Instruction
Research Shows Golfers Should Spend More Time Practicing Short Putts
Putting is an important 40 percent of the game at virtually every level of play. In 2016, the average PGA Tour player needed 29 putts to shoot their average score of 70.85 (41 percent of their strokes). The average 17-handicap golfer needs 34 putts to achieve their average score of 89 (38 percent).
Clearly, not many of us have the physical skill to drive the ball like a Tour player, but almost anyone can putt like a Tour player with the right equipment, technique and practice. There’s been a lot written on the equipment and techniques golfers should use to putt better. What’s not talked about as much is how golfers should practice putting… and from what distances?
For the answer, I studied our ShotByShot.com database recorded at a 17 Slope Adjusted Differential (this was the 12,000-plus rounds when the golfers actually played exactly to their 17 handicap). I had a stronger motive for this research than writing this article. We have added a new product to our ShotByShot.com Strokes Gained analysis: a putting skills test and practice app. Our goal is to provide an additional, simple but intelligent application to accurately test putting skill and focus practice time for meaningful improvement.
Through our research, we learned that a 17-handicap male golfer’s average round includes the following.
Long Game: Only 4.7 GIRs with an average putting distance of 26 feet on these successful GIR’s.
Short Game (shots within 50 yards of the hole):
- 10 chip/pitch shots, successfully hits eight on the green (two errors or missed greens) to an average putting distance of 14 feet.
- Two sand shots. When he successfully hits the green (only 68 percent of his sand attempts), his average putting distance is 17 feet.
Putting (34 total putts including):
- 1-Putts = 3.7
- 2-Putts = 11.8
- 3-Putts = 2.25
- 4-Putts = once in every 20 rounds.
50 Percent Make Distance: The distance from which he will make 50 percent of his putting opportunities is 5 feet. By comparison, the PGA Tour player’s 50 percent make distance is 8 feet.
2-Putt Range: The distance from which he will average 2 putts is 16 feet. This means that outside of 16 feet, our 17 handicap will 3-putt with a greater frequency than 1-putt. The PGA Tour’s 2.0 distance is 34 feet.
I used the data above along with the array of putting opportunities below (first, second and thirds putts) in combination with the putting performance from each distance to project recommended practice. As you can see below, 68 percent of the average golfer’s putting opportunities fall from 15 feet and closer and 41 percent from 5 feet and in.
The chart below displays our average 17 handicaper’s 1-putt and 3-putt percentages by distance range.
Finally, I charted the 1-putt percentages from 3-10 feet for the average 17- and 10-handicap golfers.
Practice Recommendations
- Time? Putting is worth 40 percent of the time you are willing to devote to your golf practice.
- 70 percent of your practice putting time should be devoted to increasing your 1-putt percentages on short putts and extending your 50 percent make distance.
- 30 percent of your putting practice time should be spent improving your distance control on lag putts in the 20-50 foot ranges and extending your two-putt distance.
Short Putts: Star Drill
Distance Control: Lag Putts
Place a tee 20 feet from a target or hole. Use two or three balls and practice lagging them back and forth until you can consistently get the balls to the target, but no farther than 2 feet past the hole. Repeat the drill from 30 and 40 feet trying to leave the putts no farther than 3 feet from the target.
You can test your putting skill and record your practice at www.shotbyshot.com.
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While there are many golfers who barely know where the practice (I don’t like calling it a “driving”) range is located, there are many who find it a place of adventure, discovery and fun. I’m in the latter group, which could be accented by the fact that I make my living in this industry. But then, I’ve always been a “ball beater,” since I was a kid, but now I approach my practice sessions with more purpose and excitement. There’s no question that practice is the key to improvement in anything, so today’s topic is on making practice as much fun as playing.
As long as I can remember, I’ve loved the range, and always embrace the challenge of learning new ways to make a golf ball do what I would like it to do. So, today I’m sharing my “top 5” tips for making practice fun and productive.
- Have a mission/goal/objective. Whether it is a practice range session or practice time on the course, make sure you have a clearly defined objective…how else will you know how you’re doing? It might be to work on iron trajectory, or finding out why you’ve developed a push with your driver. Could be to learn how to hit a little softer lob shot or a knockdown pitch. But practice with a purpose …always.
- Don’t just “do”…observe. There are two elements of learning something new. The first is to figure out what it is you need to change. Then you work toward that solution. If your practice session is to address that push with the driver, hit a few shots to start out, and rather than try to fix it, make those first few your “lab rats”. Focus on what your swing is doing. Do you feel anything different? Check your alignment carefully, and your ball position. After each shot, step away and process what you think you felt during the swing.
