The Putting Priority

This weekend I was playing golf with a stranger and he commented how much he liked my putting stroke. I’ve gotten that over the years because my putting stroke has generally been very ‘smooth’ and ‘buttery looking.’ Mind you, it’s not something I consciously do. In fact, I probably am more conscious of NOT trying to have that ‘smooth’ and ‘buttery’ stroke because as the Karlsen and Nilssen putting research study showed, one can have too slow of a thru stroke to their detriment and that’s generally what golfers do….get too slow with their thru stroke. I like to call it ‘being too careful with the stroke.’

I had mentioned this to my playing partner and that more or less I don’t care all that much about the stroke, whether it’s ‘straight back-straight thru’ style of ‘symmetrical arc’ style. Furthermore, I think both are very flawed in theory…but that’s another point in time to be made.

He then asked ‘what do you think is the most important part to putting well?’

As I’ve mentioned many times here, I replied ‘speed and touch.’

Now, I’ve said that too many times to count. But, I never quite understood the exact why until about a month ago other than the ‘well, if I miss the read and/or the line, if I have great speed I’ll have an easy second putt and it will cut down my 3-putts.’

I think that’s still true, but I think there’s more to it and why any golfer will MAKE more putts when their speed is better. I think that for the most part, there’s almost a direct correlation between the two.




I actually started to understand why speed and touch are so important and why they correlate to MAKING putts when I played Shingle Creek Golf Course in Orlando. That day I shot 68 (-4) with the following made putts:

#4 – 30 footer for birdie
#7 – 20 footer for birdie
#13 – 20 footer for birdie
#15 – 10 footer for par
#16 – 8 footer for birdie
#17 – 12 footer for par
#18 – 60 footer for birdie

That was approximately 170 feet worth of putts (and yes, I hit 12 greens in regulation).

The one thing I noticed about my putting that day was my speed/touch was impeccable. I don’t think I had one of those putts go in where they barely died into the cup or hit the back dirt of the cup pretty hard (tough to tell on the 60 footer, but it looked like perfect speed to me).

You see, the best way to make putts is to hit a putt so you can get the optimal amount of capture width. That increases your chances of the ball finding the cup. THAT is what’s most important with putting and THAT is why speed/touch should be the #1 priority in putting.

When I lived in Atlanta, I used to play golf with a group of guys about 2 times a week. We would have about 20-30 of us and we would usually play 4-man teams, in a best ball format (with handicaps). When there would be 1 golfer in with a par and another putting for birdie, they would tell him to ‘give it a run because par is in.’ And more often than not the guy would knock it way past the cup.

The theory behind ‘give it a run because par is in’ is that you want to give yourself a chance because if you leave it short, the ball has no chance of going in. The flaw in that thinking is like the video shows above. If you hit it very hard, you’re essentially going from have 0% chance of making a putt that goes short to having an extremely small amount of capture width by ‘making sure you get it there.’ And with that amount of capture width, you may be giving yourself about a less than 5% chance of making the putt. Had you hit like you normally would, you probably increase your chances of making the putt because for every putt you leave short, there are putts that you would ‘get there.’ And that’s on putts that go about 5 feet past the cup (1/2 and inch of capture width). It’s not rare to see golfers who ‘at least get it there’ to go 10 feet past the cup. So essentially they are giving themselves no chance to make that putt either, even though they ‘got it there.’

I think one will start to really see this when you get that round of golf where you are hot with the putter. Look to see what your speed was like on those putts that went in. And then when you follow up with a day when you ‘can’t make anything’, notice how the speed just is not nearly as good as it was the day you made all of those putts.

Obviously, there are many things that go into good speed like green reading, striking the putt consistently well, etc. But I think you will find that perfect stroke mechanics and even striking the ball on the sweetspot are not as important as you think in order to get a good speed. At Shingle Creek, I didn’t strike all of those putts perfectly, but I read the putts well and had the perfect speed and good enough aim to make quite a few bombs.

From there you’ll see that we want to optimize the capture width to optimize our putting performance.





