Putting Benchmarks

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All right, golfers, last of the four core scoring skills, we've got putting.

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So we looked at driver play, 28% of your score, iron play, 40% of your score,

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wedge play,

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17%.

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While putting is only 15%, it is a very important score, and especially if you

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are really bad

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at it.

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So how do we figure out if we're really bad at it?

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The easy stats is looking at total number of putts, so a pro is going to be

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somewhere

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around 31, 32 putts where a high handicap golfer is going to be somewhere

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around 38

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putts.

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Remember, there's 18 holes, so 36 putts would be averaging two putts per hole.

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But this doesn't really tell me if I had a good putting day or bad putting day.

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It's better to compare the putts that I made compared to the distance that I

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had, because

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what we'll see is different distance spots have a much higher or lower

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percentage of

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make.

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So here I've got from three feet, four feet, all the way to 10 feet.

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You'll see each foot inside of 10 feet gets you almost 10% closer or 10% better

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make percentage.

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And I should point out, I use the pro stats for everybody with putting.

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I don't think it takes the same level of athleticism as even wedge play.

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So I find that you can use the pro putting stats.

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And I've had many even higher handicap golfers get close to these numbers.

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So but anyway, inside 10 feet, you'll start to see really inside 8 feet, it's

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about 10%

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improvement for each foot you get it closer.

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That tells you how important it is to hit those irons well as well as your wed

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ges well.

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Because for every foot you get closer, your chance of making it goes up a lot.

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Once we get to 10, I usually break it into 5 foot and once we get to 20, I'll

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jump more

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by 10s.

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One of the other numbers that I give my students is 30 feet is basically the

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break even point

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where most pros average 2 putts.

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So one simple thing is for a lot of beginner golfers, higher handicap golfers,

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minimize

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your 3 putts inside of 30 feet.

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If you can get it to where inside 30 feet, it's always a 2 putt, that'll help

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you get

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into this zone much quicker.

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3 putts add up very quickly.

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But then again, when we were talking about in order to make buries or this

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proximity

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goal, you'll see from 20 feet, which was about what pros were averaging from

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125.

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So hitting a wedge shot from there, averaging 50% of the shots to 20 feet, they

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're only

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going to make about 15% of them.

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So if you only had 1 or 2 putts from 20 feet, it's unlikely you're going to

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make one of

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those.

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Pros have to have, whether it's 8 to 10, a significant number of shots from 20

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feet

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that they can hit enough inside the 8 foot zone to give yourself a real chance

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at birdie

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or at least inside 20 feet to give yourself a significant chance or a good putt

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.

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So this is a good way for doing this periodically of looking at how far did I

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have for each

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of my putts and then comparing them just to see where we stack up to these

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benchmarks.

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Technique wise, there are 3 big putting skills.

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You've got green reading, start line and speed control.

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When it comes to the long putts and avoiding 3 putts, you've got to be able to

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read the

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green, control your speed and start line is a little less important but it's

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still there.

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When it comes to short putts, you've got to be able to hit your start line.

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That's one of the most important skill.

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Reading the green helps but these putts aren't going to have too much break to

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them.

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So if you have a little bit more margin of error there and speed control is the

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least

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important but still an important factor for short putts.

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So these are the 3 big skills that we're always working on when we're trying to

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refine

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our putting.

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With green reading, you're either working on reading the green more with your

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feet or

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with your eyes.

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With speed control, so avoiding 3 putts, there's a few skills.

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The big ones are being able to use the same tempo every single time and to be

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able to

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comfortably make different lengths of swings.

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If you have the same tempo and different lengths of swings, you start to

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control the distance

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much more repeatedly.

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Assuming you get good solid contact and loft control but these 2 are usually

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the less critical

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ones.

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When you struggle with speed control, it's usually one of both of these.

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When it comes to start line, that breaks down into the putter face control and

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the putter

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path control.

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The putter face control is a much higher priority than the path control.

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The majority of the start line comes from the face control and the path becomes

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an issue

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if it influences your ability to predictably control the face.

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If you're struggling with more of your start line, which is more of the short

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putts, we're

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going to do a lot more geometry based or face and path drills.

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For serving more with the lag putts, we're going to do more of these tempo and

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length

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of swing drills.

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This will help give you some good benchmarks, 8 feet and in, better than 50%, 3

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feet and

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in, we should make almost all of them and avoid 3 putts from 30 feet and in.

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To do that, you've got to start the ball online, control your pacing and read

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the green.

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You do that, you're one step closer to mastering while the least important

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skill of really

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rewarding in one of the core for scoring skills to being a great golfer.