Putting

[Kalnoky]

3 minutes ago, Shindig said:

What's your strokes gained/lost on putting?  I think that's a far more meaningful statistic than putts per round.

Do you mean against the men's club, or the group? The truth is I don't know.. I feel like they are constantly sending me out with single digit 'cappers and I putt just as well as they do, if not better. Putting is just something I understood from day one. 

[Shindig]

Just now, Kalnoky said:

Do you mean against the men's club, or the group? The truth is I don't know.. I feel like they are constantly sending me out with single digit 'cappers and I putt just as well as they do, if not better. Putting is just something I understood from day one. 

Either in absolute numbers or compared to a nearby handicap.  If you have a GameGolf, it'll tell you.  

If you take 32 putts but start on each green 8' from the cup, 32 isn't that great.  If you take 32 putts but start on each green 30' from the cup, 32 is amazing.  

[Kalnoky]

2 minutes ago, Shindig said:

Either in absolute numbers or compared to a nearby handicap.  If you have a GameGolf, it'll tell you.  

If you take 32 putts but start on each green 8' from the cup, 32 isn't that great.  If you take 32 putts but start on each green 30' from the cup, 32 is amazing.  

Hmm. Interesting. That makes sense though. I don't have Game Golf, I guess I should look into it. Do you guys trust the GPS on your phones? I was fooling with it recently and it takes too long to figure out where I'm standing. I just don't trust it.

[DaveP043]

3 minutes ago, Kalnoky said:

Hmm. Interesting. That makes sense though. I don't have Game Golf, I guess I should look into it. Do you guys trust the GPS on your phones? I was fooling with it recently and it takes too long to figure out where I'm standing. I just don't trust it.

You could pace off and record distances and number of putts, and work it out that way.  I know someone (sorry, not me) can get you the appropriate reference stats for your handicap range. 

[Kalnoky]

2 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

You could pace off and record distances and number of putts, and work it out that way.  I know someone (sorry, not me) can get you the appropriate reference stats for your handicap range. 

Thanks for explaining fellas, I will accept that challenge. I'd like to know where I stand. @billchao suggested that putting came naturally to some, and I just wanted to add my .02, since I think I'm in this group. I do practice putting a lot, but only because I enjoy it.

Where I am getting murdered is off the tee. I am driving 195-215 and being out-driven by 40 yards and losing to people by 10 strokes, regardless of what happens on the green.  

[iacas]

46 minutes ago, Kalnoky said:

Do you mean against the men's club, or the group? The truth is I don't know.. I feel like they are constantly sending me out with single digit 'cappers and I putt just as well as they do, if not better. Putting is just something I understood from day one. 

32 isn't bad, but it's not awesome, either.

Especially being a 13.6 index and missing a lot of greens in regulation, and having your first putt often be after a chip or pitch shot.

[Shindig]

1 hour ago, Kalnoky said:

Hmm. Interesting. That makes sense though. I don't have Game Golf, I guess I should look into it. Do you guys trust the GPS on your phones? I was fooling with it recently and it takes too long to figure out where I'm standing. I just don't trust it.

I don't trust the battery on my phone to last during a round of golf.

The GG keeps track of everything I want to track during a round and I don't have much to think about related to it during a round.  The non-live version (which I think is pretty much how I use my live) is under $100 on Amazon now.

Back to the topic:  I used to think I was a good putter, except the long ones that I would occasionally hit fat or top (yes, really).  GG really showed me that I'm not that good and, even when I was a 13 hcp, I was losing something like 2 strokes per round putting compared to an average 20 handicap.  Now I'm almost to the point where I lose less than 1 stroke to a 20 handicap on putting... and last round, I gained .04 versus a 15 handicap.  

So it's measurable improvement on the course, in addition to whatever I record from practice drills. 

[klineka]

Is there a way to figure out strokes gained/lost via putting without Gamegolf? I have been toying with the idea of getting gamegolf as well. I love analyzing statistics and numbers related to sports.

FWIW I am a slightly higher handicap than you @Kalnoky and for the 15 full 18 hole rounds this year I have keep count of, I am averaging 34 putts per round. Most of the time I get GIR, I am 20-40 feet from the hole so I dont expect to make many of those. Unfortunately a decent amount of my pitches are in that 8-15 ft range so I still dont make too many of those either. The positive is I rarely 3 putt, so for me as much as I think I need to work on putting, what will really reduce the number of putts per round for me is decreasing the proximity to the hole.

 

[No Mulligans]

11 minutes ago, Shindig said:

I don't trust the battery on my phone to last during a round of golf.

The GG keeps track of everything I want to track during a round and I don't have much to think about related to it during a round.  The non-live version (which I think is pretty much how I use my live) is under $100 on Amazon now.

Back to the topic:  I used to think I was a good putter, except the long ones that I would occasionally hit fat or top (yes, really).  GG really showed me that I'm not that good and, even when I was a 13 hcp, I was losing something like 2 strokes per round putting compared to an average 20 handicap.  Now I'm almost to the point where I lose less than 1 stroke to a 20 handicap on putting... and last round, I gained .04 versus a 15 handicap.  

So it's measurable improvement on the course, in addition to whatever I record from practice drills. 

Have the Game Golf putting stats been fixed?

The stroke gain info in the past sucked on GG as many of the users didn't edit their putts, i.e. much of the data was garbage.  The fix would be to somehow filter out the bad data.  Not sure that has been done though.

[iacas]

29 minutes ago, No Mulligans said:

Have the Game Golf putting stats been fixed?

A long time ago. We made a big deal of it at the time. Well, ten or twenty posts about it.

[Buckeyebowman]

I love guys who describe putting as "easy"! Golf is hard, and so is putting!

The other day I played a round with my buddy where I putted like gangbusters, but didn't make a damned thing! The putts would approach the hole and either "straighten out" or "turn away", and I'd end up burning the edge!

So what was I supposed to do? Bitch about it? No! I was very happy with the way I putted that day. The greens were very difficult, I read the line and speed quite well, and I came close a lot of times!

I'm not a Tour pro, so what more could I expect?!

[iacas]

6 minutes ago, Buckeyebowman said:

I love guys who describe putting as "easy"! Golf is hard, and so is putting!

Putting is relatively easy.

After all, my grandma's made a 20-foot putt. She's never hit a driver 290 yards or hit a green from 183 yards from a sidehill lie.

[The Hook Meister]

I know how to read greens, and I can pretty well guess the distance, but some days I couldn't tell how hard to hit the ball to save my life. Putting is very funny that way, I had someone tell me to slow down when I am lining up my putt so now I take a deep breath before I start just to rewind myself, it even helps some days.