The Art of the Lag

The lag putt is one skill that all golfers need to focus on. The ability to get a putt close enough to the hole is a trait all great putters have. Watch the Masters this week and pay attention to how close the leaders get their long putts. The greens at Augusta will be firm and fast, and lag putting will more than likely determine the winner. When greens are soft, Tour Pros can dial it in on the flag. They are basically shooting darts to the pin, when green conditions firm up, they are left with longer putts (and according to Dave Pelz they make less than 50% of their putts over 6 feet and a little over 10% of putts of 24 feet). The tools you need to improve your lag putting are simple. Judge the speed, and find a target. To judge the speed you need to understand what direction the ball will travel. Is it going uphill or downhill? When will break come into play? To achieve your goal of lag putting, you must decide where you have the greatest chance of success for the…next putt or your target. The idea of a target is another way of removing the thought of the “hole” from your visual context. By putting towards a target, you can focus on making a stroke without the pressure of hole-itus…

What to work on

When you are faced with a long putt what do you think about? Are you trying to make it? Are you fearful of three-putting? Can you even see the hole?

I tend to think of long putts as those over 24′ which is approximately 3 flag lengths. Putts inside of this distance are ones that I feel confident in making some of the time. Putts outside this distance are ones not holed often. Add these techniques to your putting tool box (Shot IQ) and watch your scores plummet!

• Walk off the distance of your putt
• View the putt from the side, notice the way the ball will behave around the hole
• Pick the best spot for your next putt
• Find your comfort zone on short putts

Walking off the distance: this will give your mind a specific distance. The more numerical information you can give your “brain” the better. If you guess at the distance, so will your “brain”.

View the putt from the side: by getting a better “lay” of the land, you can visually see how the putt will act upon reaching the hole. Factors like uphill or downhill will move the “target” area of your lag, as will right to left or left to right breaks. It is always better to have an uphill putt, and one that breaks (if any) from right to left for a right handed golfer.

Pick the best spot: this is subjective, and relies on your ability. But the closer you can get to the hole, the more likely you will hole the next putt. If you practice making short putts from 2′ and can achieve a 80% success rate, your target area is within a 2′ circle. If your 80% rate is 3′ then your target area expands. Think of the rings on a dart board. Lagging should be a set of measurable objectives that are attainable.

Find your short putt comfort zone: The key is finding what distance you can make a high percentage of putts from. These are the “no-brainers” the putts you have super confidence making. Find your distance by starting out at 2′ from the hole and putt 10 balls. If you can make more than 8 of 10, move back to 3′ and putt again. Find out where your ability falls below 60%. This is the outer edge of your comfort zone. To be a better lag putter, zero in on placing your first putts inside this comfort zone, and adjust your target accordingly.

Lag putting is a non-glamorous skill, but if you take some time and work on getting these types of putts closer, you will find that you have less three putts. And that means your handicap will surely lower!

This isn’t your fathers Level

Ok…this is one of those thing I wish I developed. In a strange way it was something that I taught in almost every putting lesson I ever gave. How to read “break” on the green is more art than science, but this little pocket sized aid is simple science, and that is its magical awesomeness!

The Sure Putt Green Reader is a spirit level. A spirit level gets it’s name due to the “spirit”, normally ethanol that is not completely filled within the “tube” or disk resulting in a bubble. This bubble acts as a guide to measure the horizontal (level) or the vertical (plumb). The use of a “spirit” like ethanol is critical because it will move quickly due to the lack of surface tension between the housing, and it will not freeze in cold temperatures like water. The Sure Putt to be precise, it is a bull’s eye level.   It measures leveling in two planes, which allows the user to see up, down and left and right (for you boaters.. Pitch and Roll).

The Sure Putt

The first thing you notice about the Sure Putt is it’s size and weight. Normally we like small and compact. At 2.25 inches the Sure Putt is larger than a quarter, but smaller than a Toyota. It weighs a lot more than a quarter and comes in at 60 grams. The level housing is encased in machined anodized aluminum. That means it won’t rust, and is fairly sturdy. Accidentally dropping it won’t damage the “bubble” , and face it, you’ll be using it on the putting green.

