Tips on playing efficiently

[LovinItAll]

- Start reading the green as you walk up, and if you HAVE to read a putt from both sides of the ball, do it before it's your turn to putt, when possible. If you ARE reading putts from both/all sides, you'd best be either making putts or burning edges. Consistently missing 2' of break, leaving it 6' short, or blowing it 4' by the hole means you'd do as well just picking a line from behind the ball and stroking it. - Conversely, in response to slower play in front of you when there's zero chance of going through the group ahead, instead of grumbling about waiting, that would be a good time to NOT play ready golf and to keep honors as long as you're keeping up. All the tips for reducing pace of play are great, but sometimes it's going to take 4+ hours to play no matter what you do. When that happens, my game improves if I can adjust my pace accordingly. Some guys in my group get so mad that their games fall apart when there's nothing they can do about it anyway. Re: Walking ahead to the next tee while others are putting out - I don't really get that unless you're walking AND the tee boxes are so far from the green that people would be waiting on you every time at the box. Just seems a little disrespectful, but every group is different (poster mentioned he played with his buddies).

[Volchok]

  LovinItAll said:

Originally Posted by LovinItAll

- Start reading the green as you walk up, and if you HAVE to read a putt from both sides of the ball, do it before it's your turn to putt, when possible. If you ARE reading putts from both/all sides, you'd best be either making putts or burning edges. Consistently missing 2' of break, leaving it 6' short, or blowing it 4' by the hole means you'd do as well just picking a line from behind the ball and stroking it.

I wouldn't take it quite that far. Personally, I get more confident if I read the green. It has nothing to do with me sinking every putt, but when I do read the greens carefully, I scratch a few strokes off my round. If I know I'm capable of making a putt, I take my time, but if I'm sure that I'll never sink "that" putt, might aswell take a shot at it and try to get it as close as possible. For me, I tend to read the 5-6'' putts more carefully than the 10-15'' putts. Just going with my skill level.

[LovinItAll]

  Volchok said:

I wouldn't take it quite that far. Personally, I get more confident if I read the green. It has nothing to do with me sinking every putt, but when I do read the greens carefully, I scratch a few strokes off my round. If I know I'm capable of making a putt, I take my time, but if I'm sure that I'll never sink "that" putt, might aswell take a shot at it and try to get it as close as possible. For me, I tend to read the 5-6'' putts more carefully than the 10-15'' putts. Just going with my skill level.

I didn't say there was anything wrong with taking your time with putts, and certainly nothing wrong with bearing down on six footers. What I said was: " Consistently missing two feet of break, leaving it six feet short, or blowing it four feet by the hole....." In other words, there are people that can't putt worth a damn that are gaining no benefit by reading putts from every angle. Haven't you seen those dudes before? I have.

[Volchok]

  LovinItAll said:

Originally Posted by LovinItAll

I didn't say there was anything wrong with taking your time with putts, and certainly nothing wrong with bearing down on six footers. What I said was:

"Consistently missing two feet of break, leaving it six feet short, or blowing it four feet by the hole....."

In other words, there are people that can't putt worth a damn that are gaining no benefit by reading putts from every angle. Haven't you seen those dudes before? I have.

I guess I've been lucky when I haven't met any of the above But for many poor putters, the putting would be even worse if they didn't read it. Maybe 2 putts would be 3 putts?

[onesome]

  LovinItAll said:

Originally Posted by LovinItAll

I didn't say there was anything wrong with taking your time with putts, and certainly nothing wrong with bearing down on six footers. What I said was:

"Consistently missing two feet of break, leaving it six feet short, or blowing it four feet by the hole....."

In other words, there are people that can't putt worth a damn that are gaining no benefit by reading putts from every angle. Haven't you seen those dudes before? I have.

Yes had to play with one of those guys, his partner was a fast player but this guy insisted on looking at all his putts from both sides and across and then would blow it by at least 6', the greens at my course are fast and players need to pay closer attention to speed than most other places, and then he would stay behind after we finished the hole practicing the putt while the group in back of us is waiting to hit up..........unbelievable.I felt bad for his partner cause he was a member I have played with before a few times and I could tell it was bothering him as well.

[onesome]

  Volchok said:

Originally Posted by Volchok

I guess I've been lucky when I haven't met any of the above But for many poor putters, the putting would be even worse if they didn't read it. Maybe 2 putts would be 3 putts?

The old saying "analysis leads to paralysis" I think all the do it like the guys on TV idiots would be way better off just giving it one good look and give it their best roll.

[colin007]

Have any of you had one of those rounds where nothing is going right and you just start walking up to your putts and hitting them without much of a read? I notice that the putts are better, roll smoother, and generally end up closer to the hole

[zeg]

  colin007 said:

Originally Posted by colin007

Have any of you had one of those rounds where nothing is going right and you just start walking up to your putts and hitting them without much of a read? I notice that the putts are better, roll smoother, and generally end up closer to the hole

I've "noticed" this, but I think it's selective memory bias. When you hit one like this, you're already frustrated, so cases where your careless whack has a good result stand out as evidence that the stars are aligned against you. When one misses badly, it's not memorable because you weren't expecting a good result.

