Stroke Saver: When Good Putting Goes Bad

We’ve all been there. That round where everything goes just right. The perfect drive followed by that pitching wedge that settles 10 feet from the flag. You mark your ball as everyone that is outside of you takes their first putts. You take your time and get a good read on the break, you visualize the line and line up the putter head and stroke that perfect putt towards the hole. You watch it roll along the line, breaking perfectly towards the hole, only to have it stop breaking in the last few feet and roll 3 feet past. You confidently walk to the cup to tap in your par putt knowing you gave it a great run. You line up again, and tap in the 3 foot putt only to have it break below the hole and lip out again. You tap the ball in from the two inches away that it settled and walk off the green frustrated at a ‘horrible’ three putt. And so it begins.

There is nothing, and  I mean nothing worse than holes like this for a golfer’s confidence. To cover 400 yards in two gorgeous shots only to take 3 to finish the last 10 feet will kill a game faster than you can believe. Overcoming the first 3 putt is always tough, but when a string starts going, it’s even harder. In my last round, I netted a monstrous 39 putts. That’s about 7 strokes worse than usual, and they weren’t even that hard of putts to start with. I had a long 40 footer on the 4th hole that should have been an easy par, but I tried to just “lag it close” and ended up leaving it about 10 feet short. I told myself to, “Be aggressive next time and that won’t happen again.” So I was. I pushed on through the next 6 holes before I did it again on the 11th. Long first putt, over 50 feet, which I again, left short by over 10 feet. “Gotta get the next one to the hole.” So on the 12th, I left myself a manageable 30 footer for birdie, which ended up going 10 feet past the hole, because I “had to get it there.” I then went into salvage mode and started aiming at a larger target to prevent another 3 putt and my chances of score well were done.

As I covered last week, putting is made up of three parts. You need to have all three parts working well to be successful. You need to read it, roll it and hole it. When you fail to do any of the three, your game is going to suffer. In my case, I had the read, I had the roll – most of the time, but I wasn’t able to hole it. By the end of that 4th hole, with 2 lip outs and that horrible three putt, I had all but given up on my putter for the day. Keep in mind, I had a solid 2 putt on 1, another on 2 and another on three. It wasn’t a bad putting round yet, it just wasn’t spectacular. That three putt on the 4th hole completely changed my mindset about my putter and it was all moving downhill from there. The question is, how do you stay positive about your putter when it starts costing you strokes.

First, go back to your routine, no matter what. Practice how you putt, and how you set up to putt. If you are a ball marker, ALWAYS mark your ball, even on practice putts. If you are a 2 practice stroke person, take two practice strokes. If you like to read the putt from both sides of the hole, do it quickly, but do it. You paid for the round, play your round. Never break your routine once you have it established. If you have a bad hole, your routine may snap you right back on track on the next one. It’s just like a bad drive or a chunked wedge – you don’t just stop practice swinging all your clubs when a full swing goes wrong – so don’t do that with your putter either.

Next, keep everything the same until you see a pattern in the results. Don’t let one bumpy green or misread on a putt destroy your game. We all misread or mishit something at some point, so there’s no point in killing yourself over it. If you leave one short, that’s ok, just go back to normal on the next putt. If you start to leave everything short, you’re probably on a slow set of greens and you need to pick up the pace a bit. Give yourself 3 or 4 greens to make up for that, especially if you are playing a morning round where they may still be damp. Also, never depend on someone else’s line for your putt. If your balls are right next to each other and there’s no break on their putt, but you see it, play the break as you read it, not as their putt that didn’t go in rolled. At least you can blame your read for the miss rather than it, “Not doing what their putt did.”

Lastly, one shot does not ruin a round. Everyone, even the tour professionals hit crappy shots during a round. Realistically, if we didn’t, we would shoot an 18 under par score and that’s never happened before. The issue with putting is that is seems so close, you we need to remember that the target gets so much smaller. For example, on a drive, we have a 100 foot target to hit at. On approach, we have about 65 feet to shoot at. Putting, we have about 3 inches. The margin for error is much smaller with putting, so even if we hit a great shot and miss it by an inch, it’s a tap in at that point. Don’t start going back to a lag putt mentality and make the target bigger because that will just lead to larger misses. If anything, tighten up your target to a half of the hole and push to make it. The smaller the target, the smaller the area you have to miss it.