3JACK

3Jack Updated PGA Tour Stat Rankings 7.6.11

Nick Watney won the AT&T classic and was one of my top 5 picks last week. Let’s take a look at the top 5 finishers and their stat rankings year to date:

Player………………..Driving……….Putts……….SG……….DZ
Nick Watney…………….4………...….5……...….23……….12
K.J. Choi………………..69…………...55…..…….79……….62
Charles Howell III……...148……….….29………...82……….148
Jeff Overton…………….68…………....33……….179……….73
Adam Scott…………….25………..….165……….174……….85

IMO, driving and putting were the big factors at the AT&T Classic and generally these guys were above average in the Danger Zone (DZ). Charles Howell III was a unique case because his driving and Danger Zone play were quite poor. But, he’s been having an excellent year putting. Yes, those stats are verified. But, those who have followed Howell III over the past 5 years have seen a noticeable drop off in his ballstriking.

Anyway, here are my top picks for the John Deere Classic:

Jason Day
Robert Garrigus
Brandt Jobe
Steve Stricker
Zach Johnson

Value Pick: Kyle Stanley

And here are the stat rankings

ADVANCED TOTAL DRIVING




1…Bubba Watson
2…David Toms
3…Boo Weekley
4…Nick Watney
5…Bo Van Pelt
6…Heath Slocum
7…Chez Reavie
8…Brandt Jobe
9…John Merrick
10…John Rollins
11…Gary Woodland
12…Hunter Mahan
13…Webb Simpson
14…Dustin Johnson
15…Tom Gillis
16…Graeme McDowell
17…Keegan Bradley
18…J.J. Henry
19…Bill Haas
20…Joe Durant


179…Shaun Micheel
180…Paul Stankowski
181…Martin Piller
182…Derek Lamely
183…Michael Sim
184…Kevin Na
185…Chad Collins
186…Bio Kim
187…Anthony Kim
188…Mike Weir



PUTTS GAINED (VIA PGATOUR.COM)



1…Brandt Snedeker
2…Greg Chalmers
3…Steve Stricker
4…Luke Donald
5…Nick Watney
6…Charlie Wi
7…Bryce Molder
8…Lucas Glover
9…Kevin Na
10…Zach Johnson
11…Fredrik Jacobson
12…Brian Gay
13…Kent Jones
14…Aaron Baddeley
15…Henrik Stenson
16…Kevin Streelman
17…Angel Cabrera
18…Ryan Moore
18…Y.E. Yang
20…Padraig Harrington


180…Alex Cejka
181…Paul Goydos
182…Kris Blanks
183…Jeff Maggert
184…Kyle Stanley
185…Scott Gutschewski
186…D.J. Trahan
187…Heath Slocum
188…Boo Weekley
189…Ernie Els


ADJUSTED SHORT GAME

1…James Driscoll
2…Jonathan Byrd
3…Brian Gay
4…Steve Flesch
5…Kevin Sutherland
6…D.A. Points
7…Bill Haas
8…Ricky Barnes
9…Stewart Cink
10…Rory Sabbatini
11…Chris Riley
12…Bio Kim
13…Steve Stricker
14…Billy Mayfair
15…Scott Gutschewski
16…Tim Petrovic
17…Kevin Na
18…Fredrik Jacobson
19…Colt Knost
20…Zach Johnson


179…Alex Prugh
180…Ben Martin
181…Sean O'Hair
182…Jeff Overton
183…Kevin Stadler
184…Joe Ogilvie
185…Robert Garrigus
186…Henrik Stenson
187…Garrett Willis
188…Billy Horschel


ADJUSTED DANGER ZONE PLAY



1…David Toms
2…Phil Mickelson
3…Padraig Harrington
4…Dustin Johnson
5…Scott Stallings
6…Robert Garrigus
7…Davis Love III
8…Rickie Fowler
9…Alex Cejka
10…John Senden
11…Robert Allenby
12…Nick Watney
13…Sergio Garcia
14…Boo Weekley
15…Paul Stankowski
16…Peter Tomasulo
17…John Daly
18…Heath Slocum
19…Brendan Steele
20…Kevin Stadler


179…John Merrick
180…James Driscoll
181…Greg Chalmers
182…Scott McCarron
183…Kevin Kisner
184…Rich Beem
185…Charlie Wi
186…Bio Kim
187…Michael Sim
188…Henrik Stenson



3JACK

Short Game Strategy

Over the weekend I started thinking a bit more and more about short game strategy. I like to think of it this way…play it 1 shot at a time with your swing and play 1 shot ahead with your strategy. I think the same applies with short game shots, which I’ll call shots from less than 40 yards from the edge of the green.

