Missed putts

[revkev]

Any of you who have been around for a while know that I believe that putting is over rated in importance to scoring. While it's true that it makes up between 30 percent and 50 percent of a player's score a lot of prior factors go into those putts starting with the tee ball. Over rated certainly but still important and one of the areas where anyone has the potential to rival a touring pro. So it's worth practicing and improving on.

 

The purpose of this topic is to prompt a discussion on what I believe to be a hidden reason for missing putts, namely miss hitting putts.

 

It seems to me that there are only four reasons for a miss. The first, green imperfections, is almost totally outside of a player's control. The other three line, speed and solid strike are another matter.

 

Through years of practice and play I've become convinced that nearly half of my misses come from less than perfect strikes and most of my three putts come from them. According to Guerin Rife touring pros only hit the sweet spot on their putter 40 percent of the time. It's almost certainly less than that for the rest of us.

 

Have you ever tracked or charted your missed putts to determine a pattern? Have you been fitted for putter and did you learn anything about your miss hit tendencies? Did you or will you consider MOI on your putter with your last or next purchase?

 

I'm curious to read others thoughts and observations on this topic.

 

 

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[Rusty1885]

I have two main misses one is pull. It happens when I get a bit nervous and flinch, snap! Bad!

 

The next is when I didn't let it go enough for my body to take over usually on the long putts I'd come up short.

 

As far as the impact, I'm ok I used to put the impact tape on my putter and it's about the size of a quarter I can't really miss more than that as I'm using odyssey flipface putter and the putting portion is pretty small.

[Kor.A.Door]

I beleive that most of my missed putts is from deceleration in my stroke. The root cause of that is not being confident In how I read the putt. Whether it's line or speed, if I am not confident in what read I generally dont put a confident stroke as if to make the putt, rather try to guide the putt in the direction I want it to go, and I almost always come up 6 inches short. Some of them were read correctly which would have gone in, some of them were read incorrectly and would have missed left or right, but if I am putting. Confidently, I tend to miss 2 feet past the hole.

[Canucklehead]

I know 90% of my missed putts come from pulling the club towards me (still going in a straight line) when I transition from the backstroke. I do want to be fit and learn everything I can about my swing, however very few places around me have the technology for putter fitting past lie angle and length.

 

I agree that putting is quite overrated in most peoples books. Good approach shots and scrambling can make you look like you're a better putter than you are.

 

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[BIG STU]

I was always a good putter until the last 3 or so years. I have done a lot of work and research on the subject. As we get older our eye perception changes and for me I was lining up wrong over the ball. By practicing with alignment aids over time I got my eyes adjusted. My next problem was that I was always an arc putter. Found out my hands do not quite work as well as they used to. I was not shutting the face on the putter like I used to and was fanning the face open. When I tried to correct that I was doing the steroid jerk left. Finally overhauled the whole thing. First off went to SBST which was hard for me. Tried several different grips both with my hands and on the putter itself. Finally came up with a solution with a modified claw type grip with my hands and an all together different grip on my putter itself. I took a mid slilm SS and turned the flat part left with the putter face neutral (it is legal like that too). I put my left index finger down the flat part. I use a modified claw type grip with the right. If you look at Kyle Stanley's right hand he uses the same grip I do with the three fingers. I did not copy him but came up with that on my own. I had tried a lot of different grips with my hands and this felt so comfortable to me. Now with being an instinct putter I had to really practice the stroke to commit it to memory and get it natural for me. I have worked on it all summer even to the point of carrying a spare Anser putter with me on the truck and practicing the stroke waiting to unload. And I have spent countless hours on our putting green. I also started lining the logo on my Titleist on my intended line. I never cared for the alignment lines drawn with a Sharpie. I has started to pay off and now I can get aggressive with the first putt like I used to because now I do not fear the comeback putt. It has also taken the pressure off my iron game because I am so confident again I can make anything on the green. No 3 putts the last 3 weeks. It was a major change for me and my putting has drove me nuts almost to the point of quitting the game and taking up fishing

[DaveP043]

I beleive that most of my missed putts is from deceleration in my stroke. The root cause of that is not being confident In how I read the putt. 

This resonates with me, I think uncertainty is a significant issue when I hit a poor putt.  Sometimes I'm uncertain of the speed, other times I'm uncertain about my read.  I did take an Aimpoint clinic this spring, and I feel more confident in my reads.  I make the read, and remind myself to trust it, and somehow I hit more putts on my intended line.  I'm not always right, but it gives me something more than just my eyes to base my read on.  My other primary issue is moving my eyes (and probably my head and entire body) to follow my putterhead back and forward, instead of remaining steady on the ball.

[chemclub]

I think this is a really interesting thread topic and as a shaky putter (who doesn't practice so no excuse) I am really interested to hear people thoughts, because I certainly don't know. As a contribution, I include below a heavily edited section from James Sieckmann's "Your Putting Solution"

 

Describing videos of Steve Strickers putting

The images below are pulled straight from the Stricker video. As you can see in Frame 1 (address), the putterhead is sitting toe down and the ball is aligned not with the sweet spot but toward the heel. Moreover, the putterhead is aimed (dotted line) well to the right of his intended target. His backstroke is perfect as the putterhead swings back in a beautiful little arc (Frame 2), but his forward-stroke travels inside, or to the left, of his backstroke path. But wait, it gets worse. At impact (Frame 3), the putterface is about 6 degrees closed compared to its position at setup, and he strikes the ball slightly off the toe. The off-center hit causes the ball to start a fraction to the right of where the putterface is pointing at impact (solid line) but considerably left of his original aim. My last thought before turning off the lights was, “Wow, that's a shockingly awful stroke!”

