What's your handicap and how many putts do you average per round?

[thaar]

I feel like my putting has been killing me lately and really holding me back from some good scores. My handicap is around a 14-15 right now, and I'm taking roughly 36 putts per round. I feel like that's pretty high for my handicap. How many putts do you average and what's your handicap?

[Ish]

I'm the same handicap and average the same number of putts per round. I also feel like my putting kills me too, but on Sunday I sank 29 putts in my round. My short game helped put me in position to hit putts but I was also sinking a handful of long putts. It was unreal. Shot like s*** but my putting kept me going.

[mzennario31]

[quote name='thaar' timestamp='1433254000' post='11673852']
I feel like my putting has been killing me lately and really holding me back from some good scores. My handicap is around a 14-15 right now, and I'm taking roughly 36 putts per round. I feel like that's pretty high for my handicap. How many putts do you average and what's your handicap?
[/quote]

sadly i'm the same. it's a couple 3putts a round. but mostly the issue is rarely getting close on my shots around the green. i maybe have 2 up and downs per round.

[thaar]

I had 2 3-putts for a total of 36 yesterday, but missed 7+ 4-10' putts. My distance control was horrendous, but my short game saved me overall.

[pseudoswede]

Too high and too many.

[RBImGuy]

[quote name='thaar' timestamp='1433254000' post='11673852']
I feel like my putting has been killing me lately and really holding me back from some good scores. My handicap is around a 14-15 right now, and I'm taking roughly 36 putts per round. I feel like that's pretty high for my handicap. How many putts do you average and what's your handicap?
[/quote]

check your GiR as thats a better indication of scoring than number of putts.
Unless your totally miserable putter.

[4pillars]

The number of putts you average doesn't really say very much,

It could be you are a putting the same average as a Tour palyer, but you are landing too far from the green to start with.

Far better to give yourself an assessment test and see how you compare to different handicaps at different lengths using the tables in Every Shot Counts for example.

[ocburg17]

Putting matters and improving it is important. However, there is more to improving you scoring. I started playing golf in 2012 and am an engineer so I like numbers.

2012 - Driving Accuracy 51.8, GIR 33.3, Scrambling 8.1, Putts per Hole 2.1, Total Putts 37.8
2013 - Driving Accuracy 53.1, GIR 32.6, Scrambling 12.5, Putts per Hole 2, Total Putts 36 (Improved 0.6 strokes year over year)
2014 - Driving Accuracy 60.4, GIR 33.0, Scrambling 21.0, Putts per Hole 1.9, Total Putts 34.2 (Improved 3.6 strokes year over year)

What I feel is that great putting can save you (scrambling for instance), however it is too hard to rely on. Greens are going to roll fast/slow and getting the right line/stroke is difficult. A good round for me is 15-16 putts per side, but keep it to 18 putts per side at most. Aim for small improvement year over year.

Finding the fairway and green in regulation is more important, IMO. Then short game scrambling after that. The best putters that I have seen are those that put their approach shots within 12 feet and their chip/pitch shots within 4 feet.

This year my putting has been better, and I believe the cause is I'm hitting more greens in regulation and putting my chips close.

For 2015 so far, my putting numbers have not really changed, but my GIR went from 33% up to 41.9%. I've improved my scoring 2.6 strokes from last year so far.

[cradd10]

1.8 index 32.11 (2014) 32.45 (2015)

total putts stat can be skewed. To me, the more greens in reg you hit, the higher your total putts will be......typically.

[pseudoswede]

[quote name='cradd10' timestamp='1433258865' post='11674464']
the more greens in reg you hit, the higher your total putts will be......typically.
[/quote]

Bingo.

[thaar]

Fair enough. I was just frustrated with my putting overall since I missed too many easy ones. I don't have my card with me, but I think I hit 7/14 fairways and only 7/18 greens. I scrambled yesterday and had some great chips around the green, but couldn't convert on many.