Bad putting doesn’t have to ruin your game, but it certainly can if you let it get into your head. Some days it just doesn’t matter what you do, the ball just won’t find the bottom of the cup. Other days, you’ll find the opposite where you just can’t miss from inside 10 feet. That’s where golf is won and lost, inside 10 feet. So, put down the, “Need to buy a new putter talk,” and go work those 10 foot putts. Your confidence will be back in no time and so will those lower scores.

Equipment Deals: New Clubs At Worldwide Golf Shops, Cleveland Wedges And Titleist Balls

While they aren’t quite my typical Monday deals, the new 2017 drivers, putters,  irons and wedges at Worldwide Golf Shops are ready to pre-order and start shipping later this month. First up is the new Titleist 917 drivers and fairway woods are coming in late October and are $499.99 and $319.99 respectively. The 4 new models of Scotty Cameron putters will be joining the shops online shelves on September 23rd and will be $379.99. Also coming before the end of September will be the new Big Bertha Fusion driver and Big Bertha OS irons/hybrids from Callaway. Mizuno will also be joining in the September release party with the new JPX 900 irons and T7 wedges. Both of these will be hitting stores on September 16th. Finally, Cleveland will have their RTX 3 wedges landing online on the 16th as well. The new wedges will have a list price of $129.99 for the steel shafted models or $139.99 for the graphite version.

Of course, it’s not really an equipment deal Monday unless I find you a few killer deals, right? How about select Cleveland Tour Action wedges for $59.99 to $79.99. Ranging from the 50 degree Gap Wedge to the 60 degree Lob Wedge, there’s one to fill just about any hole in your wedge game, all at a pretty decent savings.

The final saver of the day is for refurbished (read cleaned up and not horribly scuffed) Titleist Pro V1 or Pro V1x balls. These normally run over $45 ($3.75 per ball) a dozen new. These refurbished balls will set you back far less than half that coming in at just $19.99 a dozen. This also includes Prime shipping for those that have Amazon Prime memberships. If you’re looking for a steal on a top performing ball for the wetter months, this is a great way to make it through the winter playing a big dollar ball without spending much money.

Playing A Round: Riverbend Golf Complex, Kent, WA

Ever have one of those rounds where nothing seems to go right, yet, at the end of the day it doesn’t turn out as bad as it should have? Well, that was yesterday’s round of 79 at Riverbend Golf Complex in Kent, WA. With my new FG Tour 100’s in the bag and a new wedge, I wasn’t expecting too much in the way of scoring, but I was very excited to get the 100’s on the course since they will be my gamers going into tournament season next year. The weather was chilled and the air was heavy, but after a quick warm-up on the putting green, I felt ready to roll. Off to the first tee!

We waited what seemed like hours for the group in front to clear the fairway. We were playing an early bird round to save a few bucks this week, so we didn’t get the benefit of warming up at the range. Makes me wish some of these courses would just put in a net next to the first tee box to hit a few shots into. That said, the first shot of the day was sort of an ugly pull/hook landed about 190 yards out into the trees. Not a great opening shot at all. This was followed by a completely opposite PW that found the center of the green, 25 feet from the pin. A quick two putts and my round was off to a great start. The second hole played just as easy, for the second time in a row. My 268 yard drive found the right center of the fairway. I then nailed my new wedge a perfect 132 yards to within about 15 feet of the flag. 2 more putts and we are rolling. Then the par 5 third rolled in to play. My drive found the trees on the right and was knocked down at 200 yards off the tee. I should have pulled a simple 7 iron out and simply put the ball back in the middle of the fairway, but with the new sticks, I wanted to see what they could or couldn’t do. Mental note: the three iron will not carry 235 over the water… After a penalty drop, my 5 iron fell short and right of the green for a chip up and two putt double bogey. I was 3 over after 3 holes.

On the fourth hole, my drive found the right center of the fairway again, leaving me a solid PW into the green. This time, I left my first putt short of the hole and lipped out the second. A three putt bogey finished out that hole. On the par 3 fifth, I managed to land my gap wedge on the left edge of the green and make a quick two putt for an easy par which let me move on to the 6th with some good momentum. For the first time in forever, my drive, although it was short, found the fairway. A 5 iron down to the corner left me with a strong 9 iron to the green. Two more putts and I was still just 3 over par after 6.

A booming drive on the short par 4 seventh left me with a partial wedge into the green. A short lob wedge and two putts netted me another par, my fourth in a row. The par 3 eighth didn’t put up much of a fight once again this round. A very solid 165 yard 7 iron landed on the front edge of the green. My birdie putt grazed the hole once again, which left me with a tap in par. To finish out the front side, I hit a gorgeous drive on the ninth. I then managed to catch a lob wedge heavy and leave it about 30 yards short of the green. Another pitch close to the hole left me with a makeable putt for par, but again, it burned the edge of the hole and I tapped in for bogey. I finished the front side at 4 over.

