How Can Holing A More Short Golf Putts Affect The Rest Of My Game (Video) - by Pete Styles
How Can Holing A More Short Golf Putts Affect The Rest Of My Game (Video) - by Pete Styles

It always seems to amaze me that when I chat to my clients and ask them how they played, they’re either say, yeah I played great everything worked well, or no I didn’t play very well, everything was awful on that one day. And it’s strange that the putting stroke has no resemblance to the driver swing. So when you drive the ball well, there’s no reason why you should putt well, and likewise when you drive the ball badly, there’s no reason why you should putt badly. But it’s quite often the case isn’t it, that when you putting well, that can have an influence on different parts of your game. And I think as much as anything, its confidence and it’s making you really sort of satisfied and happy that if you walk up to a 5 or 6 footer and you knock it square in the middle the hole say to par, you go striding off to the next tee. Get up the ball nicely, confident driver swinging burst that one down the middle and it self-perpetuates, it runs on from there. But likewise if you’ve just missed that 5 or 6 footer and it never even looked close to going in, you walk up to the next tee angry, you’ve had an extra shot, you’re disappointed, maybe you’re down or maybe you try and hit that next drive too hard, because your angry and that self perpetuates because that’s not going to work and you get worse. So you’re putting could be quite pivotal to the way you play.

Also holding more short putts can have a big effect on how you chip and how you pitch, because if you’re good at holding short putts, it kind of takes a little bit of pressure off your pitching. You could stand there chipping the ball from here, thinking all I’ve got to do is chip the ball onto 4 or 5 feet and I’ll knock it in. But if your poor from that range your standing here thinking, well I’ve got to chip this one stone dead, because if I chip it to 4 or 5 feet, I’m probably going to miss the next one, and that’s really going to get frustrating. So by being good at short range putts, it takes pressure off your chipping, it helps you walk to the next tee with a bit more confidence and it also takes pressure off your longer first putts. Because if you’re 30 or 40 feet away that’s a tough putt, but if you know that you’re good from 3 or 4 feet, you can roll the 30/40 footer there up nice and close and tap in consistently, but if you know that you’re bad from 3 feet, then from 30 feet suddenly you’re thinking, well I’ve got to try and hole this one, and I’ve got to try and get this one, I’ve got to try and leave it right on the lip because I’m not going to hold a return putt otherwise. So that’s 3 or 4 foot range, maybe even out to let’s say like 6 feet, anything from 6 feet and then we’ll call that a short putt. If you’re good from 6 feet [Indiscernible] [0:02:39] improves your confidence in your overall game, clearly improves your score and it actually has impact on your tee shots, you’re long putts, and you’re chipping. Be good from short range, and you’ll watch your handicap come tumbling down. 2014-10-14

It always seems to amaze me that when I chat to my clients and ask them how they played, they’re either say, yeah I played great everything worked well, or no I didn’t play very well, everything was awful on that one day. And it’s strange that the putting stroke has no resemblance to the driver swing. So when you drive the ball well, there’s no reason why you should putt well, and likewise when you drive the ball badly, there’s no reason why you should putt badly. But it’s quite often the case isn’t it, that when you putting well, that can have an influence on different parts of your game. And I think as much as anything, its confidence and it’s making you really sort of satisfied and happy that if you walk up to a 5 or 6 footer and you knock it square in the middle the hole say to par, you go striding off to the next tee. Get up the ball nicely, confident driver swinging burst that one down the middle and it self-perpetuates, it runs on from there. But likewise if you’ve just missed that 5 or 6 footer and it never even looked close to going in, you walk up to the next tee angry, you’ve had an extra shot, you’re disappointed, maybe you’re down or maybe you try and hit that next drive too hard, because your angry and that self perpetuates because that’s not going to work and you get worse. So you’re putting could be quite pivotal to the way you play.

Also holding more short putts can have a big effect on how you chip and how you pitch, because if you’re good at holding short putts, it kind of takes a little bit of pressure off your pitching. You could stand there chipping the ball from here, thinking all I’ve got to do is chip the ball onto 4 or 5 feet and I’ll knock it in. But if your poor from that range your standing here thinking, well I’ve got to chip this one stone dead, because if I chip it to 4 or 5 feet, I’m probably going to miss the next one, and that’s really going to get frustrating. So by being good at short range putts, it takes pressure off your chipping, it helps you walk to the next tee with a bit more confidence and it also takes pressure off your longer first putts. Because if you’re 30 or 40 feet away that’s a tough putt, but if you know that you’re good from 3 or 4 feet, you can roll the 30/40 footer there up nice and close and tap in consistently, but if you know that you’re bad from 3 feet, then from 30 feet suddenly you’re thinking, well I’ve got to try and hole this one, and I’ve got to try and get this one, I’ve got to try and leave it right on the lip because I’m not going to hold a return putt otherwise. So that’s 3 or 4 foot range, maybe even out to let’s say like 6 feet, anything from 6 feet and then we’ll call that a short putt. If you’re good from 6 feet [Indiscernible] [0:02:39] improves your confidence in your overall game, clearly improves your score and it actually has impact on your tee shots, you’re long putts, and you’re chipping. Be good from short range, and you’ll watch your handicap come tumbling down.