Do you think some pros hit short putts way too hard?

[TheCityGame]

I was watching some of the missed short putts at Bay Hill this weekend that went 2+ feet past the hole.

 

I also played with a guy this weekend who wasn't horrible but he knocked everything almost 3 feet past the hole and missed A LOT coming back. He 4 putted a couple greens. He hit 7 footers 3 feet past the hole.

 

It all got me thinking about that Rory 4-putt from last(?) year.

 

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That first one I figured, "oh, maybe it was downhill and it actually had good capture speed" but then he hits it almost as far past the hole coming back. The last miss only goes about 18 inches away, but that had a lot of speed sucked out of it by the lip-out. On many of his other misses, even from 8-15 feet, he's well past the hole.

 

You can also find vids (or just use your memory) of plenty of Phil's missed shorties that go flying by the hole. . .

 

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DVi9S06YQk[/media]

 

And my first thought is always, "that line wasn't bad, but he just rammed it and made the hole about 1 inch wide".

 

I guess the thought is that they're so accurate that from 3-5 feet they want to minimize the break even at the cost of narrowing the effective width of the hole. BUT, I'd also like to think they're so good that they can identify a line and play a little more break so that they're using a more effective hole width. It's not rocket science. Last year on tour, Rory was 173rd in putting percentage from 3 feet. Phil was 154th.

 

As an example of a better short putter, Gary Woodland at some point recently had made like 1700 consecutive putts inside of 3 feet. I can't find many videos of him putting shorties, but here's one that some dude with a camera phone took at Pebble. Looks like it's a little longer than 3 feet, but you can see it doesn't go flying by the hole. (reached my media limit, so you need to click through).

 

 

It's hard to say HOW HARD the top guys hit it by because they don't miss, but it's definitely the guys I think of as more "gentle putters" at the top. Yes, I do think of Bubba and Woodland as gentle putters even though they're power players. But also, Luke Donald, Zach Johnson, Greg Chalmers (best putter out there).

 

For my game, I know that when I start trying to ram them in from short, I seem to have more lip-outs and have tougher putts coming back on misses than when I try to be gentle with them. And, I'm not talking about front-edge speed, but I am talking about putts that turn into "all around good putts" or sometimes having to start a 3 footer outside the hole.

 

There's also the idea that there is one correct speed in terms of revolutions per second (say 2 revs per second) and that leaves the pros 3 feet past whereas it only leaves CityGame 15 inches past the hole due to stimp speeds. That might suggest that maybe the pros don't want to be rolling at 2 revs per second on greens stimped at 12.

 

Any thoughts on the speed of short putts, or other videos/golfers that can bolster a case one way or the other?

[dlygrisse]

I've always thought it is best for the ball to drop in the center of the cup, not slam into the back edge, more margin for error.

[duffer888]

i've heard that you can hit it hard to take the break out. i never had the guts to do that and my style is for my putts to die into the hole, not 3 ft past.

there is also some old school method where you toe a putt to put a certain spin on it to take the break out. not sure if that works or not, but that is a different discussion.

[tatertot]

I'm going to side with the guys who putt with millions of dollars on the line.

[Jack Daniels]

They are confident enough in their stroke to bang these short ones in the back of the hole. Tiger did it for years. They miss them on rare occasions, but lets not pretend the above videos happen often. IMO when someone is dying a short putt into the hole they are being timid, and IMO being timid is the worst way to putt. Unless I'm trying to lag a longer one, I would rather run a putt by the hole 3 ft than leave one short any day.

[TheCityGame]

[quote name='tatertot' timestamp='1427209017' post='11204885']
I'm going to side with the guys who putt with millions of dollars on the line.
[/quote]So, what side is that again?

Not saying it happens often, either. Rory and Phil are both outside the top 150, but they're still both above 98% from 3 feet and in.

What I'm saying with the guys who make a lot (e.g. Woodland with 1700 straight. I heard Bubba was over 700 straight at one point), we can't see how far that ball would have gone by because it always goes in. What's people's opinion on that? On those putts I showed of Rory and Phil, is Woodland hitting that same putt 1 rev per sec at the hole, or is he at the same speed as Rors and just more accurate. That's the real question here.

[Shawn Paul]

I think a lot of the new style of putters take away the feel which makes it more tempting to opt to plow through the break. It's more heartbreaking though to come up short rather than a bit long - IMO.