In my opinion a lot of golfers are hard on themselves when it comes to putting and particularly holing putts.  The solid tee-to-green players are probably most likely to fall into this category.  The scramblers tend to have more short putts as a result of missing greens so will get to hole more.

For example, let’s say you are swinging well hitting fairways and greens in your tournament one day.  On the back 9 you have 5 birdie chances of around 15 feet.  You hole 1 and miss 4.  You come off the course saying you left shots out there and just couldn’t take your birdie chances on the back 9.  Actually, if you holed 1 in 5 putts from 15 feet that’s very close to PGA tour level putting!  22% is the conversion % from 15 feet.  From 10 feet it’s 38% and 8 feet is 49%.  Edited TV and seeing the leaders who are leading because they are likely putting well can lead us to believe the tour guys are holing everything.  This is definitely not the case as we can see by the stats.

I learned recently that Jason Day practices his putting 15-20 hours a week.  Jordan Speith is around 10-15 hours a week.  I heard an interview with someone who was told this by their respective coaches.  Many amateurs will not even be doing 1 hour a week of putting practice.  And there won’t be many amateurs out there who would have 20 hours a week spare for putting practice!

So golfers, go easy on yourselves out there.  The best in the world aren’t holing as much as we often think.  Plus they are putting in serious amounts of practice time!

This post is also aimed at aspiring youngsters out there; if you are really serious about playing this game for a living just look at the time the top guys put into just one area of the game.

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4 Responses

  1. Thank you for your sharing. I am worried that I lack creative ideas. It is your article that makes me full of hope. Thank you. But, I have a question, can you help me?

  2. Thank you for your sharing. I am worried that I lack creative ideas. It is your article that makes me full of hope. Thank you. But, I have a question, can you help me?

  3. I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article.

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