How do you make birdies?

[CalBoomer]

I consider my iron game pretty strong. I am going to be working on my putting, both 20-30 footers and inside 10 feet.

Dave Peltz has more hard data on this than anyone else. His putting conversion curve in his book shows that professional golfers convert 6-ft putts at 50%, 20-ft putts at 10%, and 30-ft putts at 5%. Although a very good golfer, you are not a professional. This data suggests to me that your time would be better spent getting more approach shots within 10 feet than practicing 20 and 30-ft putts.

[ks8829]

Birdies and eagles are created by greens on regulation and good putting.

How many putts do you take during a round?

1) Improve your putting stats
2) Improve your distance control so that you are always pin high on every approach shot
3) Improve you approach shot from 100 - 150 yards for par 4's
4) do you reach birdie par 5's?
5) Your short game on par 5 has to be spot on and you need to get up and down for birdies.


I have made 5 birides in a row with great putting, making everything from 20 feet and in.

[DaveLeeNC]

I disagree. If you hit 12 greens and have 12 20 footers for birdie per round, and you can double the number you knock in, you'll shave one or two strokes off your handicap instantly.

This guy's goal is to average making more birdies than he current does - let's define 'more' as 2-3. If I use my best reading of Pelz' data for the middle of the range, pros make somewhere around 6-7% of their 25 footers. Even if I accept the truly bizzare stat of 12 first (birdie) putts/round (on average) in the 20-30 foot range, this comes out on average to only around one more birdie/round (assuming that you are going from having never made a 20-30 foot putt in your life to putting like a typical pro per Pelz).

I just don't see how you get there from that range. You can certainly have a hot putter and burn up a course on a given day from that range, but not day in/day out. dave

[MiniMoe]

To make more birdies, you have to have more realistic birdie opportunities. Work on controlling your irons better in both distance and direction. You want to hit more greens, but you need to hit them in the correct places to give yourself realistic birdie chances. Think of it this way.. If you go play two times and both times you hit all 18 greens. The first round you hit the ball over 25 feet from the hole every time and you two putt all of them. You shot even par, but it was a little work. The second round you had a bunch of 10-15 footers, but missed them all and shot even par again. The second round was a better round because of the realistic birdie chances... even though you did not make them. The first round you hit all the greens, but being so far from the hole, there was more opportunity to make bogey than birdie. Two putting every thing outside 25-30 feet is pretty good. I would figure there is a pretty good chance of three putting at least one of them.

All that to say... hit the ball closer to the hole and you will make more birdies in the long run.

[billm408]

My approach is that if I'm within 100 yards of the hole, I'm trying to jar it. Now I don't hole out a lot of from the fairway, but a SW from 100 should be a pretty accurate club for you. I'll usually chip in or lip out once or twice a round and I'm trying to hole out greenside bunker shots. I never understood lag putting either. Does this mean I make a ton of birdies? No, but I think I give myself a better chance with every shot. YMMV.

[goblue107501]

Lot of good opinions here, here are my thoughts...

Before reading any responses, my initial thought was to hit the ball closer to the hole, which will give you a better chance to make a putt. I will make 1-2 birdies per round, and overall, the birdies I make are because I was pretty close to the hole. Every once in a while I will roll in a longer one, but for the most part, the ones I make are inside 15 feet or so.

A Nationwide Tour event comes through town every year and I go out and watch. Over the years I have seen a lot of birdies at the course. The majority of birdies that are made out there are inside 20 feet. You do see the occasional 30+ footer rolled in for birdie, but for the most part the majority of birdies come from close approach shots. The thing I have noticed with the tour pros is this -- they are almost always pin high or in a good spot below the hole. They make the birdies from hitting accurate irons in the right spots. Rarley do you see a birdie putt made that is downhill with two feet of break. They are usually made from easier putts from below the hole. They may not always be really close, but they are in the right spot.

The moral of the story is to think about where you are hitting the approach shot that will give you a good chance to make a putt. I would guess that you play the same course(s) so you should know in the fairway the best spot to put the ball on the green for that particular hole location. If you are already thinking about this on the course then forget I mentioned it and just make more putts.

[iacas]

What about this as an option: improve your game off the tee as well as your approach shots.

Basically, any time you're chipping instead of putting for birdie, you have almost no chance of making a birdie.

If that's because you had to play a funny shot from the trees or you aimed at a pin you shouldn't aim at on your approach, I don't know, but basically you want to hit more greens in regulation. If the ones you're missing now you're missing because of poor driving, work on that. If the ones you're missing now you're missing because of poor iron play, work on that.

In other words, if you eliminate your "par attempts" (that result in bogeys) and turn those into birdie attempts (or tap-in pars), you'll have more chances at birdie.

I still think improving putting is a good way to go, but I've been convinced by some of the comments here it may not be the BEST way.

Here's another option: learn different shots so you can leave the ball in the proper place on the green. Hitting a GIR doesn't matter if you're 40 feet away, or if you're 15 feet above the hole. Better to be 25 feet below the hole than 15 feet above it sometimes (at Lake View, that's the difference between taking a run at a birdie putt versus guarding against putting off the green).

