The Joys of Two-Putting

[weifert]

I've played two nine-hole rounds in the past two weeks, and scored 62 on both. Not a good score at all, but there was one major difference between the first round and the second. That difference was putting.

I watched My Golf Sidekick's "How to Putt Like a Baus," and decided to stop assuming that my putting was good and winging it. I went to the practice green and worked on the basics. I visualized putts, talked myself through them, used a good tempo. Then I went out and played Fox Run at the Kenton County Golf Course.

There are three courses out here, and I haven't played here since I was in high school. Most of the reviews for the course complained about the state of the greens, bunkers and cart paths. The last of these was no bother to me, as a veteran of driving on Michigan roads. The whole course needed some TLC, but there were only a couple of times when I thought, "Man, this hole needs help." A couple of the wholes featured great elevation changes, including this one:

 

While I never reached the green in regulation, I two-putted most of the holes that I played. And a couple of those putts were an inch or two away from going in. Seems to me like putting a little bit better has greatly improved my confidence and the amount of fun I have playing the game.

 

[Craigers]

Spending enough time on the practice green is exactly what I need to do more of.

That looks like a really fun hole to tee off with a driver.

[boogielicious]

6 hours ago, weifert said:

I've played two nine-hole rounds in the past two weeks, and scored 62 on both. Not a good score at all, but there was one major difference between the first round and the second. That difference was putting.

I watched My Golf Sidekick's "How to Putt Like a Baus," and decided to stop assuming that my putting was good and winging it. I went to the practice green and worked on the basics. I visualized putts, talked myself through them, used a good tempo. Then I went out and played Fox Run at the Kenton County Golf Course.

There are three courses out here, and I haven't played here since I was in high school. Most of the reviews for the course complained about the state of the greens, bunkers and cart paths. The last of these was no bother to me, as a veteran of driving on Michigan roads. The whole course needed some TLC, but there were only a couple of times when I thought, "Man, this hole needs help." A couple of the wholes featured great elevation changes, including this one:

 

While I never reached the green in regulation, I two-putted most of the holes that I played. And a couple of those putts were an inch or two away from going in. Seems to me like putting a little bit better has greatly improved my confidence and the amount of fun I have playing the game.

 

Here is a good thread to review as well.

 

[David in FL]

I’m glad you feel that you’re making progress in an important aspect of the game.  

BUT....  if you had 18 putts while shooting 62, that means you took a whopping 44 strokes just getting to the green for those same holes.  That’s 5 strokes per hole, and an average of 3 strokes too many per hole.  Since you shot the same score both days, but with fewer putts on the second day, your overall ball-striking tee to green was actually worse on day 2 because it took you that many more strokes to actually get to the green.

Be pleased that you may have putted a bit better, but realize that the real opportunity lies in improving your full swing to the point that you’re at least on or very near the green within a stroke of regulation.  You’d much rather be on the green in 3 strokes, and then 3-putt, than to be on in 5-strokes, and 2-putt.  

Edited August 14, 2019 by David in FL

[iacas]

Counting total putts is a bad way to assess actual performance.

Two putting from 50 feet is so much better than from 5.

Also 9 holes is a small sample size.

[mcanadiens]

8 hours ago, weifert said:

Fox Run at the Kenton County Golf Course

Pretty picture to be sure. But ...

Trees = Bad. 

Improving putting is never a bad thing, of course. Getting the most out of your full swing and staying out of the shrubberies is what will help that score the most.

How many penalties did you absorb?

[Jeremie Boop]

Improving any one aspect of your game to the point where it's something that you don't have anxiety about is always good. Putting is probably one of the easier things to work on too. I would take this experience and start working on another aspect of your game and keep that momentum going.

[weifert]

54 minutes ago, iacas said:

Counting total putts is a bad way to assess actual performance.

I totally agree with you. However, what I'm trying to do is less like analysis and more like trying to find reasons to keep playing.

Prior to this summer, my forays into golf have gone this way:

1. Play at a company outing, realize that I love this game
2. Play a round or two by myself, resulting in total humiliation
3. Decide it's not worth spending the money to play golf if I'm this bad
4. Quit the game entirely

Now at least this summer I took a lesson, which helped a little. But still things are coming along slowly, and frankly it's really expensive to keep taking lessons. So at this rate I'm just trying to focus on some small improvements.

1 hour ago, David in FL said:

Be pleased that you may have putted a bit better, but realize that the real opportunity lies in improving your full swing to the point that you’re at least on or very near the green within a stroke of regulation.