 

 

While mechanics may differ, there are a few things that all great putters do extremely well:

1. They start the ball on their intended line. (repeatable mechanics, not necessarily good mechanics)
2. They see or feel the correct line to the hole. (green reading)
3. They match that line with perfect speed. (good touch and green reading)
4. They believe the ball is destined to end up in the hole. (ooze confidence)

 

Long story short

If mis-hitting your putter starts the ball off your intended line at an unintended speed, then yes you nailed the problem. Stop thinking about your stroke and start thinking about getting the ball to the hole.

[cnosil]

Have you ever tracked or charted your missed putts to determine a pattern? Have you been fitted for putter and did you learn anything about your miss hit tendencies? Did you or will you consider MOI on your putter with your last or next purchase?

 

 

Yes I have charted my misses; my tendency is to miss left.

Yes I have been fit for a putter and learned that putter design can influence how a putter squares up at impact.

No,  don't consider MOI on a putter.  

 

On to your other question, why do we miss putts and/or mishit putts.   As you indicated once the ball leaves the face of the putter we have no more control over the ball and it will be influenced by numerous outside factors.  What I have learned is that any individual generally has better control over path or the putters rotation.  Based on SAM and iPing I do a better job controlling the putters rotation and getting it back to correct impact position which means I do a good job starting the ball online.  So now the question on why do I miss putts ----  poor speed control.  I have a tendency to not commit to my stroke on the 4-5 footers or hitting the ball through the break.  On longer putts (over 20 feet) I generally hit them on intended line but don't hit them hard enough.   This could be attributed to not enough practice on how hard to hit them as well as the stroke getting a little loose as the stroke gets longer resulting is some off center impact.  

[Kenny B]

I have never been fit for a putter, but having putted with many putters at many stores over many years, I can tell you that I putt best with a face-balanced putter.  When I was at Ping in February, the iPing app said I have a slight arc, and I was told that the Kushin blade putter was best for me.  It was fine while I was there, but when I got home and tried the Kushin, it didn't feel comfortable; not sure why, except I think I really like MOI.  

 

Two years ago I tested the Nike Converge mallet putter, and while I liked the way it felt, it was not heavy enough and I did not like the sound.  But after I tested that Nike, I became a believer that MOI is my friend when putting.  Since I purchased the Ping Sigma G Doon, my putting has really started to improve, especially short putts.  With confidence on short putts comes the ability to be more aggressive on longer putts.  I did struggle on longer putts with distance control for about a week, but the last couple of days have seemed to be pretty good with longer putts.  Tonight I made an uphill right-to-left breaking putt from 40 feet for birdie.  I knew the line and had perfect speed.  Yes, I should have hit the ball closer to the hole, but it was a 200 yard par 3... I was just happy to get it on the green.

[PlaidJacket]

I think everyone agrees that putting can be a strange animal. And by the way... good topic/post Rev. Now, and I've boosted many times in the forum claiming that I'm a good putter. And it's true. I don't know why I am but I'm glad for whatever reason. Thankful actually. I know other guys that are very good players and score low and maintain low handicaps. But... their putting holds them back many times. For instance there are days when normally they would easily beat me with their solid ball striking; but I'll play even or very close with them or even win sometimes due to my putting. If their putting were as good as their overall ball striking and wedge play I'd be toast. My missed putts are usually very short ones. And the reason I miss them is from not squaring the face and losing focus thinking this is a cinch putt. No putt is a cinch. Focus is critical. It's that simple IMO.

 

I don't practice putting much. It's boring to me. I also don't put a lot of thought into putting when I'm playing. Neither do I worry about my putter and how it's designed, built or setup for me. Yes, I use a custom putter but I was just as good a putter prior to buying an over-priced custom putter. I could easily go back to my $39 Odyssey I pulled off the rack at Academy several years ago. Another thing I've noticed (and others) is that for some reason I'm able to read and compute the break better than some guys. I don't know why.

 

I think for whatever reason some people just have a natural built-in ability to be better putters. Perhaps our brains compute things differently. I have no idea. But I'm sure you know people like this.

 

Perhaps if I weren't so lazy I'd practice the rest of my game more and become a better ball-striker and better player overall. This year I decided to put aside all the analytics and just focus on playing the game. And guess what... I'm playing some of the best golf of my life.

 

Free your Mind

[Big money]

I always considered putting as a mini golf swing.If im putting bad I'm also hitting the ball bad as well.

[revkev]

Nice to see both Plaid and Big money here.

 

 

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[CajunGT500]

A friend of mine is trying to make it as a pro and was always a worse putter than me. Last few rounds we have played his putting has been about solid as one could expect. I enquired what the change was from and ended up buying the Dave Pelz Putting Tutor myself. I feel it helps with lining up your putts and surely hitting the ball on your line. I don't believe in any other types of trainers, just this one.

[chemclub]

 

I also don't put a lot of thought into putting when I'm playing.

 

 

 

That's why you are a good putter