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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Yes, you heard it here: INFALLIBLE! This drill will end all drills as “the” go to drill when your golf swing is hangin’ on or being too forceful! None of my students in the last month either online or in person, French or English, male or female, have messed this up. Pure Wisdom! And we share it with you here.
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A simple change of awareness can help you understand how the body can naturally turn in the swing. An important concept to understand: the direction the body moves is the engine to the swing. Research also shows the direction the body turns can be just as important as the amount of turn.
Golf is hard because the ball is on the ground, yet we are trying to hit it forward towards a target. With our head looking down at the ball, it’s easy to place our attention (what we are mindful of) on the ground, losing awareness to where we are going. This can make the body move in all sorts of directions, making hitting the ball towards a target difficult.
But imagine if we looked out over our lead shoulder with our attention to the target and made a backswing. Being mindful of the body, the body would naturally turn in a direction and amount that would be geared to move towards the target in the swing. (Imagine the position of your body and arm when throwing a ball). After proper set-up angles, this will give the look of coiling around the original spine angle established at Address.
With this simple awareness change, common unwanted tendencies naturally self-organize out of the backswing. Tendencies like swaying and tilting (picture below) would not conceptually make sense when moving the body in the direction we want to hit the ball.
A great concept or drill to get this feel besides looking over your shoulder is to grab a range basket and set into your posture with Hitting Angles. Keeping the basket level in front of you, swing the basket around you as if throwing it forward towards the target.
When doing the drill, be aware of not only the direction the body turns, but the amount. The drill will first help you understand the concept. Next make some practice swings. When swinging, look over your lead shoulder and slowly replicate how the basket drill made your body move.
Twitter: @KKelley_golf
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I always find it interesting to watch how golfers interact with the practice range, if they do so at all. I certainly can figure out how to understand that some golfers just do not really want to get better — at least not enough to spend time on the practice range trying to improve.
What is most puzzling to me is how many golfers completely ignore the rationale for going to the range to at least warm up before they head to the first tee. Why anyone would set aside 4-6 hours of their day for a round of golf, and then not even give themselves a chance to do their best is beyond me. But today, I’m writing for those of you who really do want to improve your golf scores and your enjoyment of the game.
I’ve seen tons of research for my entire 40 years in this industry that consistently shows the number one goal of all golfers, of any skill level, from 100-shooter to tour professional, is simply to hit better golf shots more often. And while our definition of “better” is certainly different based on our respective skill level, the game is just more fun when your best shots happen more often and your worst shots are always getting better.
Today’s article is triggered by what we saw happen at the Valspar tour event this past Sunday. While Taylor Moore certainly had some big moments in a great final round, both Jordan Spieth and Adam Schenk threw away their chances to win with big misses down the stretch, both of them with driver. Spieth’s wayward drive into the water on the 16th and Schenk’s big miss left on the 18th spelled doom for both of them.
It amazes me how the best players on the planet routinely hit the most God-awful shots with such regularity, given the amazing talents they all have. But those guys are not what I’m talking about this week. In keeping with the path of the past few posts, I’m encouraging each and every one of you to think about your most recent rounds (if you are playing already this year), or recall the rounds you finished the season with last year. What you are looking for are you own “big misses” that kept you from scoring better.
Was it a few wayward drives that put you in trouble or even out of bounds? Or maybe loose approach shots that made birdie impossible and par super challenging? Might your issue have been some missed short putts or bad long putts that led to a three-putt? Most likely for any of you, you can recall a number of times where you just did not give yourself a good chance to save par or bogey from what was a not-too-difficult greenside recovery.
The point is, in order to get consistently better, you need to make an honest assessment of where you are losing strokes and then commit to improving that part of your game. If it isn’t your driving that causes problems, contain that part of practice or pre-round warm-ups to just a half dozen swings or so, for the fun of “the big stick”. If your challenges seem to be centered around greenside recoveries, spend a lot more time practicing both your technique and imagination – seeing the shot in your mind and then trying to execute the exact distance and trajectory of the shot required. Time on the putting green will almost always pay off on the course.
But, if you are genuinely interested in improving your overall ball-striking consistency, you would be well-served to examine your fundamentals, starting with the grip and posture/setup. It is near impossible to build a repeating golf swing if those two fundamentals are not just right. And if those two things are fundamentally sound, the creation of a repeating golf swing is much easier.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: It’s not all about distance
- The Wedge Guy: Are you really willing to get better at golf?
- The Wedge Guy: Anatomy of a wedge head
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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!
tamloplaysang
Oct 16, 2017 at 1:25 pm
thank for sharings
dichvuvietbaiseo
Oct 12, 2017 at 12:39 am
Thank you very much
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Sep 15, 2017 at 5:22 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.
giaphatland.vn/properties/ban-can-ho-chung-cu-sensation-thao-dien-quan-2
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.
giaphatland.vn/ban-can-ho-chung-cu-millennium-ben-van-don-quan-4
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.
http://hoclaixenang.edu.vn/
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
http://haiminhco.com.vn
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.