- Make it real. To just rake ball after ball in front of you and pound away is marginally valuable at best. To make practice productive, step away from your hitting station after each shot, rake another ball to the hitting area, then approach the shot as if it was a real one on the course. Pick a target line from behind the ball, meticulously step into your set-up position, take your grip, process your one swing thought and hit it. Then evaluate how you did, based on the shot result and how it felt.
- Challenge yourself. One of my favorite on-course practice games is to spend a few minutes around each green after I’ve played the hole, tossing three balls into various positions in an area off the green. I don’t let myself go to the next tee until I put all three within three feet of the hole. If I don’t, I toss them to another area and do it again. You can do the same thing on the range. Define a challenge and a limited number of shots to achieve it.
- Don’t get in a groove. I was privileged enough to watch Harvey Penick give Tom Kite a golf lesson one day, and was struck by the fact that he would not let Tom hit more than five to six shots in a row with the same club. Tom would hit a few 5-irons, and Mr. Penick would say, “hit the 8”, then “hit the driver.” He changed it up so that Tom would not just find a groove. That paved the way for real learning, Mr. Penick told me.
My “bonus” tip addresses the difference between practicing on the course and keeping a real score. Don’t do both. A practice session is just that. On-course practice is hugely beneficial, and it’s best done by yourself, and at a casual pace. Playing three or four holes in an hour or so, taking time to hit real shots into and around the greens, will do more for your scoring skills than the same amount of range time.
So there you have my five practice tips. I’m sure I could come up with more, but then we always have more time, right?
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Anyone can be a better wedge player by doing these simple things
- Wedge Guy: There’s no logic to iron fitting
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As someone who has observed rank-and-file recreational golfers for most of my life – over 50 years of it, anyway – I have always been baffled by why so many mid- to high-handicap golfers throw away so many strokes in prime scoring range.
For this purpose, let’s define “prime scoring range” as the distance when you have something less than a full-swing wedge shot ahead of you. Depending on your strength profile, that could be as far as 70 to 80 yards or as close as 30 to 40 yards. But regardless of whether you are trying to break par or 100, your ability to get the ball on the green and close enough to the hole for a one-putt at least some of the time will likely be one of the biggest factors in determining your score for the day.
All too often, I observe golfers hit two or even three wedge shots from prime scoring range before they are on the green — and all too often I see short-range pitch shots leave the golfer with little to no chance of making the putt.
This makes no sense, as attaining a level of reasonable proficiency from short range is not a matter of strength profile at all. But it does take a commitment to learning how to make a repeating and reliable half-swing and doing that repeatedly and consistently absolutely requires you to learn the basic fundamentals of how the body has to move the club back and through the impact zone.
So, let’s get down to the basics to see if I can shed some light on these ultra-important scoring shots.
- Your grip has to be correct. For the club to move back and through correctly, your grip on the club simply must be fundamentally sound. The club is held primarily in the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. Period. The lower hand has to be “passive” to the upper hand, or the mini-swing will become a quick jab at the ball. For any shot, but particularly these short ones, that sound grip is essential for the club to move through impact properly and repeatedly.
- Your posture has to be correct. This means your body is open to the target, feet closer together than even a three-quarter swing, and the ball positioned slightly back of center.
- Your weight should be distributed about 70 percent on your lead foot and stay there through the mini-swing.
- Your hands should be “low” in that your lead arm is hanging naturally from your shoulder, not extended out toward the ball and not too close to the body to allow a smooth turn away and through. Gripping down on the club is helpful, as it gets you “closer to your work.
- This shot is hit with a good rotation of the body, not a “flip” or “jab” with the hands. Controlling these shots with your body core rotation and leading the swing with your body core and lead side will almost ensure proper contact. To hit crisp pitch shots, the hands have to lead the clubhead through impact.
- A great drill for this is to grip your wedge with an alignment rod next to the grip and extending up past your torso. With this in place, you simply have to rotate your body core through the shot, as the rod will hit your lead side and prevent you from flipping the clubhead at the ball. It doesn’t take but a few practice swings with this drill to give you an “ah ha” moment about how wedge shots are played.
- And finally, understand that YOU CANNOT HIT UP ON A GOLF BALL. The ball is sitting on the ground so the clubhead has to be moving down and through impact. I think one of the best ways to think of this is to remember this club is “a wedge.” So, your simple objective is to wedge the club between the ball and the ground. The loft of the wedge WILL make the ball go up, and the bounce of the sole of the wedge will prevent the club from digging.