I started off the backside of the course the same as the front, or close to it. I blasted my drive left into the trees leaving myself a very long second shot. I hit a perfectly fading 4 iron from under the trees to the right side of the green. 2 putts later, I walked away with another par. Ah, the 11th, home of my heroic 3 iron from the last round. This time, things didn’t work out so well for me. Again, my drive found the right trees, but this time it actually rolled through them just enough to really create an issue. I tried the punch again, just to move the ball closer to the green, but I caught a tree dead solid that managed to kick the ball backwards about 50 yards. I pulled an 8 iron out trying to clear the trees and still reach the green, which luckily I did. From where I was, which was a different zip code than the flag, I ran my first putt down to about 12 feet. I then lipped out the second one, which left me with a double bogey. The 12th was also less than kind today as my perfect drive was followed up by a wedge that landed right of the green. A chip on and two putts left me with a bogey on 12 and a 7 over round.

For the rest of the round, things settled down. I found the green on 13 with a fading 9 iron. Two putts and a par was a welcomed result there. 14 played more text book for me today with a left center drive, nicely laid up 7 iron and a SW to the green. Two putts again and another par was in the books. My play on 15 made me very happy as well. I love it when I can take the tougher holes on this course and write one line about them because of how simple I was able to play them. Fifteen was basically, a 260 yard drive down the right side of the fairway. a solid 9 iron to the green and two putts for another par. Again, had any of my longer putts that burned the edge dropped in, this round would be looking much stronger that it is.

The 16th played just as easy as I pulled out a 3/4ish 6 iron and landed it on the back half of the green. From there, another 2 putts and I was in with another solid par. Which brings me to the 17th. I’m going to omit the second ball I was playing for some distance testing and just say, I’m not going to be hitting my 3 iron off the tee too much as the distance just isn’t on that club like it is on my 1 iron from the 49’s. The distances on these don’t seem to be longer like they appeared at the range, but rather, they seem to travel about the same as the 49’s. That’s not a bad thing, but I need to make sure I have that go-to shot with my driver at all times. So, back to 17… 3 Iron found the left rough. 8 iron found the left side of the green and two putts saved the day. Which brings us to the 18th, and my completely nuts idea of cutting the most aggressive (can I say stupid?) line over the water with my tee shot. Somehow, it worked. I left myself 230 into the stick, which should have been a solid 3 iron, but I toed the shot slightly and the ball came to rest just short and right of the green. A pitch on, another lipped out putt and a tap in netted me one more par for the day. I finished the round at 7 over, 79.

For playing with a bag that was brand new as well as balls that I had never played with, I’ll count that as a success. Especially considering the fact that I had at least 5 putts that could have dropped that somehow didn’t. The roundup for this round is going to be ugly, but here’s a few stats for you if you want a preview. I had 40 putts (normally this is around 32), I hit 83% of my greens in regulation and 62% of my fairways. The good news is that my putter was frozen but it didn’t kill me. My drives were a bit shorter, but I manage to hit one more fairway that the last round. The best one though, even with my new irons in the bag, I still managed to hit 83% of the greens. This is going to be a great setup once I get them dialed in.

Budget Beater: Find Out Where To Practice For Free

We all have those tough weeks on the budget. You know, when you have 15 things that all need to get taken care of or you just decide to plan an impromptu family outing that ends up costing way more than it should. At the end of the week, when there’s just no money left in your pocket to hit the range or play nine, sometimes it’s nice to have a fall back plan, like where you can go to get some good practice in without having to pay a dime for it. So, this week’s tip is all about how you can practice for nothing, zero, nada.

First things first, please pay attention to your local rules and laws. Many times, a park is a great way to chip, but only if you are allowed to do so at them. Some parks and cities have rules and regulations about golfing in them, so pay attention to them. Also, don’t abuse you local course’s practice facilities if you never play there. If you go over to a course and hit ball after ball out of their practice bunkers, you need to make sure you pay it back by playing there when you can afford to. That practice facility isn’t ‘free’ to run, but they let you use that putting green whenever you want, so try and be supportive – even if it’s just buying lunch while you practice. Finally, if you are using the warm up green as your practice area, stay off to one corner and keep the balls on the green to a minimum. Don’t drop a shag bag out on the fringe and start putting 30 balls to the cup when a half dozen should do the job just fine.

