In my most recent outing to a local golf course, I noticed I was having an awful lot of long distance putts. Now sometimes I have issues with greens in regulation (GIR) but on this particular day, I was hitting more greens but on these large greens I was finding myself with 60 foot putts or barely on the green with a 75 foot putt, etc… Now I place the blame fully on myself. Proximity to the hole or flag was not in my favor.
Use A Rangefinder
I should have used my rangefinder but instead chose my GPS watch which gives distance to the front, center, and rear of the green. I always went for the center of the green on this particular day unless I could clearly see the flag was sitting on the front part.
So I ended up having a few 3 putts which I was not particularly thrilled about. Still, as a 16 handicapper who has been playing like a 20 lately, I think I’ve found yet another aspect of my game I need to work on. Proximity to the hole with different distances. A couple of years ago I remarked to a playing partner that I needed to concentrate on shots from 100 yards in. As my drives are getting better, I think I need to put more concentration on the short game.
The below is some data coming from Lou Stagner and Scott Fawcett. This is for PGA Tour Professionals.
So my thought process is to start practicing shots from 25 yards, 50 yards, 75 yards and 100 yards. I will then alternate on the following day by hitting shots with different increments. ie 20 yards, 45 yards, 65 yards, and 90 yards. If I come within a pre-determined proximity to the hole on a given yardage three times in a row, I can move on to the next yardage. Of course I will be doing this in my simulator while using a Bushnell Launch Pro.
Now because I don’t know what I don’t know and can’t begin to compare myself to anything in that chart above, I think I just need a starting point. So I’m heading off to my golf cave to hit some 25, 50, 75, and 100 yard shots. Most likely 10 shots of each so I can get a baseline and then I’ll post the results here. From there I think I’ll come up with a target of proximity to the hole in feet for each of these yardages. In my head right now, if I can average about 1/5th of the distance I am shooting as the proximity average to the hole, I think I’ll be happy.
Practice Proximity To The Hole
- 25 yards.. 15 feet or less
- 50 yards… 25 feet or less
- 75 yards… 40 feet or less
- 100 yards… 50 feet or less
My Results
Well it didn’t exactly work out the way I thought it was going to. First of all I had to use a slider and was hitting to 26, 51, 76, and 101 yards. No biggie. The results looked something like like the below for each of those distances. The overall results was much better than I anticipated but I need a way to see feet rather than yards.
26 Yard Proximity To The Hole
51 Yard Proximity To The Hole
76 Yard Proximity To The Hole
101 Yard Proximity To The Hole
After looking at the above data, many of my shots are not nearly as bad as I envisioned. Sure there was an odd one or two with each grouping but the reality is if I am 101 yards away from the flag and hit what may be considered a not so great shot above and have a putt for 30 feet, who am I to complain?
Now maybe I shouldn’t be shooting for the flag but should be going for the middle of the green. But I didn’t do that with the practice session above. Time to forgo the GPS watch and start using the rangefinder where I can more accurately pinpoint distances to the flag. After all, 100 yards to the center of the green does not help a golfer when the flag sits 85 yards away from the ball.
What are your thoughts?