Opinion & Analysis

The Wedge Guy: A more useful putting statistic for your records

Published

6 years ago

Jun 17, 2020

One of the keys to constant improvement in our golf games is to look for more and better ways to track our performance. And as you would expect, I’m a believer that our putting and short game should get more attention. As it regards to measuring our putting performance, for the most part the golf community either tracks total number of putts, or the average number of putts for greens in regulation. Well I would like to suggest what I think is a better idea for tracking your putting performance from round to round, one that is a more accurate indicator of what kind of day you had on the greens. Follow along with me here, keep some records of your own and see what happens.

My premise is that the true measure of how good a putting round you had just might be to total up the cumulative feet of putts you holed out. When you lag one up to a foot on the first hole, for example, that’s “1”. Make a six-footer for par (or bogey) on #2, you’re up to “7.” Miss your putts – from any distance – on the next few holes, add in the distances of those remaining tap-ins. [I’ll add in here that you should round to the nearest foot, OK?]

In prior years from time to time, I have done this for a few rounds and have found it pretty interesting. If you are making your 3-6 footers, and knock-in one or two longer, you can see a total in the range of 50-70’ total. That’s a pretty darn good putting round.

A day where nothing goes in for you might bring that total down to 25-40’. Bear in mind that if you don’t give yourself very many good “looks” from inside ten feet or so, your total is likely to be smaller . . . maybe an indicator to work on your greensides chipping and pitching.

Let me share some of my own results from a crazy week a while back just to show you an example. On that Friday, I hit the ball great – 15 greens in reg, but didn’t make much – lots of 12-25 footers that just didn’t go in, even though I many good putts. I totaled up my putt distance and got less than 40 feet. But on Sunday, it was a different day altogether. Wind was howling about 20-25 and I only hit 8 greens in reg. But I made almost 90 feet of putts!!! And I shot only two strokes higher than Friday.

So, I’d like to challenge those of you who are getting back on the course and want to get the most out of this season to try this for a few rounds and let us know what you think of this new putting stat. Remember, you count only the last putt on each hole – the one that went in or was a gimmee – and run the total. It’s fun, it’s informative and it just might be a clue to those good rounds.

As always, the more you all chime in, the more we all learn.

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Terry Koehler

Terry Koehler is a fourth generation Texan and a graduate of Texas A&M University. Over his 40-year career in the golf industry, he has created over 100 putter designs and dozens of wedges. In 2014, he put together the team that reintroduced the Ben Hogan brand to the golf equipment industry with his TK 15 wedges and Ft. Worth 15 iron designs. Since receiving a U.S. Patent for his “Koehler Sole” in the early 1990s, he has been challenging “conventional wisdom” in the wedge category. In addition to inspiring multiple companies to emulate this sole technology, the performance of his wedge designs have stimulated all other companies to reposition some mass toward the top of the blade in their wedges. Terry is retired from his role as Chairman and Director of Innovation for Edison Golf, and remains active in the industry as an independent designer and consultant. But his most compelling work is in the wedge category. Since he first patented his “Koehler Sole” in the early 1990s, he has been challenging “conventional wisdom” reflected in ‘tour design’ wedges. The performance of his wedge designs have stimulated other companies to move slightly more mass toward the top of the blade in their wedges, but none approach the dramatic design of his Edison Forged wedges, which have been robotically proven to significantly raise the bar for wedge performance. Terry serves as Chairman and Director of Innovation for Edison Golf – check it out at www.EdisonWedges.com.

6 Comments

david goodman

Jul 4, 2020 at 1:25 pm

I think the better way is to chart what you did on each putt, noting the distance. you have a 40 foot putt and write down whether it was one, two or three putt, etc. Then you get an idea of how your putting is from different distances.

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Ron

Jun 19, 2020 at 12:24 pm

Thanks for the article.

The issues I have with looking at the total feet of putts as a measure of putting success are that it can be dominated by just one putt. If that one 50-60 footer that all you were trying to do was not three-putt hits the pin hard but still drops, the total number of putts for the day look pretty respectable even if you had 40 putts with five 3-putts. Or on a day you hit fifteen greens in regulation – you are likely to have a lot of 25-40 foot putts. If your only birdies were 8-10 foot putts, but you had no three-putts, that would be a good putting round without a high total number of feet of made putts. That is, a good ball-striking round often leads to a higher number of total putts but a lower number of feet of putts made, and that could still be a good putting round. If you are missing a lot of greens, but hitting fringes or surrounds, then chipping well, your putt total can be quite low. In that case, the total feet of putts will tell you whether you were putting well or chipping well.

We all hope for that one round where we hit a lot of greens, have a low putt total, and roll in a couple of fluke long putts. Hope springs eternal.

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gary

Jun 17, 2020 at 3:45 pm

You could also take feet of putts made divided by greens, the closer the number is to 1.00 the better you are putting. 80’/15 greens = 5.33 or 80’/7greens= 11.4. Obviously 80′ of putts with 15 g is better then the same 80′ with 7 greens.

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- gary
  
  Jun 17, 2020 at 3:53 pm
  
  actually my idea doesnt make 100% sense, messed it up a bit. But the thinking is correct. my bad
  
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bossofthemoss

Jun 17, 2020 at 3:17 pm

I don’t really like this because it just shows what you made that day, doesn’t really show how well you putted, if that makes sense. Say if you have a 50-footer with a big break and over a ridge, and you lag it to a foot. In reality, the first one was an amazing putt, but it shows up in the tally as a 1 footer and looks like you didn’t putt well. Similarly, you could make a 40-50 footer and then also have like 5 3 putts in one round. The 3-putts are not going to be represented in the count and overall your footage of putts made will make it look like you had a good day on the greens.

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Doug

Jun 17, 2020 at 12:07 pm

If you’re stepping off the distance of your putts you can just enter that into an online SG putting calculator (only need first putt distance and number of putts) to get the actual “most useful” putting skill statistic.

It won’t really tell you where you’re doing poorly, though (am I worse a short putts or long relative to golfers my handicap?).

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