I feel where golfers really screw up, and I’m just as guilty about this, is that they get the mentality that they HAVE to get a shot close to the hole so they can have an easy tap in. They also get closer to the hole so they start to think they can make shots. However, I find that more often than not, no round of golf is ever easy. Even if you shoot your best score ever, you’re likely to have to make some testy 5-footers and such.

For instance, on the 4th round of this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, the telecast started on The Golf Channel before turning over to NBC. TGC followed Bubba Watson early on and he had a chip shot that was about 35 to 40 feet in length. The announcers remarked how good of chipper Watson was. Bubba then hit a chip that ‘burned the edge’ of the cup and went about 3 feet past the cup. The announcers then stated to the effect ‘see, just an example of how good Bubba chips the ball.’

What the announcers failed to realize is that Bubba now had a downhill putt on a very steep slope. He then missed the 3-footer and they replied ‘he’s been struggling with the putter.’ My contention is that while he should make that 3-footer most of the time, he would’ve been better served not being so aggressive with the chip and leaving himself with an uphill putt.

For amateurs, we have to remember the odds of actually making the chip shot are pretty slim. Here’s a look at a chart of the PGA Tour make percentage on putts from certain distances


(credit: 2011 3Jack Top 20 Putting Instructor, Mark Sweeney at www.aimpointgolf.com)

Let’s think about this for a second. Probably the shortest chip shot we will possibly have in a round of golf is from 13 feet. Usually we don’t start chipping until the ball is a full yard off the green (3 feet) and most pins are cut from at least 10 feet from the edge of the green (3 + 10 = 13 feet).

In putting, the PGA Tour guys are making about 30% of their putts from 13 feet. But here we are chipping and I would dare say that the make percentage is probably half of that (15%). But also remember, they are PGA Tour players. The 10 handicapper may make that 13 foot chip 5% of the time if they are lucky. And also remember…that’s only from 13 feet. So the longer chips, pitches, lobs, blasts and flops probably have less than a 1% chance of going in.

Yet…we still try to go at the flag.

However, it’s not about being conservative. It’s about planning 1 shot ahead with your strategy. If I have a 45 foot chip that I feel pretty comfortable with and the green doesn’t have much of a slope…I’ll focus more on the flag than leaving myself with an uphill chip. And often times in Florida the greens are very slow so while I may have a downhill putt, if the green is only a 7 or 8 stimp (and I’ve played slower), the downhill putt doesn’t bother me much.

Since I’m a sub-scratch player, I will have more control of the ball than your typical 10 handicapper. This is still a game of assessing things. For me, I have a better chance of keeping a bunker shot from 30 feet away below the cup than the average 10 handicapper.

But, where I find this strategy particularly helpful is on the more difficult short game shots.

For instance, if one short sides themselves after an approach shot, I think they are better off hitting it to 10 feet and uphill versus going for the tough shot and hitting it close. Because if they miss and leave themselves with a 10 foot downhill putt, they’ve now decreased the odds of getting up and down dramatically. In fact, if you own some of the AimPoint Golf ‘Aim Charts’ you can see how some 5 foot downhill putts can break MORE than a 10 foot uphill putt.

There are also a couple of other factors here as well.

1. Wobble Effect
2. Difficulty of Getting the Optimal Speed

I’ve talked about the Wobble Effect on downhill putts vs. uphill putts before. Essentially, as the ball slows down it will start to wobble…like a front bicycle tire going slow up a hill. We hit uphill putts harder…thus the ball moves at a faster velocity. Downhill putts are hit softer, so the ball moves at a slower velocity. Thus:

Downhill Putts = more likely to wobble off line

Uphill Putts = less likely to wobble off line.

