| |
Main
Date: 29 Oct 2006 16:32:49
From: Larry Bud
Subject: Puttings drills for the winter
|
I would like to work on my putting for next year. While I am better
this year (ave 32.09 vs. 32.41, even as my GIR went up), I had 7.8%
greens in which I 3 jacked.
So I can approach this in two ways: Increase my lag putting, or get
better from 4-5 feet so that when I do make a bad first putt, I can
still recover.
Any suggestions for good drills? I was thinking of making some of the
Pelz gadgets.
|
|
| |
Date: 29 Oct 2006 21:56:17
From: Mike Dalecki
Subject: Re: Puttings drills for the winter
|
Larry Bud wrote:
> I would like to work on my putting for next year. While I am better
> this year (ave 32.09 vs. 32.41, even as my GIR went up), I had 7.8%
> greens in which I 3 jacked.
>
> So I can approach this in two ways: Increase my lag putting, or get
> better from 4-5 feet so that when I do make a bad first putt, I can
> still recover.
>
> Any suggestions for good drills? I was thinking of making some of the
> Pelz gadgets.
>
This isn't a drill necessarily for winter, but a way to get your lag
putts closer, at least, it works for me that way.
In one of his books, Rotella talks about getting touch before a round by
putting to the fringe. I try to do this whenever I warm up before a
round, to get the feel for green speed. I putt from the fringe on one
side of the practice green to the other (or some reasonably long
distance that approximates what I might have as a long putt that day).
I'm trying, when I do that, to leave the putt just at the fringe, no
longer nor any shorter.
The advantage as Rotella sees it is that you're not worrying about
making a putt, merely trying to gauge distance well enough to leave the
ball at the distance the hole is. All I'm trying to do when I do the
drill is feel the distance, ingrain the speed of the green in my
subconscious.
I find this really works well for me. What also helps is walking off a
really long putt (it helps put the distance in my subconscious).
I rather doubt there's much you can do as a lag-putt drill during the
winter if you can't putt long distances to gauge distance.
BTW, to me there are good and bad 3-putts. If you just sneak a ball on
a par 5 green in two, but it's 90 feet from the hole, and you can't get
down in two, well, that's not so bad. If you're 3-putting from 30 feet,
that's not so good. And if 3-putt because you ended up above the hole
on a slippery green, and can't hold the ball by the hole because it
rolls 15 feet past the hole and you miss the comebacker, that's not
really a 3-putt problem. The problem is the shot that deposited the
ball above the hole.
So to me, Larry, it depends on *why* you're 3-putting as to what you
should do. Not all 3-putts are created equally; some are bad putting,
but others can be a function of other, non-putting-related things.
Mike
|
| |
Date: 30 Oct 2006 07:27:39
From: S McFarlane
Subject: Re: Puttings drills for the winter
|
"Larry Bud" <larrybud2002@yahoo.com > wrote in message
news:1162168369.597365.166140@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com...
>I would like to work on my putting for next year. While I am better
> this year (ave 32.09 vs. 32.41, even as my GIR went up), I had 7.8%
> greens in which I 3 jacked.
>
> So I can approach this in two ways: Increase my lag putting, or get
> better from 4-5 feet so that when I do make a bad first putt, I can
> still recover.
>
> Any suggestions for good drills? I was thinking of making some of the
> Pelz gadgets.
>
Lag, lag, lag! Getting rid of bad long putts is the quickest way to
reducing the 3 putts. The problem with concentrating on the 4-5 footers is
that
1. luck plays a disproportionate role in how successful you are at making
them. No way to practise luck that I know of.
2. the skill involved in making them is all about alignment and trueness of
stroke. But how well you are aligning and the purity of your stroke can be
best judged by making longer putts (assuming you don't go with the Pelz
gadgets $$$).
If I three-putt a green from 60 feet because I missed a 4-footer, then I
cannot be sure that I did anything wrong. If I three-putt from 60 feet
because I miss a 10 footer, then I know I blew it. Think about your
three-putts. Do most of them result from misses inside of 5 feet, or from
farther out?
A Pelz drill for lags: 3 putts from 40 feet, 3 from 60 feet, and 3 from 50
feet. Goal is within 4 feet, 6 feet, and 5 feet respectively. Repeat 3
times. Then 3 final putts from 60 feet. If all three are within 6 feet,
you're done. If not repeat 3 from 60 until they're all within 6 feet.
Scott
|
| |
Date: 30 Oct 2006 21:00:34
From: Dave Lee
Subject: Re: Puttings drills for the winter
|
"Larry Bud" <larrybud2002@yahoo.com > wrote in message
news:1162168369.597365.166140@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com...
> I would like to work on my putting for next year. While I am better
> this year (ave 32.09 vs. 32.41, even as my GIR went up), I had 7.8%
> greens in which I 3 jacked.
>
> So I can approach this in two ways: Increase my lag putting, or get
> better from 4-5 feet so that when I do make a bad first putt, I can
> still recover.
>
> Any suggestions for good drills? I was thinking of making some of the
> Pelz gadgets.
>
I'm fortunate to live in an area where golf can be played (barely)
year-round. If I were stuck indoors over the winter and interested in
improved my putting, I would probably build a device similar to Pelz' "truth
board" or whatever he calls that thing that is basically a putter-width box.
It would seem to me that practicing putting on exactly the line that you
have chosen would be helpful.
Now that we are approaching winter with the sun pretty low all year, I plan
to spend alot of time on the flat portion of our putting green putting short
putts 'up the shadow' of those little flag-like thingeys that they use to
mark the cups.
dave
|
|
