The strokes you take on the green during your golf game wind up being about 40 percent of your score. Wild, isn’t it? We spend $500 on drivers to gain 10 yards and give it all away in just one or two three-putts and/or missed four-footers. As a corollary, we could use a 1970’s laminated driver with some knock-off, found-in-the-garage irons and score the same as our most technologically advanced pals if we just shaved a few strokes off our putting game.
I know, “Drive for show, putt for dough.” is what the guys that can’t hit the bomb are always saying. I know that the guy that pounds it farthest is “The Man”. OK. I have been playing for over forty years and am on average one the longest hitters in the groups I hang with. That being said, my best rounds (and most Nassau wins) have been when I reign in the big swing and drain some putts.
Over the last twenty-five years my handicap has remained fairly constant in the low teens. That has been in the face of declining frequency of play and plowing through the fifty year-old barrier. How? Putting!
Putting is simply a combination of three key ingredients:
1....