So, why is mastering the simple pitch shot so important? Because my bet is that if you count up the strokes in your last round of golf, you’ll likely see that you left several shots out there by…
- Either hitting another wedge shot or chip after having one of these mid-range pitch shots, or
- You did not get the mid-range shot close enough to even have a chance at a makeable putt.
If you will spend even an hour on the range or course with that alignment rod and follow these tips, your scoring average will improve a ton, and getting better with these pitch shots will improve your overall ball striking as well.
More from the Wedge Guy
- Wedge Guy: There’s no logic to iron fitting
- The Wedge Guy: Understanding iron designs, Part 1
- The Wedge Guy: Understanding iron designs, Part 2
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It is just crazy how golfers are literally beside themselves when they are placed in a properly aligned set up! They feel they can’t swing or function! We take a dive into why this is and it has to do with how the eyes are set up in the human skull!
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Pingback: How to Effectively Use Your Golf Practice Time | High Golf Handicap
hoa
Dec 30, 2017 at 11:20 am
If you’re talking inside the “Circle of Friendship”, that’s good
hoa tuoi dep
Dec 30, 2017 at 11:20 am
That was very accurate for me. Thanks for the reminder!
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Oct 16, 2017 at 1:25 pm
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Oct 12, 2017 at 12:39 am
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tivi
Jul 12, 2017 at 1:28 pm
Great article. I’ve always shot between 81-86, with the occasional trip into the high 70’s if I get the opportunity to play more. I ended up breaking my 3, 5, and 7 iron and never got them fixed. It may seem obvious, but when I came back from a long layoff, not having those clubs in my bag had almost zero impact on my scores. This just made me realize even more definitively that I need to work on my approach shots and putting if I want my scores to improve
linh vat phong thuy
Jul 6, 2017 at 6:41 am
A departure from “traditional stats,” the program provided analysis with answers, supported by comparative data.
boc rang su tham my
Jun 7, 2017 at 5:03 am
If you’re talking inside the “Circle of Friendship”, that’s good, pick it up.
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Jun 1, 2017 at 5:06 am
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vncoupon
May 21, 2017 at 10:48 pm
Great article with the stats to show comparisons 🙂
sharemagiamgia
Apr 27, 2017 at 4:55 am
Good article with the stats to show comparisons.
nam giam can
Apr 24, 2017 at 10:04 am
Golf is a sport for the nobility
vach ngan ve sinh chong am
Apr 21, 2017 at 5:17 pm
So I ageee with the writer that working on lag putting and short putts in combination makes a lot of sense.
tien dola am phu
Apr 5, 2017 at 11:51 am
Differential (this was the 12,000-plus rounds when the golfers actually played exactly to their 17 handicap). I had a stronger motive for this research than writing this article. We have added a new product to our ShotByShot.com Strokes Gained analysis: a putting skills test and practice app. Our goal is to provide an additional, simple but intelligent application to accurately test putting skill and focus practice time for meaningful improvement.
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Apr 3, 2017 at 9:54 pm
I’d ask myself why I’m so far away from the hole so frequently when I’m not on the green in regulation. Bad short game. The 17 capper probably puts it in the 6-10 foot range while chipping on his “good” chips. A great chip gets within 3 feet, and a bad one is probably 15+ feet. Why would he spend a ton of time on those 8 footers instead of working on getting closer to the hole? If your good chips turn into 3-5 footers, your great chips are now kick-ins, and your bad ones are now 10-15 feet away, you’re going to start making more putts without even having to make more 8 footers based on the fact that you’re now closer to the hole the majority of the time. Then he can work on those 8 footers after he starts improving his short game.
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Apr 3, 2017 at 6:24 am
Again, I’m not saying that working on your putting is a bad idea by any means; pretty much everyone should do it more than they do. Obviously making more 8-footers is a great thing for anybody’s game, but that definitely wouldn’t be my go-to for this type of player. Unless he’s going to start hitting more greens in regulation (then he’d need more help lag putting most likely), he’d be much better served working on getting his average short game shot down from that 14 foot distance. He’ll likely drop significantly more strokes doing that than making 20% more of his 8 footers.
HW
Mar 16, 2017 at 2:06 pm
Great article. I’ve always shot between 81-86, with the occasional trip into the high 70’s if I get the opportunity to play more. I ended up breaking my 3, 5, and 7 iron and never got them fixed. It may seem obvious, but when I came back from a long layoff, not having those clubs in my bag had almost zero impact on my scores. This just made me realize even more definitively that I need to work on my approach shots and putting if I want my scores to improve.
