New way to stat your putts,,,not sure if discussed here before

[golfdad]

ok, so this little article in golf digest (dec 09, p 102) by peter sanders (whoever he is) proposes another way to stat your putts.

in summary, he felt that total putts per round can be misleading and not a good indicator of putting ability, like "balancing your checkbook by simply totaling the number of checks written" :) he argued that there was no way to tell a putt made from 3 feet from a putt made from 50 where the latter suggests a much better putting ability.

he felt that "putt for dough" is misleading and gave an example. "bob tway ranked first in number of putts per green hit in regulation at 1.718, and Vijay Singh ranked 107th at 1.792--less than one putt per round of of separation! both players averaged 12 greens in regulation per round, yet singh had three victories and let the money list while tway has no vic and was 132 in money."

he proposes to look at: TOTAL FEET OF PUTTS HOLED.

here is the details: on each hole, record only one number: the length of putt made rounded to the nearest foot, with 2 conditions.

1. all putts inside 2 feet count as 2.
2. any putts made over 15 feet counts as 15.

after 18 holes, add the lengths of all 18 putts. then substract 4 feet for each 3-putts as penalty. the final number is what he calls: your putting performance .

according to his stats:

scratch players usually hole 70 feet per round.

15 handcper: 50.

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what do you guys think? i may try it out with my kids next year.

[becksfan2185]

I saw that article, and I think it helps. As much as I like this stat though, I'm not sure that one statistic can tell the entire story - stats can be misleading (as with the example above).

For my own stat tracking, I keep both the # of putts as well as the distance made. I figure the more info I have, the better I can guage my performance.

[iacas]

Eh, I think it's fine. Scorecard tracks this stat for you (without removing points for three-putts or lumping everything over 15 feet together).

But I think this stat is no better than a combination of PPGIR and total putts.

I could have tap-ins all day after lipping out 14 times from 15+ feet or so and I'd call that a pretty good putting day. Yet his formula wouldn't give me much credit - I might score 36 or 40 or so.

I think if you're a good putter you tend to know it. And if you're not, you should find ways to convince yourself that you are while simultaneously working on actually becoming one.

[tr_murray]

Eh, I think it's fine.

Just curious, how does Scorecard track this stat? I actually just started using Scorecard and really like it, but the only putting input I see is number of putts and first putt distance (which I read to be the distance from the hole the ball is once on the putting green). Thanks for any info.

[iacas]

Just curious, how does Scorecard track this stat? I actually just started using Scorecard and really like it, but the only putting input I see is number of putts and first putt distance (which I read to be the distance from the hole the ball is once on the putting green). Thanks for any info.

If you don't make your first putt, we give you a distance of 3 feet for the putt you holed. And of course if you have 0 putts, you get 0 feet.

It's similar, as I said - you get three feet instead of two. It's a pretty good average. In my testing over the course of 20 rounds with six different golfers, the average distance of second (or third) putts holed was just over 32". The tap-ins are balanced out by the holes where you gun it by five feet or leave it way short.