Part I: It’s personal!
I used to be a pretty good putter. I felt very confident that some lag putts might drop, and everything under 5 feet was automatic. I tried to improve my score and worked on putting trying to follow Pelz, and it ruined my putting. I don’t want to disparage Pelz, lots of good info, but for me, trying to manipulate the stroke to “single inline putt” takes a lot of wrist, hand, and arm movements to attempt to keep the blade square for short and very long putts. I became very conscious during the putting stroke, and felt like I was trying to “steer” the ball the the hole.
Perhaps I’ve gotten the method wrong. I was so conscious of the putter, arms, stroke, and outcome I felt powerless to reach the hole on lag putts and became scared of short putts. I won’t get into it, but there are dozens of Pelz “keys”, and conscious control of muscles in a short period of the putting stroke that was not feasible for me. I tried this about 12 years ago, then didn’t play much golf for a while, but my putting groove was permanently impacted. Time to figure out what’s going wrong and get better.
Here’s the most recent Game Improvement results on the course using the 80BREAKR game improvement feature. Lag putts and short putts are clearly causing problems:
In the past, I’ve “worked” on an area of my game for a few swings, then get impatient and work on another part and so on. That did not “git-R-done”.
Time to focus on putting only for a while! Here’s the good news. If you’ve read the post about myelin science and deep practice, I think I have a putting groove in me, I just need to get back the confidence and get back to non-conscious putting. As my golf pro friend tells me, “thinking will kill your golf swing”, and I’m doing way too much thinking over putts.
I started to look around the internet to find out about technique, and you can find every possible approach, really. I even talked to my golf pro friend, it seems there is every possible putting stroke advocated as better than others, but I believe whatever you feel the most confident in is probably best.
“Putting distance control is achieved by an even swing. A swing of equal distance, back and forward. For example, in a three-foot putt you may move the putter back three inches and through by three inches. This stroke may cause the ball to roll some four feet.”
The problem I have with this idea, is you end up thinking mechanically about how many inches back and through and are the equal and how many inches for this 10 foot downhill putt, etc….
What to do? It means putting is YOUR PREFERENCE!
“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Look at tour pros, you’ll see all kinds of grips, hand positions, and strokes. I also found a reference in this book that Jack Nicklaus used several different putting strokes during a round depending upon the putt. It seems from what I’ve read, there’s no one-size-fits-all putting stroke. You need to go out and create and master your own. No quick fix, no golf secret for putting.
I went to the practice green a few times trying different stroke types, and this is what felt best for me.
- short putts, putts of medium length that need to hold the line, and uphill putts
I grip down to the bottom of the grip, only my right forefinger lower than my left forefinger (see section VIII, right-handed), press forward to start the putt, short backswing, accelerate through the ball.
2. lag putts, medium down hill putts, or short treacherous side-hill putts
For this I use what Pelz calls “chip putting”. It’s like a chip swing and turns the shoulders more. I grip near the top of the grip with my pitching interlocking grip and stand up taller.
Short Putting Practice with my Daughter, December 2015
You can use the game improvement screen in the 80BREAKR app to work on your game like the following. Just start a game, flip to game improvement, and just enter all short putts.
I read on the PGA.com site that Phil Michelson made 99.63% of 546 short putts (3 feet) in 2015 and practices 100 short putts made in a row. I’ve got a ways to go, I can only regularly get 10 or so short putts in a row so far, and as you can see below, about 86% with no pressure (practice green). Phil is making them in tournaments at a 99.63% clip. I’m not aiming for the PGA tour, but I think it’s reasonable to split the difference, about 93%.
So, there’s my starting point. I still am “thinking” too much on putting, don’t get anywhere near 100 in a row from 3 feet, and have work to do on my make percentage, but I’m staying focused on short putts before moving on to other parts of my game.