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Mar 14, 2017 at 1:42 pm
This is really necessary for the goft player. This information is useful to me. Thank You!
chinchbugs
Mar 11, 2017 at 8:54 pm
In other news….water is wet
Nick
Mar 11, 2017 at 11:53 am
I love the star drilled. I was taught that when I was in college and still use it religiously. I usually try to make 15 before I move a foot back. I’ll start with 3 balls at 3 feet and after I make 15 straight, I’ll go back a foot. Another drill I think is really good is the 3,6,9 drill. Place tees at 3, 6, and 9 feet and the goal is to make three in a row before moving to the next tee. In college we used 10 balls and had to make 10/10 at 3 feet, 8/10 from 6 feet and 6/10 from 9 feet. I saw the new method on one of the golf channel academies with Jim furyk. Once you practice these drills, there won’t be as much pressure on your chipping. These are few additional drills but for a scratch golfer I still do them every time I practice my putting.
Tim
Mar 11, 2017 at 10:33 am
In other news, studies show apples are good for your health and should eat more of them….
Iutodd
Mar 11, 2017 at 8:04 am
I do the “cross” drill where I put balls every 18″ or so out to about 5′ (3-4 balls) and I have to make every one before I rotate 90 degrees and do it from side. I like it because you’re going to make ~100% of your first putt and it’s helpful to see the ball go in the hole.
Radim Pavlicek
Mar 11, 2017 at 4:57 am
Excellent, now I would like to see 6hcp and scratch.
Peter Sanders
Mar 12, 2017 at 11:51 am
Thanks Radim,
All the comparative data is part of the program: shotbyshot.com
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Mar 10, 2017 at 10:24 pm
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Kelvin Kelley
Mar 10, 2017 at 9:25 pm
Good article with the stats to show comparisons.
Jim
Mar 10, 2017 at 3:54 pm
Um, no kidding. As most weekend golfers just show up swing a couple of times and tee off this isn’t exactly ground breaking news. That said I’ve noticed practicing my putting over the past few years has really paid off along with practicing chipping as well. As more than half your shots are around the green it only makes sense over just bashing your driver anyway.
Jack Nash
Mar 10, 2017 at 2:04 pm
If you’re talking inside the “Circle of Friendship”, that’s good, pick it up.
BallBuster
Mar 10, 2017 at 12:43 pm
The concept is simple to understand, but most of all it worked well for me. I bought one of those Butch Harmon Inside Down the Line putting tracks (I believe this is the method he taught Tiger Woods years ago as Tiger and Butch have both referred to it later in publications after I bought it to confirm it’s legit value for training to me). I used that nightly down my basement putting from 4-10 feet and often hitting up to 60-70 putts at night… plus at the course on a practice green too. I saw my putting stats drop by about 5 strokes on average, which obviously translated to lowering my hcp. I found the lag putting practice wasn’t as necessary as I once thought since my confidence to hit 4 and 5 footers after a mediocre lag putt helped save an extra stroke on that green. As they say, there’s never a bad first putt when you make the second… unless you miss a gimme I suppose!
Tom
Mar 10, 2017 at 12:06 pm
This is news to me?
N. D. Boondocks
Mar 10, 2017 at 11:37 am
Maybe it’s just my home course, but I’d be seriously angering a lot of other golfers also trying to use the practice green if I used that putting drill.
Steve
Mar 10, 2017 at 11:20 am
Maybe I’m missing something, but to me, it looks like research shows that golfers need to work on their short game and lag putting more than their short putts…
If the player is 3-putting from 30ft, I’d argue that it’s not really because he missed a 5-10 footer for his 2-putt; it’s because he left himself a 10 footer for his second putt instead of a tap-in to begin with.
TR1PTIK
Mar 10, 2017 at 11:42 am
Agreed. Using Game Golf, I’ve learned that my best scores come when my short game is dialed and my putting average changes very little.
Using Game Golf’s Strokes Gained feature vs. Scratch for example, my best round (78) showed that I was 1.25 strokes worse off the tee, 2.12 strokes worse on approach, 2.65 worse on short game, and 2.29 worse on putting. My best round so far in 2017 (88) on the other hand has me at 1.1 worse off the tee, 4.61 worse on approach, 9.75 worse on short game, and 2.34 worse on putting.
I’m generally a good lag putter, and have made several putts outside of 10′ even 15′ from a variety of slopes and lies. I’d be much closer to a single-digit handicap if I put more work in on my short game.