There's probably some element of truth to it---our reflex/instinct system is remarkably good. But, unless you're really severely over-thinking things, I doubt that you'd be better, on average, not to make any attempt at reading. However, on putts you're not likely to make and where the complexity/uncertainty of the read is more than you can handle intellectually, this is the innate skill we rely on. In those cases, you're probably going to miss anyway, so you might as well trust your instincts.

[mdl]

  Jason M Henley said:

Originally Posted by Jason M Henley

The problem I see with this is that you are being rude to those you are playing with in order to not be rude to people behind you so your net rudeness is even so to speak. I hate holding up groups behind me as well but my most immediate concern would be to the guys I am playing with. If you are a regular at a course or its a club, you will see these guys again and they will remember you as the d!ck who walks off the green. However, the guys behind you most likely will not remember you as 1 of the 4 guys who was in front of them holding them up.

I applaud your commitment to speed up rounds but you might want to reconsider this particular one. Just my 2 cents.

Yeah, I guess I never considered leaving the green early (with all the caveats about not doing anything to distract the next putter at all, whether with noise or movement in sight lines) rude at all, and I'd never heard anyone say that this was generally considered rude at least by traditional etiquette standards.  Given that, I always thought of it as only a net positive, helping my group keep pace while not doing anything I thought others in my group would consider rude.  Like I said in the post you quoted, maybe I'll stop doing this or at least only do it after either declaring my version of ready golf at the 1st tee and seeing if that strikes guys wrong or if we're really falling behind and encouraging a faster pace for a couple holes hasn't had any effect.

I have a big enough set of courses I play regularly, I only get to play once a week, and they're all so busy, that I honestly don't play with randoms I've played with before that often.  Though when I do I've generally gotten a good vibe from them, so I hope at least that means that even if they thought I had one rude habit that my politeness in other ways and general amiableness made up for it!

[mdl]

  zeg said:

Originally Posted by zeg

I've "noticed" this, but I think it's selective memory bias. When you hit one like this, you're already frustrated, so cases where your careless whack has a good result stand out as evidence that the stars are aligned against you. When one misses badly, it's not memorable because you weren't expecting a good result.

There's probably some element of truth to it---our reflex/instinct system is remarkably good. But, unless you're really severely over-thinking things, I doubt that you'd be better, on average, not to make any attempt at reading. However, on putts you're not likely to make and where the complexity/uncertainty of the read is more than you can handle intellectually, this is the innate skill we rely on. In those cases, you're probably going to miss anyway, so you might as well trust your instincts.

This is sort of off topic, but...

I agree if you're talking about literally no read, or totally cursory read (as you're walking to the ball, think, "Looks vaguely left to right"), then it's probably selective memory.  But if you tend to think a lot about each putt all the way to sitting over the ball for a long time even after final setup, I agree that forcing yourself to hit quicker than feels comfortable can be very useful.  When I started doing my normal read but then stepping over the ball, looking once, quickly, at my aiming point, then stroking it, my putting got significantly better.

This helped me not only for long low-percentage putts but also for short makable putts.  If you've ingrained solid (for your HC at least) putting mechanics, you do better going quickly enough to force yourself to concentrate only on where you want to hit the ball and relying on muscle memory to have your stroke hit the ball as consistently to that spot as you're capable.

[Topper]

Watching a foursome of recreational golfers during a "friendly round" on the green go through the process:  mark, lift ball, clean, replace, determine their new line and align their ball, lift mark, and repeat until putted out.  Times 4 golfers and times the number of putts needed to hole-out.

[hendog]

  mdl said:

Originally Posted by mdl

This is sort of off topic, but...

I agree if you're talking about literally no read, or totally cursory read (as you're walking to the ball, think, "Looks vaguely left to right"), then it's probably selective memory.  But if you tend to think a lot about each putt all the way to sitting over the ball for a long time even after final setup, I agree that forcing yourself to hit quicker than feels comfortable can be very useful.  When I started doing my normal read but then stepping over the ball, looking once, quickly, at my aiming point, then stroking it, my putting got significantly better.

This helped me not only for long low-percentage putts but also for short makable putts.  If you've ingrained solid (for your HC at least) putting mechanics, you do better going quickly enough to force yourself to concentrate only on where you want to hit the ball and relying on muscle memory to have your stroke hit the ball as consistently to that spot as you're capable.

I did the no look putting thing for a while when I would play practice rounds and was focusing on tee to green but for whatever reason I didn't feel like taking a bunch of time on the green. I would just step up and putt using that vague read. I also found that my putts were much better and started to insert that into my game but much like mdl said, take time to get a read, but then step up, look and go. My putting has gotten much better and the longer I take over the ball the worse I putt. Nerves I guess. Tension that causes me to be unable to hold my line. I'm basically down to a grip and rip approach but for putting.