Now that we have the basics out of the way, it’s time to look at your stats from your last round and see exactly where the bleeding occurred for you. If it was the tee box, it’s not the easiest thing to practice without having some sort of feedback on the flight of the ball. If it was long irons, same story, but not quite as hard. If it was wedges, you can start finding some good alternatives, even just for impact drills. Finally, if it was chipping or putting, there are literally hundreds of options for getting that done. So, let’s look at the lowest cost option for each ‘practice session’ you might need so you can get the work in that you need to without having to spend any money.

Driving and Long Irons: These are always a tough one since ball flight is so crucial to knowing if you are fixing things or making them worse. That said, there are plenty of great options that will help you along the way even if you are just able to swing in the back yard. Starting with an alignment club on the ground and a prop up for your cell phone, you can use the SwingAid app to record your swing while you practice taking cuts. If you can see the issues in the video, you can align yourself properly and get that swing back on plane quickly. This works great for times where you don’t have the room to hit balls, but need to work on the longer sticks.

Moving on to short irons, facial alignment is the number one cause of misses that I see on the course every time I go out. People aren’t afraid of their short irons, but they just haven’t figured out how to aim them well. By using the alignment club on the ground, then using a tee or another object to align to that is only 10-15 feet in front of you, you can start to get the face aimed at the right spot. This is also a great tip for working on the course as well. Find that spot 10-15 feet in front of you that is on the line with where the ball needs to go and aim at it. Again, use the SwingAid app to check yourself by recording your swing a few times to see if your alignment stays locked on.

Moving down to the wedges, this is when chipping and pitching becomes a reality. The good news here is that most courses have an area where you can do this for free. If you can find a secluded part of the practice facility that you can drop a dozen balls and hit them to the hole, that is the best thing you can hope for. Again, don’t take a shag back of 100 balls out to the green to practice with, but also, don’t just take 2 or 3 balls. Used game balls are the best option here if you have a few that have taken a cart path bounce or maybe just survived one too many rounds before you lost them. Chipping what you actually use will give you a better feel around the greens and let you judge your shots much better than using something that is harder or checks more than your usual ball.

Putting practice never gets old. It’s even more fun if you have a course that is only 10 or 15 minutes away that you can take your kids with you to. There are so many lessons that can be taught on the putting surface, but most of all, putting can be turned into so many games to keep everyone entertained. Sure, you could set up killer drills or round the clock drills, but honestly, how much fun is it to try and get your ball closer than someone else’s  or maybe play stymie with them. Stymie is one of my personal favorite drills to play as the goal is to make your putt before the other player, just like in real conditions. The difference is, you can play defense in this game as well. There’s no marking your ball and you aren’t allowed to hit the other player’s ball either. It’s great fun and really makes you work your putting stroke when there’s a ball in close to the hole. Of course, almost every course has an available practice green to work on your putting, so as long as you have one of those around, you shouldn’t have a problem working on that.

Other great lessons on the green, especially if you have younger children or new comers to the game, would be time to explain how to read a green or explain how certain rules work. It’s also a great time to go over basic course etiquette, like whoever is away plays first and never walk through someone else’s line. The lessons taught on the putting green last far longer than the words that it takes to teach them. Whether it’s how to grip the putter, or maybe something more important like how to respect your equipment and yourself, the putting green is a place where life’s lessons are learned. That may sound crazy, but try it the next time you head out. The free putting practice may just be the start of the benefit that you get from a session on the green.

The Journey To Scratch: The Last Bag Upgrade Has Arrived

So today is a happy day. Today my final piece arrived to finish my 2017 competition bag. With the addition of the new 56°and 60° Wilson Staff PMP Tour Grind Wedges, along with the FG Tour 100 irons, I found myself with a pretty wicked gapping issue between my 47° pitching wedge and the 56° sand wedge. Actually, the nearly 50 yard gap was a bit more than wicked, but that’s the best word I could come up with to explain it without getting too crazy. But back to the story, today, my customized 51° PMP style gap wedge arrived. The 51° wedge is a bit different than the other PMP wedges that I have in my bag as they feature the tour grind specifications, but the customized bend on the 50°/08° wedge should fill the gap perfectly in the 120-125 yard range.

So, this should make my Sunday round even more interesting this week. New irons, wedges and a 2 round old putter… This is going to be fun!