Ian
Mar 10, 2017 at 12:35 pm
you may do better to track this one stat – http://www.golfwrx.com/285949/the-truth-behind-greens-in-regulation-and-scoring/
TR1PTIK
Mar 10, 2017 at 4:16 pm
I remember that one. That was very accurate for me. Thanks for the reminder!
Iutodd
Mar 11, 2017 at 9:39 am
I missed that one somehow. That is interesting. You kind of have to work backwards – and honestly if you’re trying to break 80 or 70 you need all aspects of your game working right?
But if I need to hit at least 7 gir to break 80 (on average) that probably means I need to hit 6-7 fairways and you figure you’ll hit 1-3 of the par 3 greens. I don’t know what percentage of greens are hit from the fairway but if you’re in the trees all the time I’m guessing your percentage of GIR go way down.
But to me even if GIR is a key stat – you’re going to be 30-40 feet away so lag putting is very important. And if you scramble 11 times a round making five footers is also really important.
So I ageee with the writer that working on lag putting and short putts in combination makes a lot of sense.
Peter Sanders
Mar 11, 2017 at 10:57 am
Ian,
I agree that GIR’s is the best of all the old, traditional, 1-dimensional stats. It signifies 2 positives: 1. One’s game has been efficient enough to get there and 2. It is always a birdie putt of some length. The problem with GIR’s is also two fold: 1. The avg. golfer hits less than 5 per round and 2. It provides no answers as to the cause of all the NON-GIR’s.
Peter Sanders
Mar 11, 2017 at 10:52 am
TR1PTIK,
Please correct me if I am wrong but isn’t Game Golf analyzing your putting based upon # of putts? GPS is only accurate to about 8 meters (25 feet) so the GPS systems cannot get short game or putting distances. Putting analysis based upon # of putts is as accurate as balancing one’s checkbook based solely upon the # of checks written.
DW
Mar 10, 2017 at 12:06 pm
I think the argument is saying the golfer in this example has very few 30 ft putts anyway, so being able to 1 putt from 8 feet rather than 2 putt is a gamechanger.
Steve
Mar 11, 2017 at 12:39 am
Well yah, making more putts is obviously a good thing. But how much improvement can you realistically expect? Even the best players in the world are only making around 50% of putts from 8ft… The graph above shows the 17 capper making about 30% of putts from that distance. So even if he becomes as good as a professional from 8ft, which is extremely unlikely no matter how much he practices because he probably plays on muni greens, then he MIGHT pick up a couple strokes per round. Wouldn’t he be better off figuring out why he’s around 8+ft from the hole so frequently, especially when he’s only hitting 4-5 greens in regulation?
If I’m a 17 capper looking at the statistics and see that a pro is only taking 5 less putts per round than me despite shooting 17 strokes lower on average, I’m not thinking, “Oh, he must be making more 8 footers than me.” First, I’d realize that the pro is hitting SIGNIFICANTLY more greens than me, hence the reason he’s only taking 5 less putts per round (2-putts aren’t a bad thing if you’re on the green in regulation). So the obvious solution would be to hit more greens in regulation. Obviously that’s not the world’s easiest task, especially for a 17 capper. So assuming that won’t change much, what’s an easier way to lower my putt total (and total score)?
1) The player in this example is averaging 2.25 3-putts per round. Unless he’s playing on some REALLY difficult greens, he’s not a very good lag putter. A realistic goal would be to try to get that down to 1 3-putt per round. There’s a shot off your score, and you don’t have to make an extra 8 footer to do it.
2) I’d ask myself why I’m so far away from the hole so frequently when I’m not on the green in regulation. Bad short game. The 17 capper probably puts it in the 6-10 foot range while chipping on his “good” chips. A great chip gets within 3 feet, and a bad one is probably 15+ feet. Why would he spend a ton of time on those 8 footers instead of working on getting closer to the hole? If your good chips turn into 3-5 footers, your great chips are now kick-ins, and your bad ones are now 10-15 feet away, you’re going to start making more putts without even having to make more 8 footers based on the fact that you’re now closer to the hole the majority of the time. Then he can work on those 8 footers after he starts improving his short game.
Again, I’m not saying that working on your putting is a bad idea by any means; pretty much everyone should do it more than they do. Obviously making more 8-footers is a great thing for anybody’s game, but that definitely wouldn’t be my go-to for this type of player. Unless he’s going to start hitting more greens in regulation (then he’d need more help lag putting most likely), he’d be much better served working on getting his average short game shot down from that 14 foot distance. He’ll likely drop significantly more strokes doing that than making 20% more of his 8 footers.