By far the weakest part of my game is putting. I was never a great putter, but I felt like I used to be solid enough, especially on shorter putts. After spending a semester studying abroad in India, I returned home having lost over 10% of my body weight. I had lost what little strength I had, and my muscle memory was gone as well. I eventually got my swing back, and my chipping came along not too long after, but I developed a hitch in my takeaway with the putter. I started missing everything and I completely lost my confidence. Fast forward to today, nearly 10 years later, and I still find myself still struggling on the greens. A few weekends ago I had another terrible putting round. I was hitting the ball great, giving myself 5-foot birdie putts on 4 occasions, but I missed every single one of them. I three-putted three times. With the exception of canning a 30-foot downhill double-breaker, I didn’t make a putt outside of 3 feet. That day I hit the ball well enough to shoot somewhere around even par, but ended up shooting 80. The following week, I snuck in 9 holes of twilight golf and putted even worse. After the 9th hole, I decided to play a few more holes. I was just off the green and the ball was lying poorly in the fringe. Without hesitating I went to my go-to shot for such situations: the bladed sand wedge. I’ve always been freakishly good at playing the bladed wedge and use that shot almost every single round I play (particularly in the summertime when I get a tight, firm lie just off the green). Sure enough, I rolled that bladed wedge right online and put the shot to within tap-in range. I was amazed at how well the ball rolled and how the ball started out on the exact line that I had chosen.
I was lucky enough to sneak in another twilight round and decided to putt as if I was hitting a bladed wedge. I switched to a slightly longer and heavier putter. I short sided myself on the first hole, but hit a solid chip that left me a simple uphill left-to-right 10-footer. These were the putts that were killing me- I knew that I should at least be giving these putts a chance, but more often than not, I was missing the hole by a mile. I put my feet closer together and opened my stance dramatically. I put the ball way forward in my stance and imagined that the putter was actually my sand wedge. I rolled the ball directly into the middle of the hole with perfect speed. It was too good to be true, I thought. Two holes later I found myself standing over a 35-foot downhill double-breaking putt. With my old stroke, I was just hoping to have a second putt within 5 feet. While I under-read the break, the speed could not have been better leaving a tap-in for par. On the very next hole, my approach shot needed an extra club as I landed 40-feet short and, even worse, on the wrong tier of the green. I’ve 3-putted on this green so many times, that I was all but resigned to playing for bogey. Instead, I nearly holed the uphill beast, leaving the ball mere inches from the left edge of the hole. Through the rest of the round, I lagged the long putts well and made the short putts. The medium range putts had at least half a chance, even though I didn’t make any of them. Despite struggling a bit with my swing, I shot 1-over for nine holes.
For the first time in a long time, I’m starting to gain confidence on the greens. I’ve had hot rounds with the putter in the past- I made 7 birdies and an eagle when I shot 65 and I once one-putted 9 consecutive holes- but I’ve never been able to consistently make short putts and lag long putts. What I’ve learned is that like a golf swing, a putting stroke doesn’t have to look pretty or be conventional to be effective. When I try to putt in a conventional stance, everything feels unnatural. I have to concentrate so hard to make a decent takeaway, so much so that I end up watching the clubhead go back instead of watching the ball. My brain is analyzing so much and my body is trying to make so many adjustments to try to make a “correct” stroke. With my new setup, I’m just reacting to what I see. When I’m in “the zone” with other parts of my game (I get into grooves with my driver and with my chipping fairly often), there’s almost no thinking. I feel like if I can get into “the zone” with my putter, I’m bound to post some low rounds and will be able to eliminate those “disaster” rounds.
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