I also find that downhill putts are more difficult to get the optimal speed.



Theoretically, I can always hit an uphill putt the right amount of speed and have it go about 6 to 12” past the cup which would be about optimal. But with downhill putts…if they are fast enough and have a steep enough of a slope, getting that optimal speed could be next to impossible.

Between the speed issues and the wobble effect, downhill putts will often require superb sweetspot contact to go in the cup. If they are struck just slightly off center, that may eliminate your chances of making the putt completely.

So the next time you see a chip just miss the cup but leaves the golfer with a 3 foot downhill putt, think about it as a good swing…but a poor strategy.






3JACK

3Jack's Quick Guide to College Golf Scholarship

Recently I’ve received a few e-mails from parents and junior golfers about the basics of getting a Division I college golf scholarship. I’ll try to keep this brief, but here goes:

# OF SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

Each team is granted 5 scholarships. This for both the men and women team. The men’s teams usually consist of 10 players on a team, each player receiving a ½ scholarship. With the women’s teams there are fewer female golfers out there, so usually there are 5 women on the team and each player gets a full ride. This is important to understand because if a girl can break 75 consistently and has the grades, they can now go to better academic schools for free. The men typically get some sort of free financial aid on top of the scholarship and it usually comes to about 70% of the tuition and room and board paid for when all is said and done.


GRADES

A few years ago a golf magazine did a survey on college golf coaches and asked what was the most important factor in recruiting golfers and they said it was ‘Grades.’ I think that it didn’t quite tell the entire story.

A prospective collegiate golfer needs to meet the grades and testing requirements of the school. Thus, if a golfer wants to play at Stanford and the Stanford coach thinks they are good enough of a golfer to play on the team…the golfer needs to meet the grade and testing requirements that Joe Schmoe, the Engineering major would need to get into Stanford. So if the minimum requirement for a non-athlete to get into Stanford is a 2000 on the SAT’s, then a golfer will need to have at least a 2000 on their SAT to get in.

Golf is not like basketball or football where those sports bring in money to the school. Thus, their athletes often times don’t need to meet those minimum testing requirements that the other students have in order to enroll at the college. Since golf doesn’t generate revenue, the colleges hold the golfers to the same standard that they hold the average student.

The difference is if you meet the requirements and the coach wants you on the team, you’re not going to have to go thru the same processes (typically) that the normal student does. The normal student may have the grades and test scores, but still lose out because there were others that had better scores and better grades. That won’t happen if you have the grades and test scores and the coach wants you on the team.


RECRUITING

For the most part, the golfers actually have to be active and go out and sell themselves to the school. This is very different from say basketball or football where if you’re a very good player, chances are the schools come to you. In golf, you can be a legitimately great player with a great track record and still have to go out and introduce yourself to schools you are interested in.

The two main things that pique a college coach’s interest are:

1. AJGA/IJGT playing ‘resume’
2. Recommendation from certain swing coaches

I’ve gone over this before, but with the AJGA/IJGT…often times it is more about the law of averages than being consistently good. Often times junior golfers don’t miss many tournaments and even if their stroke average is high, they’ll just put down in their playing resume the top 10’s and top 25’s they’ve made and more often than not, coaches are only concerned about that and what your grades are.

Coaches also like recommendations from swing instructors, particularly ones that they have a good rapport with and feel they can trust their judgment. Even if there is one of those swing coaches that you do not want to take instruction from, you should develop a rapport with that coach if they are nearby because they may help you with a recommendation.

There’s a fallacy that doing well in high school events is important, but most of the time it bears no importance. A golfer can win their state high school championship and legitimately be one of the best juniors in the world, but if they don’t have a AJGA/IJGT playing resume they could very well find themselves without a scholarship. That’s how important it is to get into AJGA/IJGT events.

Lastly, a student’s location can be very helpful. If they are in a state with a lot of Division 1 programs they allow themselves to get more exposure automatically. The golfer who doesn’t have that AJGA/IJGT resume but who wins the state championship may get a good scholarship if they win the state championship in places like Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona or California. But the one who wins it in North Dakota or Iowa may be out of luck. So if you’re in Massachusetts, I highly recommend that you get yourself into AJGA and IJGT events.




