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Putters are useless!
Lets explore the the importance of PUTTING and the uselessness of PUTTERS
PUTTERS...
In my opinion the putter is the most overvalued club in the bag (in monetary terms). The entry price from the leading club manufacturers is north of £150.00 and again I state ‘entry price’, the price just keeps climbing from there. With varying manufacturers selling putters at £500.00 plus and if you go to Scotty Cameron you can easily purchase putters that run into the thousands.
I have fallen for this scam myself numerous times and I'm here to say that putters do nothing to help the ball go in the hole
There are 3 main skills within putting, that all good and great putters of the ball posses
1. Distance control – The ability to apply the right speed for each putt
2. Green Reading – The ability to assess varied factors and predict the break and speed
3. Start Line – The ability to control the putter face and start putts on the intended line
To this day I have never come across a putter on the market that can read a green, that knows how hard to hit your putt or helps you hit it on line.
The last statement of a putter can’t help you hit it on line could be up for debate. The list below are some reasons why a ball may not go on the intended line picked…
Stroke mechanics
Putter face alignment
Body alignment
Strike point
Putting Surface imperfections
The putter itself - putter technology (heel, toe weighted, MOI and whatever the marketing team is pedalling this year)
There are more but I promise you that the makeup of the putter itself plays little to no part if your going to hit the ball on line or not, that’s why I list it at the bottom of any list.
PUTTING...
I call putting 'golfs great equalizer', unlike the long game there is no advantage for being strong, young, old, fast, male or female. I have given over a 1,000 lessons this year and only 3 of them have been specific putting lessons, this is staggering to me.
How much (as a percentage) of your practice time do you give to your putting within a month? I'd guess for most, its less than 5% or none at all.
Speed control (feel) is the most important skill within putting and its a skill that we can develop and looking at the image we see how much of an advantage scratch golfers have over the rest of the handicap range
Now look below at how the proximity of that first putt from the hole effects the hole out rate for the next shot
If you can improve your distance control and lag putting you are nearly 7X!!! more likely to hole your next putt and walk away with a 2 putt.
We can see how important it is to get within inside the <6ft range and the way we do that is to improve our distance control and again NO PUTTER on the market can help you hit it the right speed.
Invest in golf lessons, training aids and your time.......