Once Upon a Three Putt Green, Hope to One Day be Serene

 A Visit From Brandt, with apologies to EAP

Once upon a round most dreary, while I trudged most weak and weary,
Over many a thinking of YouTube golfers' lore,
While I hacked it, sadly lacked it, suddenly there came a tappet,
As of some gentle rapper, rapped upon my mental door.
`'Tis some figment,' I muttered, `of a putting nightmare -
Only this, and nothing more.'

Presently my will grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
`Golfer Sprite,' said I, 'truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was chipping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my mental door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams every golfer feared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only phrase there spoken were the whispered words, `One Putt More!'
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the words, `One Putt More!'
Merely this and nothing more.

Open here I flung my hopeful mind, when, with brightly a flash to blind,
In there stepped the apparition of golfer Brandt the Snedeker.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or God, perched above my mental door -
Perched upon a bust of Nicklaus just above my doubtful door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this visage beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance he wore,
`Though thy face be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient player wandering from the far most shore -
Tell me what thy lordly game is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the Snedeker, `One Putt More.'

But Old Brandt, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That these words, as if his soul in that phrase he did outpour.
Nothing further would he utter - not an ancient breeze did him flutter -
Till I could scarce more than mutter `Other friends have shown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my dreams have flown before.'
Then did the Brandtster say, `One Putt More.'

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
`Doubtless,' said I, `what he utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of "Never-never three putt more."

But the Brandt still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a mental arm chair, sat in front of him with open mental door;
Then, upon the thinking sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous Brandt of yore -
What this grinning, gainly, ghostly, and spritely player of yore
Meant in stating `One Putt More.'

'Tell me, old wise one,' I cried, 'let your secret be my guide!'
'I'd love to one putt more, but lack the very means to score!'
Brandt sat on that bust, and smiled a bit.  Please, I thought, pass on that trust!
Then he spoke with words so fine, 'First you must find the line.'
'Without that you'll never score and thus of course, three putt more.'

'Wait, wait, there must be more, to make my one putts evermore?'
'With line in hand,' he said to me, 'Never be yee melancholy,
for happiness and calm of mind, is much required the hole to find.'

'What? just find the line and then prepare a happy mind?'
'There lacks but one more element, or your putt will not be heaven sent,
'with your hands the putter atop, give the ball a fearsome pop.'
'Make the ball a hurried hare, and over break do not despair.'
He nodded then his message tendered, now just mine to be remembered.
He lifted head just one more time, before he vanished from my mind.
Quoth the Snedeker, 'One putt more.' 

New Swing Key Thoughts

In the long time effort to make the long clubs perform like the short ones, I'm trying to use the following swing thoughts.

1) To stand at a better distance from the ball while driving, I'm lowering my hands.  This is my normal short iron position.  I hope the length of the driver and longer clubs will move me to the proper distance.

2) To avoid moving the club behind me and getting stuck, I'm taking the club back more vertically and making sure that I take it away with a shoulder turn. 

I was using these keys today.  I hit a number of very good drives.  I was also longer with the irons.  We might call this a semi-miracle cure.  However there is always a downside.  I seem to be causing my right elbow and shoulder some stress.  I was going to pop some anti-inflammatoryies at it, but it's concert in the park night and that usually means a couple of beers.  I don't like mixing this stuff.

But I'm happy with this.  I like the distance and my direction control is intact.


I've been trying to putt like Snedeker with his popping stroke and using the Dan Whittaker pitching method.  I think these are valid methods, but I need more practice with them.  I had distance control issues with both. 

Putting Stats Thoughts

It was a nice day to play.  The temperature was down 18 degrees from the weekend.  The only sour point was that I left all of my hats at home and bought one for the ears and eyes.

I'm now the owner of a Greg Norman Shark straw hat.  It is the only wide brimmed hat in the pro shop.  It worked ok.  Kept the sun out of my eyes and off my ears and didn't give me a headache.  It was fairly cool too with many vents in the crown.

I played pretty well today (this was Monday the 4th of June) with the exception of a few drives.  Not sure what the score was, but if I can't remember, it probably was pretty good.

I was thinking of putting stats and how one would measure putting performance.

Number of putts is dependent on number of greens hit and if the green is missed, then more a metric of chipping and sand play than putting.

I was considering the length of putts holed.  The cases are long putts that drop versus two or three putts.  If one is putting well and hitting greens, the length of holed putts (LoHP), might be pretty small.

Putts per GIR is a thought.  But more likely to measure proximity to the hole with approach shots and then the ability to putt well.

Thus, I am at a bit of a loss as to how to look at this.  Maybe it doesn't matter much.  Might just be a means to talk myself into a new putter!

---
It's now Friday and I've kicked this topic around.  I don't think there is a good way to describe putting with a single number.

I'm leaning towards classifying putts as either basically makeable or not.   For the ordinary and prudent recreational golfer, I think that 4 feet might be outside length of a putt that you should expect to make.  Beyond that your goal probably ought to be to two putt.  Then we can summarize a round of putting as a percentage of what we should have made and did make versus total opportunities. 


--
There was a article in the Atlantic magazine a number of years ago.  It was written by a coach on the college level who had coached both men and women's teams.  The differences were startling.  The gals didn't like the idea of a meritocracy as to who would play where.  They also tended to blame themselves for failures.

The guys blamed failure on their equipment. 

A Couple of New Techniques

There are a couple of things I'm doing differently today.  These have come from various YouTube videos that described the techniques and explained why they are better / good techniques.

Putting: Brandt Snedeker is a proponent of keeping the putting face square to the target.  He has a popping action to add to this philosophy.  The popping action provides for an aggressive acceleration into the golf ball.  Longer putts incorporate more wrist action. 

This is an older type of stroke.  The modern stroke is to hold the hands, wrists, and arms frozen and rock the shoulders.  This produces a stroke that must arc through the hitting area.  That makes it critical to have the ball in a consistent position.  Also the arc needs to be consistent.

The popping stroke requires none of this.  It was required in the old days when the greens were furrier and putts needed to be hit harder. 

I tried this today.  I was very happy with my lines.  I was able to hit the ball in the direction desired.  This does not always happen!  Distance control was pretty good.  I made a bunch of longish putts, some coming back and I had 3 birdies.  The club to ball contact was very good.  There was a nice click produced at contact.  Bottom line is that I will pursue this.

Pitching: There was a Dan Whittiker video where he proposed a pitching method to one of his students.  The student had a tendency to hit all his pitches to the right.  The new method requires preponderance of weight on the forward leg by bumping the lead hip out. The weight/hip is left there.  Then the swinging of the club is done with the body / torso.  The arms race the torso back to the ball, but it's a race that the arms are not expected to win.

I've tried this in practice a bit, but only today did I try it on the course.  I don't have a good feeling for which clubs to use with this and the distances that will be generated.  I hit two shots with this today.  One from about 70 yards.  I would normally have used my 56 and hit it with about a 3/4 full swing.  But I tried my 50 to allow a less powerful swing.  I hit it a little fat.  The ball was propped up in the first cut of rough and I didn't choke up enough on the club.  The line was perfect, but a touch short.

The other pitch was to a pin with not a lot of green in play.  The line was again exceptional, this one was a bit strong, but a the strength required to hit this was minor. 

I like both of these new techniques.  They are making the various shots easier to perform and they are fun!  A bit more practice should make them effective weapons on the war on par.