What makes this product tick is the engraved collar around the bubble level face. Since it is anodized aluminum, it can be etched. This means the Sure Putt can be custom tailored to almost any promotional branding you can think of.

Made here in the US, the Sure Putt retails for $39.99. Available in 10 colors, the Sure Putt comes in a packaged box with directions and a pouch.

Ease of Use

If a product is easy to use and delivers the goods, them I’m all about it. I think the Sure Putt Green Reader is…um..stupid easy. Simply place the Sure Putt on the green with the etched arrow pointing to the hole and look down at the dial. The dial is broken down into four quadrants (and a bulls eye, the bubble can rest in the center which means it’s level both up/down and left/right) If the bubble is in the upper right, the putt is uphill and breaks left. A bubble in the upper left would mean an uphill breaking right… Lower left, downhill right…Lower right, downhill left. See it’s not that hard.

When to use the Sure Putt

Now we can’t be using this during the club championship, but this is a very useful practice tool. When practicing on the putting green use the Sure Putt to figure out those tricky putts that “look” like they break one way, but don’t. The idea is to use this tool to help visualize how your putt will roll while on the green. It can re-enforce your Shot IQ.

I would recommend using this to find where the break begins. Example:

• Pick a 5 foot putt with some break either left or right
• Pick your target- line (Since it has break, the target-line should not be a straight line from your ball to the hole)
• Visualize where the putt begins to break and mark it with a golf tee and place the Sure Putt in front of the tee with the arrow (kinda like a compass) pointed to the hole
• Read the dial and see if the data from the Sure Putt matches what you “think” the ball should be doing
• If it shows that you thought right then great, if not…then we need to re-visualize how the putt will break

This is the strength of the Sure Putt….It takes guess work out of the equation. I mean we can dial in where break begins, and by knowing this information and acting on it, we can work on getting the correct speed.

Overall Opinion

I think Brian Lemke, President of Sure Putt Golf has a great teaching aid in the Sure Putt Green Reader. It is simple to use and gives great feedback.

Sure Putt will train your eye to see the subtle contours that can make even a short putt difficult. The more you use it, the better your putting game will be. You can stop talking about the putt that got away…..Sure Putt will get you out of all your little green lies!

It was one of the best products I saw this past weekend at the Chicago Golf Show, and was worth the $23 dollars I spent getting in. I also think it makes a great promotional give-away, and I’m going to try to work out a deal for Dogleg Right Golf. If you need one (and I think you do) contact Sure Putt Golf by following the link and check it out yourself.

sureputtgolf.com

Golf Like a Tour Pro

Home Screen

How many times during a round of golf have you wondered “what do I do from here?” The mind goes blank, the hands tighten on the grip, sweat forms on the brow, and you are hoping that the press on that friendly nassau is covered. Well there is an App for that.  Born from Larry Slivka frustrations on the course, his thought of  ”What would Kevin Streelman do?” became the inspiration to make something really extraordinary. Larry and his neighbor Kevin would design an application for golfers to answer the question. S-Squared Golf became a builder of Apple applications and a resource for golf junkies.

For the price of a small bucket of range balls (less than $5), you can get real life situational “help” from PGA Tour Pro Kevin Streelman. Available on the Apple iPhone or iTouch, there are 50 common shots featured, with a summary, strategic analysis, Kevin’s Tip and video.

Starting Out

Opening the app bring you to a screen of a typical course layout, nine buttons framing the hole. Working from the tee towards the green the left hand side of the screen has Tee, Fairway, Fairway Bunker, Water and Greenside Bunker. The right hand side has buttons for Rough, Pitching, Chipping and Putting. Pressing any of the buttons will bring you to a menu of shots relating to the subject button, swipe a finger on a menu offering and volia, you have a shot summary of that menu item.

Shot Summary

Shot Summary

I feel that this is the strength of the app, it places crucial information in one spot. Think of it as crib notes, all packaged neatly on your iPhone screen. I like the format, look and ease in which a user can access information quickly. I also like that it is straight forward, and to the point. For instance, the Ball Placement for an Uphill lie in a Fairway Bunker is…Slightly Forward. Enough said.

