21 Golf ?s Of Christmas - SAQs - How Can I Tell If I'm A Good Putter?

I've never heard this question form a Student...so this stands very high in the rankings of my SAQ - 'Should've Asked Questions'.

Harvey Penick said the main thing to do to become a good putter was - to eat dinner with better putters.  That's what he told one of his students once.

This suggestion conveys what we all know - that there is a certian ambiguity and mystery involved in putting...and especially trying to measure the 'goodness' of it - in our game or someone else's

Ben Crenshaw and Nancy Lopez always ranked very high in the Putting Category in their careers through the 1970s and 1980s.  This was largely because the Tours...

only tracked 'putts-per-round' back then.

Both of them were quite vaunted as chippers and putters - but equally well-known for being less than great ball-strikers.  They each missed a large number of Greens, and so had many more one-putt chances from closer to the hole - which they converted more often than other PGA and LPGA Tour Players.

For those of you who have utilized the Round Statistics chart I've distributed over the years - you know that many factors contribute to how good a putter you really are...and there are many ways to objectively measure that part of your Golf Game.

The simples measure which I began tracking many years ago - and now, in the last year or two, have seen the TV people refer to is: 'Average Length Of Putt Holed'.

You will make '18 putts' every round.  It's just that you want to have the putt you make be - longer.

Think about it...We'll talk more about it in the next few days.

I love the 'Right Question', "How Can I Tell If I'm A Good Putter?"