Great putting but nothing to show for it....

[rulie]

I heard that putting with the flagstick in the hole would improve putting. Is that not true?

[84wankel]

I heard that putting with the flagstick in the hole would improve putting. Is that not true?

i have found putting with the flag in to be incredibly annoying. i play at a public/membership course. more and more i have been playing with groups that want the flag left in, while im an always out player. it doesnt bother me too much, but i find it really seems to crowd the hole ( thats how it feels anyway ) Bryson preaches that statistically it helps, however i think for us "duffers" our stats are probably more swayed by developing a comfortable and consistent routine to our putting strokes, lining up etc. with that being said, if you are more comfortable looking at the cup with the pin in, then go for it.

[nearace]

I putted one handed today,better distance control ,speed also improved.

[rgk5]

I had 39 putts today.

[Fore Warned]

Last two rounds had 26 and 28 putts. Only 1 three putt. Putting was very good, for me, but chipping and good pitch shots probably accounted for very much of this. On the green was one thing.....getting off the tee with a good shot was another.

[SmoothBomber]

I’m glad to hear your putting is coming along. That part of the game is still a mystery to me. Averaging 41 putts this year. Tried most every putting style imaginable. Inside 4ft I’m at best 50/50. My regular playing partners putt lights out all the time which always saves them from getting doubles.

Man 50-50 from 3-4ft is just so bad I hope ur exaggerating...by a lot. Playing carpet billiards with a few balls in the livingroom may just cure this issue for you. You get a ton of reps on short little putts and get a feel for a repeatable short stroke that still accelerates through the ball at low speeds. I get the trying diff techniques thing as I did as well...and probably every other golfer, but they all break down if you decelerate (usually because your stroke is too long for the speed you need to play).
Of the thousand different strokes out there, the ones that break down the least on short ones are the ones wound a bit tight so you don't have slack. If you have a languid motion, those can really go awry at low speeds. I'd try Snedeker's nod to the old school 'pop' stroke. Or follow Lefty's philosophy of varying the length of the backswing but always having one speed for the putter: "as fast as you can smoothly". Both of these will keep you accelerating and staying on line.
Other than that, this tip from a scratch golfer took my short putts into the 90% range: (once you can) "trust you can roll your line and send it at the cup with enough pace to get through the break...if you play it at hole speed you can get a lot of movement that you really don't need to deal with if you just hit it a bit harder

GL

[ndrpar]

Man 50-50 from 3-4ft is just so bad I hope ur exaggerating...by a lot.

GL

Nope, about 40/60 yesterday at Lakeview from 4-5ft. 35 putts. 4x 1putt (due to tap in chip shots). 5x 3putts (due to short misses). My long/lag putting is really really good this year, so not all bad. Nick will get me sorted on Saturday!

[ndrpar]

Nick Starchuk found something very interesting with my visual alignment. We set-up about 15ft from hole. Aligned a tee to the hole looking from behind. I took my usual putting stance and to me the tee was now pointing 7" the left of the hole. Eye dominance obviously messing me up. I putt without looking at the ball so I’m glad we sorted this out. Next round I was 32 putts with only 1x 3 putt which is amazing for me.

[SmoothBomber]

Nick Starchuk found something very interesting with my visual alignment. We set-up about 15ft from hole. Aligned a tee to the hole looking from behind. I took my usual putting stance and to me the tee was now pointing 7" the left of the hole. Eye dominance obviously messing me up. I putt without looking at the ball so I’m glad we sorted this out. Next round I was 32 putts with only 1x 3 putt which is amazing for me.

Thats great man. Figured Nick would help u out with something egregious given ur outlier-ish results. Do you putt over an intermediate point now? That took my putting to next level...playing carpet billiards and getting really good at hitting an exact spec a foot or 2 away and then turning every putt into just that...rolling the ball over a point 1-2ft away.

[ndrpar]

Thats great man. Figured Nick would help u out with something egregious given ur outlier-ish results. Do you putt over an intermediate point now? That took my putting to next level...playing carpet billiards and getting really good at hitting an exact spec a foot or 2 away and then turning every putt into just that...rolling the ball over a point 1-2ft away.

I envision the path and putt to the apex. My eyes stay on the apex. For short putts I might try rolling the line on the ball with speed to eliminate break.

[Fore Warned]

My version of bogey golf and putting.....

Normal holes:
- on the green in reg, usually not close to the hole....3 putt
- on the green in reg +1, likely closer to the hole...…2 putt

Good holes:
- on the green in reg, long shot at birdie...…………. .2 putt
- on the green in reg +1, likely closer to the hole...…1 putt

Great holes:
- on the green in reg, shot at birdie...……………......1 putt

Awful holes:
- On the green in reg +1 ….…………………………..3 putt
- On the green in reg+++...……….………………….. 2 or more putts.

Normal outcome......Mostly normal holes, with some good holes, the occasional great hole and usually 1 or two awful holes, for a score of about 95.

The end result is usually about the same. How I get there is something else.

[MattM97]

I've been lucky my putting has been solid this year, average at 34 putts per round which isn't great but could be much worse.

I'm trying to get down to a true bogey golfer or better. So what I've noticed this year if my first putt is around 35ft I'm going to be 2 putting about 80% of the time. If I'm outside that my 2 putt % goes down and my 3 putt percentage goes way up.

That just means I need to get even better at chipping to hopefully land myself within 10-12ft just to give me more chances of hitting lots of 1 putts to keep those scores and putts down.

So like others have said it's not going to be about putting practice which is still important, but I need my approach and chipping game up so that will be a main focus of practice.

[wongmb]

I've been lucky my putting has been solid this year, average at 34 putts per round which isn't great but could be much worse.

I'm trying to get down to a true bogey golfer or better. So what I've noticed this year if my first putt is around 35ft I'm going to be 2 putting about 80% of the time. If I'm outside that my 2 putt % goes down and my 3 putt percentage goes way up.

That just means I need to get even better at chipping to hopefully land myself within 10-12ft just to give me more chances of hitting lots of 1 putts to keep those scores and putts down.

So like others have said it's not going to be about putting practice which is still important, but I need my approach and chipping game up so that will be a main focus of practice.

Yeah for me I only breaking 90 on a consistent basis is my improvement in chipping. Once you are able to chip within 6' at least half the time, hopefully you can sink at least half of those putts, hence a one chip one putt and keep it a bogie or may be even saves par.

As for short putt, my % used to be less than 50% at 6' and it makes me mad which does not help rest of game. I tried the Jordan Spieth look at hole method and it helped me by quite a bit. I relate it to when you play racket sports, you look at the ball and not the racket and you able to make contact anyway.

[synergy]

I envision the path and putt to the apex. My eyes stay on the apex. For short putts I might try rolling the line on the ball with speed to eliminate break.

I like this a lot and have been doing that with some success, including keeping my eye on the target on downhill breaking putts. Something about trusting that the ball will "stop" there and then proceed down the hill. In other words, I only need to get the ball to the target which has allowed me to stop rolling 3' past.

[golfingtime]

Crashed hard today....... Great day except for putter...... Two birdie putts under 8' tantalizingly close....... Coulda, woulda, shoulda........