Stroke Saver: The Three Parts Of Putting

We love it. We hate it. Oh, we love it again. Putting is one of the most frustrating components of most player’s games and there are usually a million different people offering advice on how to fix whatever is ailing your putting stroke right now. Take Rory McIlroy for example. He just hired a putting specialist to help him figure out what he is doing wrong and how to fix it. Now, I hate to tell someone of his caliber what to do, but I think if he took a step back and realized that he is the best golfer on the planet (I know that is arguable, but he really is an amazing player) and he can make that 14 foot putt for birdie, he would start making them again. The problem isn’t his stroke, or his reading of the green, it’s that third part, knowing that the putt will find the hole if you do the first two correctly.

One of my favorite movies to watch is the Disney flick, The Greatest Game Ever Played. In that film, a young amateur golfer qualifies to play in the US Open and has an 10 year old caddie for him. The kid has some of the funniest putting thoughts on the planet, but they really do apply to everyone’s games. “Read it, roll it, hole it.” That line lead me to look at my putting and made me realize that often times I am missing two out of the three of those or maybe even all three. Instead of spending hours working on my putting stroke like I had in the past, I try to spend more time looking at the green on the course when I play. I know my stroke is good, but if I don’t get the line, I’m not going to make any putts.

Read it – it seems simple enough, but sometimes, simple isn’t easy. Learning which way a putt will move based off how much speed you put on it is really hard work. So instead of setting up for killer drills, or dropping a bucket of balls on the green to putt at a target hole, try this one instead: Take one sleeve of your game balls to your local course. Stand 20 feet from the hole, crouch down and roll each ball toward the hole from the “north, south, east and west” directions. Watch how the ball breaks and look at the green so you can “see” the break. Get down low and really watch. As you start to see the first hole’s movements, move on to the next practice hole location and do it again. After about 3 or 4 holes, you should start seeing how that green breaks.

Roll it – knowing the line is helpful, but if you can’t roll the ball on that line, you’re dead in the water. As your talent for reading greens improves, knowing the speed and distance you roll the ball at is very important. If you read the green correctly, but hit the ball too hard, it will miss to the high side of the hole and roll past the cup. if you roll the ball to slowly, it will break more than you think and miss to the low side of the hole. Adjusting early in a round to this is key to keeping your putting going well. Remember, you will probably have 35 putts a round if you read the greens well and putt poorly, so recognize the speed of your putts and just roll it to the hole.

Hole it – I’ve said it a thousand times… confidence and consistency is so key to this silly game. We line ourselves up for 18 holes of abuse, and if we aren’t ready to grab each shot that is presented to us and own it, we will fail miserably. That is never more true than in putting. If you stand over a putt in a timid mood with that feeling of dread of leaving it short or hitting it past, you are going to leave it short or hit it past. There is  no other way to say it and there is definitely no way to sugar coat it. You need to have 100% confidence in your line and your roll. This is the part that you can’t practice, but practicing the other two will make this easier to handle. Let’s face it, none of us are playing for a million dollar purse, but we sure act like it when we stand over that 20 foot birdie putt. Perhaps if we just took that step back again and realized that we just nailed a 250 yard drive to the middle of the fairway, than an 8 iron from 150 to 20 feet, it wouldn’t seem like such a daunting task to roll the ball in from 7 yards away. It’s all about keeping the confidence level going on every shot.

With that new found confidence, more putts will start finding the hole. I know my stroke is about as good as I can possibly have it now, but my reading needs a bit more work. This means, hopefully, a few more evening rounds in my future to drop a few balls and practice a bit more on real greens, or maybe setting up some target drills on some of the more aggressive areas of the practice greens, but no matter where or how I do it, it’s all about getting a consistent read to match my consistent stroke which will give me a consistent confidence on every putt. The same will work for you as well. Consistency is where this game is won and lost, and that’s true even when you are just playing against yourself.

Equipment Deals: 25% Off Site Wide And 50% Trade In Bonus

It’s the final hours of the Golfsmith Labor Day sale. For the next few hours you can still land 25% off many amazing golf items. From clubs to apparel and balls to GPS units, if you spend $149 or more, you get free shipping and 25% off your deals. Time is extremely limited on this one, so make sure you get in on it quickly.

Golfsmith locations are also running a trade in bonus on your current golf equipment. Right now, trades are valued at 150% of their normal value. This is also a very limited time offer, so if you’ve been thinking about trading in your old set for a new one, the two discounts stacked together might just be enough reason to pull the pin and jump on this deal today.

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