Most Important Club In Your Bag: Putter Or Driver? Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Most Important Club In Your Bag: Putter Or Driver? Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

After when I assess a golfer’s game, we sit down at the start of our lesson plot program and we sort of talk about where the strengths and weaknesses are. Most people would assess that they drive the ball badly, that they're not as good as they could be with the driver, they hit slices, they hit short shots, whatever it might be. But when we talk about putting the stock answer is always, “Yeah, my putting is okay, my putting is fine. I don’t have any problem with the putting.” What that basically means is that when they hit a driver, they sometimes embarrassed themselves. They top it, they sliced it, they lose the golf ball.

Yet when they hitting their putter, they very rarely lose a ball, they very rarely hit a duff putt; they very rarely embarrassed themselves with their putting. But actually when it comes to how that club is influential to your score, your putter has far more influence over your score than your driver. Just look at the simple stats that when you're driving the golf ball on an average golf course, you only hit it 14 times. But when you’re putting on a golf course and it accounts for about 36 shots, around about 40 percent of your average score if you’re going around at about 90.

And even when you look at the world’s best players, you look at Luke Donald, number one golf in the world last year, a 127th in the PGA Tour stats for combined driving. So not very long off the tee no, not actually the most accurate driver of the golf ball either, but second best player on the PGA Tour with the putter. And hence, he can win the money list because that part of his game is very strong.

So take at leaf found of Luke Donald's book. Work on this part of your game. Take the driver; put it to one side for the time being. Use a little bit of your precious practice time to practice your putting instead and hopefully that will have a big influence on the way your score can decrease as you go through this golfing season.

 2012-06-11

After when I assess a golfer’s game, we sit down at the start of our lesson plot program and we sort of talk about where the strengths and weaknesses are. Most people would assess that they drive the ball badly, that they're not as good as they could be with the driver, they hit slices, they hit short shots, whatever it might be. But when we talk about putting the stock answer is always, “Yeah, my putting is okay, my putting is fine. I don’t have any problem with the putting.” What that basically means is that when they hit a driver, they sometimes embarrassed themselves. They top it, they sliced it, they lose the golf ball.

Yet when they hitting their putter, they very rarely lose a ball, they very rarely hit a duff putt; they very rarely embarrassed themselves with their putting. But actually when it comes to how that club is influential to your score, your putter has far more influence over your score than your driver. Just look at the simple stats that when you're driving the golf ball on an average golf course, you only hit it 14 times. But when you’re putting on a golf course and it accounts for about 36 shots, around about 40 percent of your average score if you’re going around at about 90.

And even when you look at the world’s best players, you look at Luke Donald, number one golf in the world last year, a 127th in the PGA Tour stats for combined driving. So not very long off the tee no, not actually the most accurate driver of the golf ball either, but second best player on the PGA Tour with the putter. And hence, he can win the money list because that part of his game is very strong.

So take at leaf found of Luke Donald's book. Work on this part of your game. Take the driver; put it to one side for the time being. Use a little bit of your precious practice time to practice your putting instead and hopefully that will have a big influence on the way your score can decrease as you go through this golfing season.