Golf: putt for dough.

31.7.2008.

Last Monday, 28th. July, I went to Subang Parade by commuter train ( only RM 7 return ! ) to hand over my daughter's new baju kurung, her coming to the mall after class at 6 p.m. While waiting, I found and bought John Feinstein's "Tales from Q School" from MPH. I'd been waiting for the paperback edition since this book was first published to rousing reception last year. This makes it 3 John Feinsteins in my collection now - "A Good Walk Spoiled", 1995, and "The Majors", 1999, being the other two.

I have moved house many times over the years and did not catalogue all the books that I have bought , many having been permanently "borrowed" by family and friends, and many also having been lost by all the moving about. But what I have now, by way of golf books, are 61 volumes, the oldest being Harry Vardon's "The Complete Golfer" published in 1905.

As I have said in my earlier postings I'm a self-taught golfer who picked up the frustrating but addictive game at the very late age of 43 ! This fact makes me rather contrived in my assessment of how the game should be played. In conceit, you might say, I have formed my own opinion about how one's progression in golf could be constructed. How one actually progress is the reason for the constant tweaking and fiddling, and the unending daily rounds, come rain or shine. 

This morning my playing partners and I repaired to the golfers' terrace after our 9 holes of the day, and the analysis of the just completed game ensued. The question of lag putt and short putt was raised. Understandable, because all three of them just managed to let me win because of their putting woes. Between the three of them, they spotted a total of 13 strokes from me ! By all reasoning, I should have been truly beaten and dried. Because of their putting, I managed to wrangle the win. 

There are only two factors to consider in putting - speed and line. In theory, getting these two right, in about 50 % of the time, would get the ball in the hole in not more than two putts. The reality is somewhat different. The pros get it in two. Amateurs get it in two too infrequently !  What I have discovered is that the important distance is not between the ball and the hole. It's between the two ears.

Putting is never technical. It's entirely imaginative. You have to feel the stroke, and visualize the ball's journey to the hole. First, you need to imagine the speed required, whether the ball needs to travel flat, uphill, or downhill . Then, you need to imagine the line of travel, whether the ball breaks left or right. The ball must be impacted on the "sweet spot". At any other point, the ball will move away from a straight line from the point of contact between putter face and ball. This is crucial because all putts are straight putts. It's the surface of the green that causes the ball to break. Although the target is the hole, you never putt to the hole - you putt to the line. Once you get the line correct, the right speed takes the ball to the hole, and in 50 % of the case, into the hole. This 50 % is the result of thousands of observations made by the record keepers of the USPGA, and is empirical.

Now the really tricky part. The putter face must always be square to the ball at impact. To do this, the club must be held steady throughout it's pendulum-like swing from the backswing through the follow-through until it finishes pointing along the putting line. If there is the slightest wrist action - left or right wrist, or worse, both - then the club face will be skewered to the ball, and the ball will go right or left of the line. On lag putt, or the long putt, some wrist action might impart suitable velocity to the stroke causing the ball to roll freely, making it likely to reach the hole or near it. On the short "Panadol" part (because such short putts give the golfer headaches) any wrist action spells disaster. So the key word is a confident putting stroke. And confidence is all mental. So, in spite of the splendid swing pictured on the golf advertisement, of the statesque golfer driving the ball from the tee to a mile on to the fairway, it's the little putt stroked in with the vivid imagination and confident touch that converts the mighty drive into a win. That's useful tip to my opponents  I don't mind giving. It'll only give me a better fight.

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