[Argonne69]

[quote name='thaar' timestamp='1433260333' post='11674686']
Fair enough. I was just frustrated with my putting overall since I missed too many easy ones. I don't have my card with me, but I think I hit 7/14 fairways and only 7/18 greens. I scrambled yesterday and had some great chips around the green, but couldn't convert on many.
[/quote]

What do you consider easy ones? I believe the pros convert on only 30% or less from 5 to 10 feet.

I understand your frustration, though. Once you start hitting more greens, you start realizing that you need to hit it closer to the pin to have a reasonable chance at a 1 putt, i.e. inside 5 feet.

I have two general goals when I get on the course. First, no 3 putts. I hit a few long putts on the practice green to get a sense for the green speeds, uphill and downhill. I pride myself on good lag putting. I'm not going to make many putts outside of 8', but I can avoid 3 putts.

Second, I want to give each putt a chance to go in the hole. That means missing on the high side, and obviously getting the ball to the hole. Nothing worse than leaving a putt short, or missing your line low, and having zero chance of going in.

[thaar]

[quote name='Argonne69' timestamp='1433261699' post='11674878']
[quote name='thaar' timestamp='1433260333' post='11674686']
Fair enough. I was just frustrated with my putting overall since I missed too many easy ones. I don't have my card with me, but I think I hit 7/14 fairways and only 7/18 greens. I scrambled yesterday and had some great chips around the green, but couldn't convert on many.
[/quote]

What do you consider easy ones? I believe the pros convert on only 30% or less from 5 to 10 feet.

I understand your frustration, though. Once you start hitting more greens, you start realizing that you need to hit it closer to the pin to have a reasonable chance at a 1 putt, i.e. inside 5 feet.

I have two general goals when I get on the course. First, no 3 putts. I hit a few long putts on the practice green to get a sense for the green speeds, uphill and downhill. I pride myself on good lag putting. I'm not going to make many putts outside of 8', but I can avoid 3 putts.

Second, I want to give each putt a chance to go in the hole. That means missing on the high side, and obviously getting the ball to the hole. Nothing worse than leaving a putt short, or missing your line low, and having zero chance of going in.
[/quote]

I missed a few from 4' and a few more from ~6', almost all of them with little to no break. The most frustrating thing is how many I left embarrassingly short, so I had no chance.

My 2 3-putts yesterday were much longer than I would have liked, and I should have converted one of them.

[bcgolfer01]

this is a stat i need to start more attention too.......

thanks for the reminder

[Ferguson]

There are those people that play golf and have occasional good round - they leave the course after 18 holes “surprised” if they shot well, or “surprised and confused” if they shot poorly. Then there are those people who fundamentally understand how to score and are more consistent from round to round. I’m the latter.

You can score better if you adopt a more effectual style of play that includes a fresh perspective on putting.

I think many mid-handicappers put too much pressure on themselves thinking they need to stuff it close and have shorter putts to score lower. This is a fallacy. I take a totally different approach.

About 8 years ago I started practicing lag putts, 20, 25, 30 and 35 footers. I would practice 3-4 times per week. I became really comfortable with lagging. I love a good lag. Anyway, I noticed that once my brain understood that there was no fear associated with long putts, I started steering my approach irons toward the middle or fat sections of greens on tougher holes. The result was amazing. I dropped from an 11-12 handicap to a 7-8 (and even lower). It was the result of knowing how to lag and avoiding the killer three putts.

Looking at the fat part of the green allows a larger margin of error when you gain confidence with the flat stick. I am a firm believer that approach irons and putting go hand-in-hand.

On a tough hole and a tough green – a solid 2-putt par feels like a bird.

Just my 2 cents.

[Full Melt]

[quote name='Ferguson' timestamp='1433273006' post='11676352']
There are those people that play golf and have occasional good round - they leave the course after 18 holes “surprised” if they shot well, or “surprised and confused” if they shot poorly. Then there are those people who fundamentally understand how to score and are more consistent from round to round. I’m the latter.

You can score better if you adopt a more effectual style of play that includes a fresh perspective on putting.

I think many mid-handicappers put too much pressure on themselves thinking they need to stuff it close and have shorter putts to score lower. This is a fallacy. I take a totally different approach.

