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Are You Making Your Share of Long Putts?
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Imagine the following situation… you’re 35 feet from the hole facing a downhill putt that breaks from left to right.
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Get down in two and you shoot your lowest score of the season. All you have to do is nudge the putt up to the hole and nail the tap-in for a par.
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You size up the putt and then... send it about 5 feet by the hole. Two putts back and you end up with a bogey, again.
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Why is it that this seems to happen all the time? How come it’s so difficult to eliminate three putt greens?
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Well, first of all, most of us have read conflicting advice about how to approach putts longer than 20 feet. What’s more, a lot of advice on how to deal with long putts dates from the 1960’s when greens were much slower.
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Today, agronomy has become a more exact science and even municipal courses have much faster greens. You need to be able to adjust to different conditions and different types of greens to putt well.
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Unless you have a clear idea about how to handle longer distances, you’ll never be effective from long range.
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Two theories dominate instruction on how to approach long putts...
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To start with, you have two camps when it comes to approaching long putts; those that advocate lagging the ball to the hole, and those that take an aggressive “never up, never in” approach.
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Lag putters want the ball to die as it reaches the hole, while aggressive putters focus on making sure they hit it hard enough to have the ball go beyond the hole if it misses. The reason? Putts that stop short of the hole have no chance of going in.
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Which of these two methods should you follow when sizing up long putts? Read along with me, and I’ll share a few ideas with you...
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1. Putts that die at the cup “widen the hole”.
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While it’s true that putts that don’t reach the cup can’t go in, putts that travel too fast can’t drop either. A putt that would travel four feet past the hole has to be center cut in order to drop. At faster speeds? The ball simply will not go in.
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Aggressive putters feel that faster putts hold their line better, and in some cases that may be true. But unless your line is well read, you’ll leave yourself more putts outside the important “3 foot range”. That can only increase the number of three putts.
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Aggressive putts usually have about half of the cup available to catch the ball. Lag putts have from two thirds to 100% of the hole available to them. That’s a much better percentage play.
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2. Imperfections in the green can throw putts off-line.
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Any defect in the putting surface will affect a putt near the hole. Aggressive putters feel faster putts overcome surface imperfections better, keeping putts on line.
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What does this mean? It means there will be times when you have trade-offs between having a “wider cup”, by lag putting, and dealing with footprints and other surface defects.
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Imperfections near the hole were more of a problem in the 1960’s. So it’s not surprising that most advocates of aggressive speeds putted on greens during the ’50s and ’60s. A good example of an aggressive putter is Arnold Palmer.
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If you play on municipal layouts with lush greens to prevent wear and tear, you probably want to putt aggressively for a couple of reasons:
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>> You’ll putt through footprints and depressions keeping putts online.
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>> And you want make sure you give yourself every chance to reach the cup.
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What about 90% of the rest of the greens you’ll play on? My theory is that you’ll do far better by lag putting.
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Lag putting is not aiming at a 6 foot circle around the cup...
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Almost every golfer has read about lagging putts to a 6 foot circle around the cup. That image is supposed to ease tension by giving you a bigger target to focus on.
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It’s also used because putts of about three feet in length fall within almost everyone’s comfort zone. Most of us begin having trouble when putts reach a length of four feet.
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My take? I think the 6 foot circle causes most players to get sloppy; the concept that you should aim for a big target doesn’t hold water. Aiming squarely at the hole narrows your focus and increases the chances of your getting the right speed.
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Another reason to use the hole as your target? Any mistakes on judging the line are magnified from long distance, and a big target doesn’t emphasize reading the break.
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In short, lag putting helps you develop better distance control. It also helps you use more of the cup. That should translate into more putts made from longer distances while minimizing long putts coming back.
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What about an equipment change for help on longer putts?
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Are you comfortable with short and medium range putts, but have trouble with distance control from long range? If that’s the case, you may want to look at going with a short putter.
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A good example of a player with exceptional distance control on long putts is Phil Mickelson. He uses a putter that’s very short for his stature and that allows his arms to extend while addressing the ball.
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Try going with a length of 32” or 33”. See if you don’t get a better sense of the right speed on longer putts.
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A word of caution…going with these lengths means you want to find a putter head that has more heft. The short length changes a putter’s balance point and the added head weight keeps the overall balance where it should be.
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Summing things up...
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Most of the time you’ll be better off lag putting and focusing on the hole as your primary target. Too many courses today have greens that are just not friendly for aggressive putters.
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My advice? Build better distance control by zeroing in on the cup. The 6 foot circle just gets you into bad habits and more three putt greens. Find a flatsick you’re comfortable with and start hitting the practice green!
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