Sometimes I'd rather be just in the front fringe on a front hole location than 20 feet behind (above) the pin.

[HSip]

There have been a lot of good suggestions posted here. What it seems to boil down to is: after your game is at a certain point (mid/low HCP) improvements come in smaller and smaller increments. Which means unless you have a glaring weakness (but then you wouldn't be mid/low HCP) you have to work on all parts of your game. That's why the lower the HCP the harder to lower the HCP. For me it's trying to avoid doubles and others . Cheers

[wannabe]

First things first: congrats on your excellent current golfing!! I can't wait to be able to have the skillz to ponder this question for my own game.

Secondly, something that hasn't been mentioned is course management. If you can accurately hit your shorter irons to a good spot, then ensure you know the course and greens well enough to know where to hit the ball so it rolls to inside that 15-20' circle, and ends up below the hole.

[ScottyCameron]

What about this as an option: improve your game off the tee as well as your approach shots.

Good points there. I have also been tracking a new stat since the past 4 rounds: whenever I hit a GIR how far away am I to the hole? Even though its only been 4 rounds, I have been averaging 17 feet away from the hole.

[CarlSpackler]

There have been a lot of good suggestions posted here. What it seems to boil down to is: after your game is at a certain point (mid/low HCP) improvements come in smaller and smaller increments. Which means unless you have a glaring weakness (but then you wouldn't be mid/low HCP) you have to work on

I'm right there with you. I am working on all parts of my game, but what I need more than anything is consistency. I would have some decent rounds in the low 80s or upper 70s if it wasn't for one or two blow up holes.

[Dub]

How to make birdies?

I wish I knew!!!!


The next tidbit of knowledge I'd love to have is how to follow a birdie with no worse than a par. I've almost always followed birdies with bogeys or worse.

[boxwes]

That is not that bad for average putting, but it's not that good. Golfers with good scores have average putts per round at about 22-26 putts per round. My average is about 28 putts. That shows that my work is not in my short game but in my iron play and ball striking. What I'm saying is work on putting- around 15-30 feet. Thats obviously where you are hitting your shots since you have good ball-striking ability. Build on that, and the birdies will come.

There are only 7 guys on tour this year averaging under 28 putts per round, Brad Faxon is leading at 27.45.

32 putts per round is a little high. I am going to guess hitting your irons closer to the hole, combined with making more putts inside 10' is going to be key (although I feel like I am stating the obvious here, lol).

[Williamevanl]

^Burn I love when someone points out stuff like that.

[CalBoomer]

That is not that bad for average putting, but it's not that good. Golfers with good scores have average putts per round at about 22-26 putts per round. My average is about 28 putts. That shows that my work is not in my short game but in my iron play and ball striking. What I'm saying is work on putting- around 15-30 feet. Thats obviously where you are hitting your shots since you have good ball-striking ability. Build on that, and the birdies will come.

There are only 7 guys on tour this year averaging under 28 putts per round, Brad Faxon is leading at 27.45.

I love it when someone injects a little bit of reality into these discussions. 28 putts per round on the kinds of courses and greens the pros play on--when one is playing below par golf is one thing. If one is playing to a handicap of 10-20 on much less challenging courses and anything from a few inches to a couple of feet off the green doesn't count as a putt, then 28 putts per round is altogether something else. Still good, but not remotely comparable.

[boxwes]

Digging in further, I would look at two things.

1. It looks like you are hitting about 10 greens per round, what is your scrambling percentage on the 8 per round you are missing? Are you throwing away a shot or two there?

2. Your GIR % on Par 4's is over 22% less than on Par 3's and even more on Par 5's. Obviously, from the fairway with a good like (or teed up), you hit the green at a very high percentage. What does your fairway's hit % look like on par 4's. Are you missing those greens (looks like about 5 per round on par 4's) because you are spraying the driver? Or because you are hitting bad iron shots? Are you disproportionately further from the whole compared to 3's and 5's, and it is just that you are hitting long iron's? Working on accurate tee shots and keeping the ball in play could be worth a stroke or two.

If you can find a shot in the scrambling per round, a shot in the par 4's per round, and make one more putt per round, that gets you to zero. Look at it as small steps to take. You have to consider everything, not just making more birdies.

[tm22721]

Center of the green is not good enough you need to control ball trajectory (draw, fade, high, low) and the wind to place the ball close. That is THE art of this game. Putting is too fickle even the pros are inconsistent.

[tricky]

I actually think averaging 31 putts a round is pretty good at any level. That equates to 13 two putts and five single putts.

I myself shot an 86, last time out, that included only 31 putts (I was relatively ecstatic). It was an 86 because of all the rubbish I hit to get me to the green, and it was only 31 putts because I chipped close from around the green a lot. I digress. 31 putts makes you five shots better than scratch in playing the course. If you're playing to five over you are wasting ten shots before you get to the greens.

Work on your driving and approach play. You can get to scratch averaging 36 putts a round (our club professional, who is absolutely immaculate tee to green, is essentially that player - if he could putt he'd be on the tour. He'd kill to average no more than 31 putts every round).