A Poor Name for an Important Shot

Dictionary.com has this definition of lag. What poor connotations for an important part of your golf game! The first few words of this definition don’t promote a great shot “to fail to maintain a desired pace” I have a better term to suggest. How about “a close putt”? You really don’t want to fall behind, you want it close to the hole so your next putt is easy. The reason I’m looking at this today, is that I’ve been leaving myself the occasional 6 footer left after a lag putt. It’s the last shot in my game that feels “conscious”. Like I’m trying to steer the ball and force it a specific distance. I had that on pitches and chips to horrible effect a few months ago. The 80BREAKR app tells the tale. 4 bad lag putts in 18 holes. You have to have objective feedback on your round if you’re going to focus on the parts of your game that are blocking improvement.

I think hitting 20 balls from the same spot to the same hole from 30 feet isn’t particularly useful. The typical outcome is one too short, one too long, then the next 18 are really close after you’ve learned exactly the speed for that specific shot. Out on the course, you get one chance to read the putt and one stroke of the ball. You don’t get best out of five to get it close, so I don’t think that kind of drill is very good.
Here’s a great summary of a bunch of articles on the web and types of drills.

Two caught my eye. The too small, too long, pre-shot routine, and the chip-putt. For the former, you’re basically doing the 20 putts lag drill. You’re hitting one too short and one too long as your pre-shot routine to focus you on the proper swing for this shot. The latter,that is an interesting concept, is the chip-putt. I’ve been working on putt swings for chipping, and never came across a chip swing for putting. It’s a great thought! I have a good feel for the 7/8 iron fringe chip that gets fairly close to the hole if I have a lot of green to work with. I feel that my lag putts are too mechanical, too focused on shoulder turn. This is a great technique to get away from conscious thought. Use your short putting stroke for short chips, and your bump-and-run iron swing for long “close putts”.