[sean_miller]

On the tee. Have a good idea which club to use before you get there. Don't dawdle over one club difference. You're not going to hit either of them exactly perfect anyway. Just get the ball out there in play.  Get off the teebox and let the next person have a turn. Nobody cares what you were thinking about or how the shot felt. It's either in play or it isn't - keep an eye on where it went.

Approach shots - either take a quick laser shot (for example) or pace distance as you approach your ball. Pull a club, take a quick look, a small waggle, and fire. What's with all the pre-shot mumbo jumbo these days? Just hit the ball already, then find it and do it again.

As you approach the green keep in mind the direction you'll be leaving it on the way to the next hole. Swing by and set your stuff on that line - you can pace off your putt or look at the hole from the other side while you do this.

Once on the green. Get ready to putt while you're others are milling about then when it's your turn, just do it. Putt then putt again if you didn't hole out. No tricks or tips on the green will ever save more time than continuous putting.

If someone else didn't already grab the flag, do it. Count your sticks with bag on back on the way to the next tee. Whoever has honours should be easy enough to determine and if they're not ready, ask if they'd mind if you go first. Don't assume etiquette was flushed down the clubhouse loo any more than the rule book was. Be quick about things, but when there isn't enough time to treat the game and your playing partners with respect, then there isn't enough time to play.

[MMiller]

  Volchok said:

Originally Posted by Volchok

I don't think it's juvenile to ask someone if they're on crack, if you suspect it? BTW, it's not always the smart play to lay up, because an unsuccessful shot can become an lay up. And just so you know, even though the driver is the longest club in the bag, everyone doesn't hit it the longest.

I'm curious as to why it is in the bag then?

[colin007]

  MMiller said:

I'm curious as to why it is in the bag then?

Ego?

[Golfingdad]

  sean_miller said:

Originally Posted by sean_miller

On the tee. Have a good idea which club to use before you get there. Don't dawdle over one club difference. You're not going to hit either of them exactly perfect anyway. Just get the ball out there in play.  Get off the teebox and let the next person have a turn. Nobody cares what you were thinking about or how the shot felt. It's either in play or it isn't - keep an eye on where it went.

Approach shots - either take a quick laser shot (for example) or pace distance as you approach your ball. Pull a club, take a quick look, a small waggle, and fire. What's with all the pre-shot mumbo jumbo these days? Just hit the ball already, then find it and do it again.

As you approach the green keep in mind the direction you'll be leaving it on the way to the next hole. Swing by and set your stuff on that line - you can pace off your putt or look at the hole from the other side while you do this.

Once on the green. Get ready to putt while you're others are milling about then when it's your turn, just do it. Putt then putt again if you didn't hole out. No tricks or tips on the green will ever save more time than continuous putting.

If someone else didn't already grab the flag, do it. Count your sticks with bag on back on the way to the next tee. Whoever has honours should be easy enough to determine and if they're not ready, ask if they'd mind if you go first. Don't assume etiquette was flushed down the clubhouse loo any more than the rule book was. Be quick about things, but when there isn't enough time to treat the game and your playing partners with respect, then there isn't enough time to play.

Everything Sean wrote here is golden (seriously, you don't need to read anything else in this thread) ... but specifically the bolded part.  I can sympathize with people playing slowly tee to green because, lets face it, most of us stink, and there are balls getting lost, and people taking 4, 5 or 6 shots just to get to the green, people getting stuck in a bunker, etc.

However, there is nothing more aggravating than standing in a fairway twirlng your club, while watching the tee, then fairway, on the hole in front of you clear out, all the while the group in front of you is still on the green - line up, putt, mark, line up, putt, mark, line up, putt, mark, 8 times over - mimicking PGA pros.  Argh!

EDIT:  Whoops, my bad, I just noticed up above ... Topper deserves the credit for already pointing this out as well.

[Volchok]

  MMiller said:

Originally Posted by MMiller

I'm curious as to why it is in the bag then?

Not speaking for myself, but my friend has a better distance average with is 3-wood than with his driver. He shoot about 260 yards with his 3-wood and 280 yards with his driver. The problem is that he shoots one 280 yard drive per round, and the rest are 220 yard drives with a slice. And no, he's not a bad player (hcp around 8-9), but just so much more consistent with the 3-wood. We were just out playing last week and he shot a round of 86. After that round I suggested that he'd leave his driver home. He shot a 79 only using his 3-wood. Although he shot under 80, he's still going with the driver next round. Seems to be an addiction to hit that club perfectly.

Still you see alot of these players that tee off with a driver, "just to tee off with a driver".

[DocWu1948]

  scv76 said:

Originally Posted by scv76

- not too sure about this one...I have to play from the the whites in our club due to my high hdcp while others are playing the blues..I feel very unsafe prematurely moving up the path to the white position while someone is teeing off behind me. Seen too many oops shots in my life to risk it

I often play with gals and guys that play off  tees ahead of me.  I think you better wait at the blues until it's time to go forward. Not safe, and disconcerting to anyone who isn't a touring Pro to see someone there.

Playing efficiently means at least a separate pair of eyes watching to see where the ball lands. If I am partnered with someone playing a tee behind me, I will go back there too because that's the only place I can track ball flight,