100% agreement. Interesting to break the round down that way. I don't think the score reflects it, but my contact with the ball was actually better. I adopted an overlapping grip (from Ben Hogan's "Five Lessons,") and I think it helped me keep control. I did hit two or three total duffs, all with the sand wedge.

In other cases, I was right with my irons and I think that came from simply not following through and finishing the swing. Could be wrong, but that's what it felt like. So I lost a lot of strokes just by going right. But at least I wasn't totally shanking it. 

1 hour ago, mcanadiens said:

Pretty picture to be sure. But ...

Trees = Bad. 

Improving putting is never a bad thing, of course. Getting the most out of your full swing and staying out of the shrubberies is what will help that score the most.

How many penalties did you absorb?

Haha, definitely bad, my friend. I took 4 penalty strokes but only one of them went in the trees. They went more like this:

1. I sliced my second shot on a par 5. I took a penalty because I couldn't find it. Honestly I think if I kept looking I would've found this one, but I didn't want to hold up play.
2. Sliced my drive on a Par 3 into some super tall grass
3. Blind shot ended up somehow wedged between the lip of the bunker and the sand itself, and I couldn't play it
4. Hooked my tee shot into the trees

[iacas]

14 minutes ago, weifert said:

Now at least this summer I took a lesson, which helped a little. But still things are coming along slowly, and frankly it's really expensive to keep taking lessons. So at this rate I'm just trying to focus on some small improvements.

Evolvr is $49/month.

And, this site has a ton of free information on helping you play better golf.

But yes, there's a very real possibility you might just stink at golf. The game may not be for you.

[weifert]

16 minutes ago, iacas said:

Evolvr is $49/month.

And, this site has a ton of free information on helping you play better golf.

But yes, there's a very real possibility you might just stink at golf. The game may not be for you.

Haven't seen Evolvr, I'll have to check it out. This site has also been helpful. I'm not ready to concede that I stink just yet. I think that if I had regular instruction I could probably straighten most of this out.

With having a family and working I basically get one evening a week to practice or play, so it seems like I'm fighting an uphill battle. I played basketball competitively in high school and made a college team. That required devoting several nights per week to becoming successful at that. I want to get good at golf but don't have that same amount of time.

So either I can be okay with really minor progress given my time commitment or I can get totally frustrated that I haven't leaped forward. Overshare, I know, but this has been on my mind.

[Jeremie Boop]

14 minutes ago, weifert said:

Haven't seen Evolvr, I'll have to check it out. This site has also been helpful. I'm not ready to concede that I stink just yet. I think that if I had regular instruction I could probably straighten most of this out.

With having a family and working I basically get one evening a week to practice or play, so it seems like I'm fighting an uphill battle. I played basketball competitively in high school and made a college team. That required devoting several nights per week to becoming successful at that. I want to get good at golf but don't have that same amount of time.

So either I can be okay with really minor progress given my time commitment or I can get totally frustrated that I haven't leaped forward. Overshare, I know, but this has been on my mind.

There are a lot of things you can do to improve that don't require you to go to the course or the range. Slow motion swings on camera and/or with a mirror can do wonders for ingraining some major changes. There's a thread about 5 minutes a day practice, if you can commit to even just 5 minutes a day working on slow motion drills it's possible you'll be amazed at the results.

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, Jeremie Boop said:

There are a lot of things you can do to improve that don't require you to go to the course or the range.

Was just gonna post the same thing. Lots of things you can do for 5 minutes at home or in your office.

[weifert]

2 hours ago, Jeremie Boop said:

There are a lot of things you can do to improve that don't require you to go to the course or the range. Slow motion swings on camera and/or with a mirror can do wonders for ingraining some major changes. There's a thread about 5 minutes a day practice, if you can commit to even just 5 minutes a day working on slow motion drills it's possible you'll be amazed at the results.

Thank you both for the encouragement. I'll have to give this a try.

[Zippo]

7 hours ago, weifert said:

Haven't seen Evolvr, I'll have to check it out. This site has also been helpful. I'm not ready to concede that I stink just yet. I think that if I had regular instruction I could probably straighten most of this out.

With having a family and working I basically get one evening a week to practice or play, so it seems like I'm fighting an uphill battle. I played basketball competitively in high school and made a college team. That required devoting several nights per week to becoming successful at that. I want to get good at golf but don't have that same amount of time.

So either I can be okay with really minor progress given my time commitment or I can get totally frustrated that I haven't leaped forward. Overshare, I know, but this has been on my mind.

I would also suggest Evolver. Great help for a minimal investment. Also, make sure you're setting realistic goals for yourself. And personally, I think golf can be fun even for those who stink at it - provided they stink at it at a good pace...