About 8 years ago I started practicing lag putts, 20, 25, 30 and 35 footers. I would practice 3-4 times per week. I became really comfortable with lagging. I love a good lag. Anyway, I noticed that once my brain understood that there was no fear associated with long putts, I started steering my approach irons toward the middle or fat sections of greens on tougher holes. The result was amazing. I dropped from an 11-12 handicap to a 7-8 (and even lower). It was the result of knowing how to lag and avoiding the killer three putts.

Looking at the fat part of the green allows a larger margin of error when you gain confidence with the flat stick.
On a tough hole and a tough green – a solid 2-putt par feels like a bird.

Just my 2 cents.
[/quote]

^This

My strategy is pretty much the same. Bomb it, hit the green and two putt. If I can do that on 12-13 holes and make a few up and downs, then I'm in the mid 70's.

My home course has a fairly large putting green and a lot of the holes are 20-30 feet apart. I'll drop 3-4 balls and go around the whole putting green until I two putt all my balls at every location without making a 3 putt. If I 3 putt...then I start over. Might be over the top but it has made me a good lag putter lol

[Argonne69]

One of my favorite shots of my 4 rounds at Bandon Dunes was a 90+ foot lag putt to within 2 feet on one of the Bandon Trails par 3's. 'Nothing as aggravating in golf than to bogey a hole after getting a GIR, or walking away with a par after reaching a par 5 in two.

[Enfynet]

I agree with the GIR + lag comments here. I've had rounds where I have 15 or fewer putts on 9 and 20 or more on 9. They were all reflective of whether or not I missed my approaches.

A much better stat is number of strokes <100 yards. I'm currently losing on average 8-10 strokes per round inside 100 yards.

[thaar]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I need to start paying closer attention to other aspects of my game.

[Argonne69]

[quote name='thaar' timestamp='1433275110' post='11676608']
Thanks for the feedback guys. I need to start paying closer attention to other aspects of my game.
[/quote]

There's certainly a lot of interaction between the stats, that's for sure. A 2 putt after missing the green is either an indication that your chipping is deficient, as you're not getting the chip close enough for a tap in, or your iron play is so bad that you're not giving yourself a realistic chance of getting up and down.

I play a lot of courses for the first time, and I play rather well on them. A big key is that I generally fire for the middle of the green, not knowing the contours, and trust that I can 2 putt from there.

[dornstar]

Putts per round is a horrible stat. There's so many factors that dictate what it'll be.

[mzennario31]

Well I think if you factor it in as a part to a whole it has value.

[AlecEmersonGolf]

depends on how it hit it. Generally the better i hit it the more putts i have because im hitting greens, and am generally farther away than when i miss greens and chip on. If I hit it good ill usually have around 30-32 putts, and if i dont itll usually be under 30 unless im having a really bad day.

[TaylorDaBoss]

Handicap 3.0, putting per round : 30.1

[dornstar]

[quote name='mzennario31' timestamp='1433286861' post='11677898']
Well I think if you factor it in as a part to a whole it has value.
[/quote]
I strongly disagree.

1. Putting conversion is dictated by the length of the putt.

2. Putt per round is heavily influenced by the number of greens hit.

Because of 1 and 2, it's nearly impossible to compare putting performances by simply looking at the number of putts per round. Let's look at this way... which is better?


Round 1 - 8 greens hit, average first putt of 30 feet, 31 putts
Round 2 - 8 greens hit, average first putt of 40 feet, 32 putts
Round 3 - 6 greens hit, average first putt of 18 feet, 29 putts

Conventional "putts per round" logic would rank them 3,1,2 as far as putting performance. "Strokes gained putting" would be the complete opposite of 2,1,3.

[mzennario31]

When I say part of a whole I mean in conjunction with other stats such as the ones you mentioned.

[dornstar]

[quote name='mzennario31' timestamp='1433294334' post='11678612']
When I say part of a whole I mean in conjunction with other stats such as the ones you mentioned.
[/quote]
So, essentially you're saying you should just use Strokes Gained Putting stats and not Putts per Round, right?

