Keeping Track of Your Putts

[RetiredOldMan]

Last year, I broke 90 in my playing. I can now shoot to the low to mid eighties. (82 being my best)

One thing that helped me a lot was to keep track of my number of Putts. 

I score the hole, i.e. 4/2, on my score card, for a Par 4 and 2 putts. 

I was amazed that when I started counting my Putts at how many 3 Putts and higher I had. 

I am sure this is "Old School Basics" for a lot of you but for me it was an eye opening solution to dropping 5 to 7 strokes off of my score. 

Another thing I did was start lining up ALL Putts. There is no excuse to miss a tap in. (I am talking about using 1 hand and just tapping it in without lining up.) I don't take a long time but I do clean and align my ball just before I Putt. 

My golfing partner used to keep track of his fairway shots and other statistics. 

Anyone else this tedious besides me. 

I would really like to break 80 at least just once and could use some pointers. 

Retired Old Man

[Bonvivant]

Always a good idea to know how you are putting, though it doesn't always tell the whole story. If you are hitting lots of GiRs or NGiRs things can shift one way or another. 3 putts are almost always bad, unless you are on the far side of a huge green, which makes it something that is going to happen from time to time. I keep all 3 of the classic stats on my card. Usually I only keep one other score besides mine (don't play with a lot of random people). So my cards normally are Score, FW hit or miss (N/A on par 3s), GIR (I will write an N if I am within 20 yards), putts, match play score, and partners score. I also us the TaylorMade app on my smart watch, which keeps all of these as well, but I like to be able to add up FW, GIR, and putts quickly at the end of a round.

[iacas]

If you're going to do this I recommend at least estimating the distance of your first putt, too.

36 putts from an average first putt distance of 18 feet is not anywhere near as good as 36 from an average first putt distance of 42 feet.

[Bonvivant]

5 minutes ago, iacas said:

If you're going to do this I recommend at least estimating the distance of your first putt, too.

36 putts from an average first putt distance of 18 feet is not anywhere near as good as 36 from an average first putt distance of 42 feet.

Great idea. I've had a couple of rounds recently where my putt count was in the mid 20s, but I was chipping everything very close, which makes putting easy. I shot pretty well on one of those rounds, and if you look at the card, it just looks like the putter was hot, but it was really the inside of 40 yard game with the wedges that made the score. Maybe 1 putt outside of 6 feet was holed, so it really wasn't special on the dance floor at all

[DaHolla]

7 minutes ago, iacas said:

If you're going to do this I recommend at least estimating the distance of your first putt, too.

36 putts from an average first putt distance of 18 feet is not anywhere near as good as 36 from an average first putt distance of 42 feet.

Any apps you recommend for this, or just old fashioned pencil and paper?

[DrvFrShow]

Before this COVID crap, I used to spend about 20 minutes once a week on the practice green lag putting with 4 balls. First I'd practice from 3 feet until I could make 9 out of 10, then I'd go to 10 feet and try to get as close as possible. Once I had the speed of the green down, sometimes I'd make a couple of the 10 footers. Then I'd go back to wherever, I'd pace off the putt to about 30 feet and try from there. I'd finish every ball. My goal was to get every thing within 3' of the hole and two putt.

One of the practice greens has a wicked slope on it in one spot and I'd try some creative lines.

I still three putt. A couple greens I play are huge. If I start from 60 feet away and three putt, fine. That's on me for not making the greatest approach. 

I just use the scorecard. I keep # putts, GIRs, FW, & Bunkers on it. You can put a dot in the box with the number of putts for the hole if your first putt was longer than 15 feet. 

[Piz]

The way to break any score ( 100, 90, 80...) is to have a short memory.  It does not matter if you miss a fairway, a green, or a short putt.  The first time I broke 80 I carded a double on the opening hole.  Had I carried that with me the rest of the round it is unlikely I'd have shot a 77.