Putting Expectations:
Measure of Success
What are your putting expectations each time you play and how realistic are they given your handicap? Are you using the correct criteria to measure your performance on the greens?
The weekend or recreational golfer putts on surfaces that bear little resemblance to those on the professional tours. The greens of a typical municipal or country club course are not prepared to the standard required for tournament golf.
Greens on tour are meticulously manicured for the week of the tournament to give a true roll. You will putt on greens that have to withstand a higher volume of traffic week in week out. Chances are that your greens will be slower, bumpier and less predictable.
Number of putts
One of the least satisfactory statistic for expressing your putting expectations is the total number of putts per round. This is because the more greens you miss, the fewer putts you will most likely have.
The number of putts per green in regulation is a more meaningful statistic. By using greens in regulation you eliminate the effects of chipping close and one-putting.
However, for most golfers the number of putts per green in regulation is not always appropriate for a measurement of putting success.
Handicap golfers don’t hit enough greens to get useful feedback. For example, a nine-handicapper will hit about eight greens in regulation. For an 18-handicapper this drops to an average of three greens.
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Statistics
We live in a world of statistics made possible with computers and GPS technology. With systems such as Shotlink and the PGA’s Shot Tracker it is now possible to know the length of every putt for every player in every event.
We get amazing statistics that tour players on average make:
- 99% of putts from 3 feet and in
- 69% of 6-foot putts
- 54% of 8-foot putts
- 31% of putts between 10 and 15 feet
This information is meaningless for the average golfer as a foundation for his or her putting expectations. The pro game and the amateur game are too different. It is like comparing apples and oranges.
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Three-putting
Nobody likes to three-putt. One way for you to measure if your putting performance matches your putting expectations is to record the number of your three-putts (or worse) per round.
Most three-putting is a result of a poor lag on your first putt. Keep it off your card as best you can by practising your distance control.
Ironically the quickest way for you to avoid three-putting is to miss more greens and improve your chipping.
Professionals love to one-putt and hate to three-putt as it stops their momentum. In a Golf Digest article Stewart Cink recounts how for two months in 2005 he went 351 holes without a three-putt.
Without taking anything away from Cink’s achievement, such a record has been made possible because of better green surfaces and their week-to-week consistency.
In the 2005 British Open Tiger Woods only had one three-putt on route to winning the title at St Andrews. However, this was as much a testament to the quality of his ball striking and course management as to his putting on links greens.
The question is - what should your putting expectations be for avoiding three-putts? In general a better player should have fewer three-putts than a less accomplished player. Therefore, much will depend on your handicap, which is a reflection of your skill level.
There is no sliding scale that sets out the probable number of three-putts based on handicap. It is impossible to construct such a chart. For example, on courses where the greens are large with many tiers, you are more likely to three-putt.
You need to plot your own results with the goal of steadily reducing the number of three-putts per round. You have to be your own judge of your performance.
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Measuring Success
There is a better way of expressing your putting expectations that has nothing to do with counting your score or the number of your putts.
Instead of judging success simply on whether you sunk the putt or not, you measure your success on how well you executed the putt.
On every putt that you face, long or short, all you can do is:
- Put a good stroke on the ball
- Set it off on the correct path to take the break
- Give it enough speed to reach the hole
If the ball goes in the hole, that is a bonus. If you have performed each of the three steps to the best of your ability and the putt misses, you have still succeeded.
The advantage of using this process for measuring your success is that it helps to identify those parts of your putting where you will need to improve.
Dr Joseph Parent in his book Zen Golf- Mastering the Mental Game has this to say "To most golfers, whether or not they make a putt is defined by whether or not it goes in the hole. This emphasizes the result of the putt more than it does the process of putting, and that interferes with the stroke.
Therefore, the best definition to use is this: If you rolled the ball on the line you chose, at the pace you wanted, with what you felt was a good stroke, then you made the putt. You may not hole every putt, but you can make every putt".
By using Dr Parent’s idea as a way to express your putting expectations rather than a numerical count you will:
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