Become a Good Putter

Anyone can become a Good Putter, why not you?

You don't have to be a John Daly to be a good putter. You don't have to be a Brad Faxon either. All you need is some simple skills in order to get your short game in order to become a good putter.

How important is putting? Take a look at this:

Par	Driving	Irons	Putting
3	0 shots - 0%	1 shot - 33%	2 shots - 67%
4	1 shot - 25%	1 shot - 25%	2 shots - 50%
5	1 shot - 20%	2 shots - 40%	2 shots - 40%

On a typical Par 72 course you will face 4 par 3's, 4 par 5's, and 10 par 4's. So it will look like this

Driving	Irons	Putting
14 shots - 19%	22 shots - 31%	36 shots - 50%

If the course is a par 70 then you should have the same amount of putts but have less strokes. This puts your putting to 51%.

If there was something that was worth 50-51% of my game as recommended by the USGA, I would practice it.

Now lets get realistic.

Lets say that you are a typical 20 handicap player. That is 20 shots over par for an average of 92. Sound like you? Of those shots you probably have several bad drives that cost you distance. A few off target iron shots that do not hit the green, then you are left with a situation where you have to chip and putt a lot. The pros can get up and down from all those nasty lies on courses that are made to be difficult about 58% of the time. This means that they take one chip and a putt.

When you get good at putting you will be able to get 50% up and downs from around the green. So instead of chipping and two putting now you are chipping and one putting. This reduces your putts by 18 if you miss every green (and most golfers do).

Just think. 18 Putts less. That would bring your score from a 92 to a 74. Whoa.

A little exaggerated? Maybe for some. But what if you became a good putter? What if you could shave 10 putts off your game? What if you did not three putt in a single round? What if you did not three putt in 10 rounds? How many strokes would you shave off your game?

One last question for you. How good would you be if you could make every 6 foot putt? That is the real key to good putting. It is not that the pros hit every 3 foot putt. It is that they make 90% of their 6 foot putts.

Making 90% of your 6 foot putts lets you be more aggressive, which means more made putts. If you miss. Big deal. If you hit 90% of your 6 footers then having a putt that is close gives you a really good chance of making the comeback putt.

The point is many players try to get the ball close to the hole. This many times leaves them with tricky putts because the did not hit it hard enough, or they hit it too hard. Then you have the difficult 3-5 foot putt on the way back. You know what? Yes they miss them.

But if you hit every 6 foot putt you could turn around and drain them time after time. And guess what? Some of those long ones will go in because you are trying to make them.

So join our free newsletter, get 5 steps to becoming a better putter free, and get on your way to being a good putter.

After that subscribe to our blog and get weekly tips on how you can improve your golf game. We will focus mostly on putting, but of course we will talk about what it takes to be a good all around player too.

So good luck, and Good Putting. Hope to see you on the links sometime soon.

Coach Kip.

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