WALK-ONS NOT WELCOME

Again, this is not basketball or football where teams are very willing to take a walk-on (they don’t guarantee them a spot by any means, but if they feel they are good enough to be a member of the team, they will gladly have them on the team).

More often than not, college coaches want nothing to do with walk-ons, even if they are good enough to start. That is not an exaggeration. And I have really no reason why coaches feel this way. In fact, since the walk on is paying the school to go there, they are a customer of the school and should be afforded enough respect to be given the opportunity to try out for the team.



HIGH TRANSFER RATES

If you don’t get a scholarship to a college team of your choice, don’t worry…there’s still a chance. Transfers happen quite often. A golfer may have a school like University of Virginia in mind and the coach is not interested in them. However, they may wind up playing at a lower level program like Duquesne University and play there for one year, have a very good year and now the coach from Virginia may be interested in them and they are willing to take you in as a transfer. This actually happens quite often




GET TO KNOW YOUR COACH BEFOREHAND

I highly recommend that you go out of your way to ask FORMER players what they think of the coach. I’ve found that it’s pretty much a 50/50 split when it comes to coaches who are liked and respected and coaches who are despised and often times for good reasons.

I would recommend that you be aggressive in pursuing this, finding old rosters and seeing if you can find the former players on Facebook and just state that you’re interested in the school and want to get their true feelings on the coach. I think most of them will give an honest answer and will understand. What often happens is that the coach that recruits you is a different person once you are on scholarship. And it can make for a situation where you like everything about the college except for the coach who is a part of your life on a daily basis. Often times golfers don’t have a choice as it may be the only school offering what they need, but I would want to know what I’m getting into beforehand.


COACH’S ROLE

A lot of coaches are head professionals at a local, prestigious golf course. Some have professional status or are an elite amateur who have another job on the side. Most of them are more or less organizers. They organize how much time they want the players on the range, on the practice green and playing golf. They make sure players are in study hall and not skipping class. If a player needs something, like equipment, they’ll often take care of that for them. They usually stray from giving swing instruction and instead work towards mental game and course management instruction.



FACILITIES

Facilities differ from place to place, but most schools have either great facilities or a great place to practice. A school like Division III University of Rochester often plays at Oak Hill Country Club. Places like University of Washington have state of the art indoor practice facilities. Often times colleges have decent facilities and decent home, practice course, but will be able to get their golfers onto any course they want. I think it’s important to understand this because all of us want to become better golfers while we are in school. But in general I find that college team’s facilities are quite good.


EQUIPMENT

When I was in college the two major players in supplying college golfers with equipment were Ping (which was the biggest at the time) and Titleist. Cleveland was also pretty generous as well. At that time equipment was usually 20-25% below cost for college players. The golf balls were generally supplied by the school and I think at the time Titleist’s were going for $32 a dozen retail, but colleges could get them for $18 a dozen. Generally there’s an understanding that the colleges won’t abuse the equipment.

I don’t know what the costs are now, but I’m pretty sure it’s similar. It appears that Ping no longer offers the great deals to college kids like they used to as Titleist seems to have a stranglehold on the college game.


TOURNAMENTS

Almost always the team takes a bus to the tournament. Probably the biggest things to remember are:

1) Rounds of golf are extremely slow (6 hour round is quite normal)

2) You need to know the rules because if it’s a multi-day tournament and you get DQ’d in day 1, that will make the coach livid.

3) College golf scores will likely be higher than any other tournament golf scores you play because it’s a tough road to hoe. Weather can often be crummy from the unpredictable spring weather, the courses are struggling to get into good condition, and the travel combined with school makes it really rough.







3JACK

Finding The Low Point Video

I thought this was a pretty neat video done by PGA professional Todd Dugan







3JACK

3Jack Updated PGA Tour Stat Rankings 6.28.11

Last week's winner, Fredrik Jacobson




Here's a look at last week's top 5 finishers and their standings in the main statistical categories.

