Putts per round

[jdchelsea]

Hello all

I've been quite happy with my long game recently and my short game around the greens is improving steadily but I feel my putting is stopping me from getting some decent scores. I would say my avergage number of putts is around the 38-40 mark. as an example I shot a 90 on my last round with 40 putts. If i could putt like a pro I'd have shot a 79.

For those out there who know their figures I'd be interested what your average number of putts per round would be. If you could also put down your handicap as a reference that would be great.

My figures are: av no of putts 39, handicap 20.

 

[Whee]

Average putts 34 - handicap 25. Don't think i've ever had sub-30 putts.

I'm happy with anything under 36 putts, because it shows a round average of less than 2 per hole.

 

[bladeplayer]

Just a thought JD , what is your pitching / chipping like ? i see you reckon your short game is improving, what im getting at is, if you are pitching / chipping to 20feet away your not going to one putt very much & you are increasing your chance of 3 putting , where if you are chipping to 6/8 feet you increase your chances of making them, or at worst 2 putts, had a knock about with a guy off 2 a couple of years ago & like you i was telling him i was taking too many putts & he pointed out it was my short game rather than my putting, sorry i know its not what you asked just thought id share what i was told .

 

[bobmac]

I'd say 38-40 putts is way too many.
Have you ever had a putting lesson?

 

[jdchelsea]

bladeplayer

I totally understand where your coming from and yes my short game could definitely get me closer. I eventually want to get to the stage where i feel I can actually threaten the hole with my short chips but at the moment I'm happy if i leave myself a reasonably short putt (under 8 ft). Problem is I'm not doing well enough with the putts under 10 ft - not making enough and not threatening the cup enough. so yes I could get closer with my short game but I still miss putts and produce 3 putts whenever I know I shouldn't.

 

[jdchelsea]

bobmac never had a putting lesson. only ever had 3 golf lessons ever and they were all long game lessons. bought stan utley's book but he champions an arc'ed putter swing which I just couldnt get used to. Might order dave stocktons new book. I think my problem with putting is also multiplied due to the fact I dont play all that often, maybe 10-15 rounds a year, and the practice range doesnt have a great putting area. Practice time in general had been restricted this year as well due to my better half having our 2nd little one in june this year.

 

[bobmac]

Can you film your putting stroke, upload it to youtube and paste a link here?

 

[jdchelsea]

yeah should be able to some night this week. just side on and down the line like a full swing video?!

 

[bobmac]

yeah should be able to some night this week. just side on and down the line like a full swing video?!

Down the line and face on would be ideal, but face on would be enough

 

[MashieNiblick]

You say if you could putt like a pro you'd have shot 79, but I agree with Bladeplayer, putting stats are closely related to chipping/short game ability. The pros average in the 20's because they chip close resulting in single putting a lot of greens. They aslo rarely 3 putt becasue they are good from long range and mostly leave themselves tap-ins. Put that together and the stats are bound to look good.

 

[MashieNiblick]

bladeplayer

I totally understand where your coming from and yes my short game could definitely get me closer. I eventually want to get to the stage where i feel I can actually threaten the hole with my short chips but at the moment I'm happy if i leave myself a reasonably short putt (under 8 ft). Problem is I'm not doing well enough with the putts under 10 ft - not making enough and not threatening the cup enough. so yes I could get closer with my short game but I still miss putts and produce 3 putts whenever I know I shouldn't.

Do you keep stats for those putts?

As a guide PGA Tour putting stats for holing out from 5-10 feet ranges from 65.73% (Luke Donald) to 46.93 (Ernie Els).

If you are making half the putts you have from that distance I'd say you're not doing so badly.

 

[Mattyboy]

As has been said, theres a correlation between greens in reg and putts. I have had 25 putts in each of my last two rounds but I missed so many greens due to a poor long game. Really looking forward to the return of the long game as I feel I could average around 30 putts and get cut.

 

[jdchelsea]

Do you keep stats for those putts?

As a guide PGA Tour putting stats for holing out from 5-10 feet ranges from 65.73% (Luke Donald) to 46.93 (Ernie Els).