Honestly, putts per round on its own is one of the most misleading stats in golf which is why it's all been but abandoned on the professional side. There's just too many factors that you need in order to make it work.

[mzennario31]

Yes. I doubt the casual golf is going to go with putting strokes gained when evaluating your own game. Most single metric stats by themselves don't have a ton of standalone value. Average driving distance is high but you hit one fairway a round kind of thing.

[thaar]

In my case, I only had 3 really long putts, one of which I 2-putted. Most of the rest were within 20 feet. The reason I was so frustrated was the number of putts I missed within 6'. And the greens weren't all that challenging. I probably didn't have a break of more than a foot or so all day.

This is how I can recall my round:

1 par 5: bad tee shot resulting in a punch to fairway, bad approach, bad chip up leaving 20'+, 2 putt for double. Overall, just a bad start... (+2)
2 par 4: fairway tee shot, approach just missed green, chip and 1 putt for par (+2)
3 par 3: long tee shot just misses green, chip and 1 putt for par (+2)
4 par 4: short par 4 so I went for it. ended up missing fairway, needed to punch under trees to get to green and somehow hit a 3" wide tree square, chip up within 6' and 2 putt for bogey (+3)
5 par 3: GIR within 8-10', 2 putt for par (+3)
6 par 4: missed fairway, punch out to 100yds, chip to 10', 2 putt for bogey (+4)
7 par 5: fairway tee shot, pulled second shot left leaving ~60yds, pitched just over green, chipped to within 4', 2 putt, bogey (+5)
8 par 4: fairway tee shot, 150yd approach to green leaving really long putt, 2 putts for par (+5)
9 par 4: errant tee shot missing fairway, clipped the one d*&! hanging branch sticking out trying to go over leaving a horrible 3rd shot needing to punch under a tree around green, chip to within 8', 2-putt for double...frustrating hole (+7)

10 par 4: smoked a tee shot down the middle, 60yd approach to within 4', 2-putt for par (+7)
11 par 4: I can't recall this one, but I missed the fairway and 2-putted for bogey. I recall being frustrated on the tee box from the previous hole. (+8)
12 par 4: fairway, approach to green within 6-7', 2-putt for par (+8)
13 par 4: fairway, approach to green within 5', 2-putt for par (+8)
14 par 3: hit green to within 20'. 3-putt for bogey, grrrr (+9)
15 par 5: hard dog leg left and I can't draw my driver, so I ended up in fairway bunker, oops. Good out into the fairway leaving 165yds to the green leaving 6-7', 2-putt for par (+9)
16 par 3: GIR to 20-25', 3-putt for bogey (+10)
17 par 4: Great tee shot down middle of fairway to 155yds, put a tired swing on the ball leaving it in the bunker with a terrible lie, took 2 to get out and ended up on the fringe, chip to within 5', 2-putt for triple (+13)
18 par 4: Bad choice off of tee trying to clear ravine, lost ball and dropped, 3rd shot hit just on fringe of green, chipped to 4-5' and 2-putted for double (+16)

GIR's: 7/18
Fairways: 7/14
Putts: 36

So after going through this, I can see my tee shots on the front and overall putting really hurt me this round. I really struggled with putting on the back with 2, 3-putts from reasonable distances and missed a bunch of shorter putts overall within 8' with very little break.

There were also two holes that I made poor club choices on the tee, not knowing the course, so I won't make those mistakes again and hopefully save a couple strokes.

[Argonne69]

There are days when putting can salvage a mediocre round, but other days you're the bug, and not the windshield.

I'm guessing that you're tense on the green when trying to convert the short putts to save par. The weakness off the tee, and the iron play are putting pressure on your short game. As you note, you have to stop getting into trouble off the tee. A few years back I analyzed my rounds, and was rather surprised to see that I was twice as likely to make par or better if I hit the fairway (66% vs. 33%). My focus turned to my driver/3W. Judy Rankin said a few years ago, "Short and straight is highly underrated".