Okay, lag putting now:

I've been practicing putting a lot this week, trying different things. I tend to putt lag putts over 20~ feet better when I "slap" the ball some instead of putting through it, pendulum style. Anyone else find this?

That has never worked for me. I just try to match the tempo of going back and going forward and make sure to let the club release. There were a lot of pros who did more of a pop stroke back in the since the greens were so much slower but not nearly as many now. I suppose I would have to slap at it once I need it to go more than 70 or 80 feet.

I could be way off, but it's possible you are doing a better job of accelerating the putter head through the ball when you feel like you are slapping it and that's why it works better for you.

I had a friend who used to struggle with short putts, especially in tournaments, so he just started treating everything within about 5 feet as a tap in. Like just walk up to it and "tap it in" from like 5 feet.

It was hilarious to watch, even though he obviously still missed some of them. My favorite was when he gave the "I just missed a tap in" reaction to missing a five foot "tap in".

Of course this is also the same guy who would be +10 thru 7 and hit a beautiful 4 iron from 220 to 15 feet and be pissed that it didn't draw and get inside 8 feet.

It's possible you're right...

The size of the swing should be the determining factor in how far the ball goes. This allows a repeatable motion that is always the same for every putt you make.

When you make a practice swing, you're not "practicing mechanics", you're "rehearsing" the swing you're going to make. It's an attempt to figure out what size swing you're going to use to hit the ball. When you make a rehearsal swing, you should be thinking "Is this enough?" Is this too much?". Once you find the right balance of swing size, do one more. Then address the ball and repeat that swing.


An extreme example of the thought process, let's say you have a 30 foot putt. Obviously the smallest swing you can make is too small. Make it bigger until you feel like it's enough. The opposite, for a three foot putt, you wouldn't make this big long swing. You make it smaller until it's "just right".


So no more practice swings. You are now making rehearsal swings. Enjoy.

What is better? Speed or direction or both?

Speed...my direction is pretty good.

Speed is way more important.

Faster greens get, more important speed gets.

lol well, no ****, Guys.

My game is such a mess so I went ahead and bought Monte Scheinblum's Drive 4 Dough video. Will post thoughts in a week or so.

Feels like direction is more important than speed. You can make putts that are online and too hard, but you can't make putts that are offline no matter how good your speed is. Also, if you have a putt that is 3 feet too soft but on a perfect line there is no reason to think that is worse than one 3 feet offline with the perfect speed.

Sure you can make a putt you hit offline, just imagine a right to left breaking putt you pull and hit too hard. There's a ton of ways to make breaking putts, and pros absolutely hate dead straight putts from outside a few feet or so.

Lots of similar stuff like this was discussed in detail in the straight vs. breaking putts thread.

It's not about the putts you make its about the ones you miss. Correct speed will leave you with a tap in.

Assuming you aren't purposely hitting them of line to prov a point speed is more important

speed way more important

First 40 minutes was back to the basics and yet I still found something that I was doing very wrong. Well done so far

I went and practiced yesterday and it was easily the second worst session of the year. Just couldn't hit anything. Started on the short range and hit everything horribly. Went to the practice bunker, horrible. Hit some 50 yard shots, horrible. Chipping, meh. Long range, horrible.

I gave up after an hour.

I have just lost all the "want" to go and practice lately.

What is the best way to pull graphite shafts out of a fairway wood without damaging the club?

Take it to a store and let the pros handle it

But if your line is horrible you won't have tap ins. If your point that it's easier to have an ok line given you have proper speed than having proper speed given you have an ok line then I concede that's true. However, if you could give me 100% accuracy on one or the other then I'm taking line every time and trusting I can get the speed close enough to make it.

Like if you say you're going to miss by x inches on speed or line then you make more with the speed missing by x inches than the line missing by the same amount.

uh, on a non-straight putt, "100% accuracy" is varied by speed.

I may be 100% wrong on this, but on a short breaking putt watching Spieth I get the sense on his practice stroke he tries to get the speed so that the ball barely goes in on the low side. This way, if he hits it a bit firmer (which may be a tendency of his) then he will still make the putt as the ball will fall closer to the center of the hole. So, basically 2 chances to make the putt.

I mean it's pretty simple, your misses on speed are way bigger than your misses on line.