Analysis & Strategy

The navigation menu at the bottom of the screen allows the user to move to more information, such as strategy. Here the app walks you through the solution to the shot. It’s text and you need to scroll (again a swipe of the finger) and read. I feel that this is better suited for prior to the shot, while riding in the cart, or after the shot, but not during. I say this as a past professional that really has pace of play issues!

Kevin’s Tip

Remembering what your teaching professional told you about the shot you’re currently facing is sometimes tough, but Kevin’s Tip is like having a one on one with your teacher. I like the overview, and coaching, but like the previous paragraph, unless you are in dire need, wait until you are in the cart to view this part of the application.

Video

Oh the things you will see. This is the last navigational choice for the app and it has some great powerful stuff.  The ability to visually see Kevin hit the shot is worth the price of the app. His commentary on the fundamentals for executing the shot are spot on. The option is for regular video and slow motion, the regular provides audio with the video, while the slow motion is just video.

Overall is it a Winner?

Yep. And it is not because Kevin is a friend of mine (I paid for the app..your welcome Larry and Kevin), it’s a winner because it has amazing potential to help all types of golfers. I’m jealous because I didn’t think of it FIRST! The strengths are in its simplicity to provide real time information on 50 common shots. I feel that this app is most useful prior to teeing off while waiting at the tee box. The reason is that it averages almost 2 minutes to view most of the situational shots within the app. If used appropriately, there is no problem, but many golfers waste time on the course and that leads to slow play. Just be thoughtful when you do need to use this app! Think of a few shots that your ability is not up to par with and watch the video, or read Kevin’s Tips. Add the knowledge you’ve gained from Golf Like a Tour Pro to your Shot IQ database and your game will IMPROVE (if it doesn’t maybe you need analog).

Golf Like a Tour Pro can be downloaded at the Apple iTunes Store.  It costs $4.99…if you don’t have an iPhone yet I’m sure you can swing it by your wife! AT&T has stores all over the place.

Credit to Vinne W

Shot IQ is developed using accuracy and precision.  Accuracy and Precision are two words that are often used together, yet have different meanings. The best way to describe accuracy would be the bulls eye method.  If you were to throw a dart at the dart board, the accuracy could be measured by the distance to the bulls eye. When applying this technique to golf, we would use on course reference points like the fairway or the green.  Most beginning golfers have a low degree of accuracy, while PGA Tour players have a high level of accuracy.  Which might explain why they get paid to play!

Look at your game.  Think back to a round of golf you played.  How many fairways did you hit? How many Greens? Did the lack of accuracy result in a higher score? Were you “on” and that resulted in a low score?  All these questions lead us to an important thought process….IMPROVE your accuracy and Shot IQ.

Shot IQ

When we break it down, the ability of most golfers to recover from bad situations depends on their Shot IQ.  What I mean by Shot IQ, is do you have the ability to recover from a bad shot by making a better shot. Does your skill set allow you to make that recovery shot, which can make the difference in saving par and making a double bogey.  Shot IQ requires precision

called reproducibility or repeatability is the degree to which repeated measurements

under unchanged conditions show the same results

Build Your Shot IQ Database

We have all heard the “practice as you play, play as you practice” mantra.  I think that it has some strength.  If you practice with a purpose, and take inventory of what you are doing, the outcome is a stronger Shot IQ.

To build your Shot IQ, you will need to write down some information. (Hint place this in your journal) The next time you are at the range warm up hitting 10-15 balls.  Then make two sets of 10 balls.  Pick two clubs (I suggest a short iron 7 or 8, and a long iron/hybrid) Pick out a target and imagine a fairway width or green.  Hit to the target and mentally keep tab on how many of the ten balls landed within your target area.  Write down your percentage in the journal as well as the club used.  Rotate clubs each practice session. Over time, you will begin to see data that will be used in your Shot IQ database. Remember the more information you have the easier it will be to see your strengths or weakness.

Having Fun

Once you have a few data points under your belt, have fun with the process.  Give yourself bad lies on the range, imagine that there is a tree in your way (either go under or over), hit into cross winds, headwinds, downwind.  The Shot IQ becomes a valuable tool when you can replicate on-course conditions to your practice.  It becomes even more valuable when you can honestly measure your skill level by using your Shot IQ.  The tough part is then using it on the golf course (a whole different post).

Remember, it’s not how it gets in the hole, but how many!