If you are making half the putts you have from that distance I'd say you're not doing so badly.

I'd be lucky to make 20% of putts from that range

 

[BTatHome]

Very hard to get an idea about putting performance from "just" total putts. For instance, yesterday I shot a 77 (H/Cap is 9, CSS was 72), overall had 33 putts. Not a very good number for a good round. But I also keep GIR putts and non-GIR Putts too. Averaging 2.00 for GIR, and 1.63 for non-GIR.

Overall I actually thought my putting was quite acceptable yesterday but i know that if I had a slightly better day then it would have been a hell of a good round

In conjunction with other stats (ie. number of GIR from 100 in approaches etc) then I can target my practice even more.

 

[jdchelsea]

You say if you could putt like a pro you'd have shot 79, but I agree with Bladeplayer, putting stats are closely related to chipping/short game ability. The pros average in the 20's because they chip close resulting in single putting a lot of greens. They aslo rarely 3 putt becasue they are good from long range and mostly leave themselves tap-ins. Put that together and the stats are bound to look good.

I take your point regarding proximity to the pin and putts made but give a pro my positions on the green and they will still have a lot fewer putts than 38-40. Even 7 putts would make my 90 an 83 which i'd be more than happy with

 

[MashieNiblick]

I agree 38-40 is too many. Need to be looking at 33-36. It's just that the TV coverage tends to show the pros making nearly everything when that's not really the case, it's just that big names holing out for birdies or saving pars is good TV.

 

[jdchelsea]

I agree 38-40 is too many. Need to be looking at 33-36. It's just that the TV coverage tends to show the pros making nearly everything when that's not really the case, it's just that big names holing out for birdies or saving pars is good TV.

I think even 33-36 is too high (as an average). the pro average is around 28-30 but their good rounds have total putts per round of 21/22.

I want to get my average down to the low 30's i.e. 31-33. Which I dont feel is beyond the realms of possibility although it is a tough target considering my current putting performance.

i think the aim of 2 putting 12 greens 1 putting 5 greens and allowing for 3 putting on 1 green is a return i'd be happy with. this would give me a total of 32 putts. I'm not going to try silly things to hit these stats, I mention them just merely as an example of how I could get to my goal. and obviously I would have good days and bad days but i think having total putts ranging from say 28 - 36 is a very reasonable target. Anything above 36 is clearly poor.

 

[G1BB0]

anything low 30's is decent if you ask me. My last round was 31 putts with 1 3 putt, best I have had is 29 and my average is 34.2 over my last 20 rounds, shame the rest of my game was (I use the word 'was' as I am in a new spell of golf and expect to make a drastic improvement) crap.

 

[jdchelsea]

anything low 30's is decent if you ask me. My last round was 31 putts with 1 3 putt, best I have had is 29 and my average is 34.2 over my last 20 rounds, shame the rest of my game was (I use the word 'was' as I am in a new spell of golf and expect to make a drastic improvement) crap.

they are the kind of figures I think I should and would like to be hitting. i think those type of figures give you a real foundation to be able to really score well and improve. At the moment even when i'm striking the ball well tee to green my score remains largely medicore due to my performance on the greens.

 

[Region3]

Very hard to get an idea about putting performance from "just" total putts. For instance, yesterday I shot a 77 (H/Cap is 9, CSS was 72), overall had 33 putts. Not a very good number for a good round. But I also keep GIR putts and non-GIR Putts too. Averaging 2.00 for GIR, and 1.63 for non-GIR.

Overall I actually thought my putting was quite acceptable yesterday but i know that if I had a slightly better day then it would have been a hell of a good round

In conjunction with other stats (ie. number of GIR from 100 in approaches etc) then I can target my practice even more.

I agree with the 2 separate stats for GIR and Non-GIR being a better way to gauge your putting rather than just putts per hole.

I suppose the putts/non-GIR also depend upon whether your approach has finished greenside or you're still hitting from 100yds but I guess there's a limit to how far you can take it.

FWIW:
hc 8
per hole 1.72
per GIR 1.89
per non-GIR 1.58