My woes of short putts

I struggle with putting… in particular short putting… this has been an achilles heel of mine for a number of years. I have had the yips, miss all left, over compensated and now missing right… Its been debilitating on rounds with a good score and the most annoying thing has been psychologically I feel there has been this limiting thing that this should be easy (some would say the easiest of it all) and I feel even after practice I have felt no more confident of holing short putts. 

To rectify this issue I went and got fitted for a putter @Clubchampionuk in Glasgow. This was a big thing as I have never had a fitting before and in hindsight… should have done this years ago. I was fitted by Joe Hughes (Hi Joe) for irons and also a putter using the SAM Lab technology. 

This was my statistic:  

Quote from Joe: "This is the worst consistency stat I have seen of a player with a single figure handicap."  

I laughed hard to inevitably hide from the crippling insufficiency I have of myself. 😂

I was recommended an EVNROL EV5.2. The most expensive club I have ever had but I am committed to getting better at golf and if this is the way. THIS IS THE WAY! (Mandolorian fans will get this…) 

Yes, there is lots I am missing here about toe hang and face balance, degrees of loft, length etc but lets be honest I am not interested in this. I am no expert on this, I am interested in getting better at golf and the experts can tell me what fits me. I trusted Joe and well here we are with a new putter continuing that process. 

3 foot circle drill. 

It’s important to understand that roughly 43% of your strokes are on the putting green, regardless of skill level. I will be using stats from the 2019 PGA TOUR Season, Y-T-D June, 2 2019.

Let’s start with the “Approach Putt Performance” stats. The best lag putter at the moment is Ernie Els with 1’10” (when this video was shot). That is the average distance to the hole after his first putt.  The worst lag putter on tour finishes at 2’8″ from the hole on average.

Now let’s take into account the “Putting From 3 Feet” stats. The top 23 guys are 100% from 3 feet and the rest of the field averages 99% from 3 feet.

Thinking about putting I watched this video from Phil Mickelson talking about Putting and a specific putting drill he does when practicing. Video is below…

He states that Professional Golfers convert a putt inside: 

3 feet: 99-100% of the time

4 feet:  89% 

5 feet: 75%

6 feet: 55%

This is a big fall off which you would expect. But this only emphasises the obvious, “ITS NOT HOW WELL YOU PUTT, ITS WHERE YOU PUTT FROM!” 

The aim in every long distance putt is to get into the 3ft circle as a professional golfer. As Phil states, if he gets a ball into the 3ft circle around the hole he almost guarantees only having to hit one more shot. 

As an amateur golfer, the more I think about this the more straight forward putting could be if working on these two aspects. I don’t expect become a tour player but...

My 3 ft putts are dire… however I am reasonable a lagging to the correct 3 ft circle. If I work on my 3ft putts and boost that stat up personally my putting woes would be almost over. and not have to putt more stress on my lag putting. 

I will have to record a video update of this…