Player………………..….......Drive……....Putt……..DZ……..SG
Fredrik Jacobson………....103………....9……...131……..23
John Rollins…………….…......8…………...99……...47……..128
Ryan Moore…………...….....50……...…..10……...60……..86
Michael Thompson ……..169……..…..37……...36……..131
James Driscoll………..….....122……..…..90…….179……..1

DZ = Danger Zone
SG = Short GAme

Last week in Connecticut it was wet from the rain so that allowed below average drivers of the golf ball like Jacobson, Thompson and Driscoll to keep the ball in play off the teen and to use their short game to their advantage more.

Here are my picks for this week's AT&T National

Boo Weekley
Nick Watney
Robert Garrigus
JB Holmes
Bo Van Pelt

Value Pick: Chris Couch


ADVANCED TOTAL DRIVING




1…Bubba Watson
2…Boo Weekley
3…David Toms
4…Heath Slocum
5…John Merrick
6…Hunter Mahan
7…Brandt Jobe
8…John Rollins
9…Bo Van Pelt
10…Chez Reavie
11…Dustin Johnson
12…Graeme McDowell
13…Nick Watney
14…Webb Simpson
15…Gary Woodland
16…Tom Gillis
17…Keegan Bradley
18…J.J. Henry
19…Chris Couch
20…J.B. Holmes


179…Marc Leishman
180…Shaun Micheel
181…Paul Stankowski
182…Martin Piller
183…Derek Lamely
184…Michael Sim
185…Kevin Na
186…Chad Collins
187…Bio Kim
188…Anthony Kim


PUTTS GAINED (VIA PGATOUR.COM)



1…Greg Chalmers
2…Brandt Snedeker
3…Charlie Wi
4…Steve Stricker
5…Luke Donald
6…Kevin Na
7…Lucas Glover
8…Zach Johnson
9…Fredrik Jacobson
10…Ryan Moore
11…Kent Jones
12…Michael Putnam
13…Bryce Molder
14…Aaron Baddeley
15…Henrik Stenson
16…Brian Gay
17…Angel Cabrera
18…Y.E. Yang
19…Padraig Harrington
20…Jason Day


180…Paul Goydos
181…Kris Blanks
182…Jeff Maggert
183…Scott Gutschewski
184…D.J. Trahan
185…Adam Scott
186…Heath Slocum
187…Kyle Stanley
188…Boo Weekley
189…Ernie Els


ADJUSTED DANGER ZONE PLAY



1…David Toms
2…Phil Mickelson
3…Robert Garrigus
4…Nick Watney
5…Rickie Fowler
6…Padraig Harrington
7…Scott Stallings
8…Dustin Johnson
9…Davis Love III
10…Alex Cejka
11…John Senden
12…Sergio Garcia
13…Boo Weekley
14…Paul Stankowski
15…Peter Tomasulo
16…John Daly
17…Robert Allenby
18…Heath Slocum
19…Jim Furyk
20…Brendan Steele


179…James Driscoll
180…Scott McCarron
181…Greg Chalmers
182…Kevin Kisner
183…Rich Beem
184…John Merrick
185…Charlie Wi
186…Michael Sim
187…Bio Kim
188…Henrik Stenson


ADJUSTED SHORT GAME RANKING

1…James Driscoll
2…Jonathan Byrd
3…Steve Flesch
4…Brian Gay
5…Rod Pampling
6…Kevin Sutherland
7…Ricky Barnes
8…D.A. Points
9…Nick Watney
10…Greg Chalmers
11…Bill Haas
12…George McNeill
13…Chris Riley
14…Stewart Cink
15…Rory Sabbatini
16…Bio Kim
17…Michael Bradley
18…Steve Stricker
19…Kevin Na
20…Billy Mayfair


179…David Duval
180…Harrison Frazar
181…Graeme McDowell
182…Sunghoon Kang
183…Alex Prugh
184…Ben Martin
185…Robert Garrigus
186…Henrik Stenson
187…Garrett Willis
188…Billy Horschel





3JACK

Patrick Cantlay Golf Swing

Here's the DTL view of American amateur phenom, Patrick Cantalay








3JACK