I'm deff in the "feel" player category, at least once Im on the course.

 

One thing you could try to work on (thats helped me a ton with feel) is this drill, if you get some extra time on the practise green:

 

Take 3 tees and set them up in a line about a foot apart from each other.

 

so like this:

 

O O O

 

 

 

Then standing about 10-15 feet away, hit a putt inbetween the first 2 tees then hit a second putt inbetween the next two tees (hope that makes sense)

 

Alot of teachers call it the Ladder drill. Thiswill help you develop feel. You can vary the length but even this range will help a lot with your 20-30 footers.

 

I cut about 3-4 solid shots off my game by improving my course management this year alone (ie: hitting extra club, not shootting at tucked pins etc) and working on my lag putting (I dont have anywhere to work on my short game unfort)

 

Hope this helps a bit too!

 

Thanks for the tips guys - I've been away for a week in Cabo, Mexico - keep 'em coming if you have any, I'd love to hear them.

Clay