Graham Averill has turned 50 this year and he’s freaking out. Instead of buying a motorcycle or getting a tattoo, he’s decided to try to get really, really good at golf. He started this project as a 13 handicap attempting to reach scratch in a year. He is now a 10. Welcome to his midlife crisis.
Putting. It’s arguably the most important part of the game yet the part most amateurs work on the least. The flatstick is definitely the biggest opportunity for improvement in my own game as I’ll lose an average of two to three strokes per round to a scratch golfer after stepping foot on the greens. My lag putting is serviceable if I’m familiar with the speed of the greens but get me within 10 feet of the hole and there’s zero chance I’m sinking the putt.
Seriously. 0.0.
As with every other aspect of golf, I never had putting lesson specifically on putting before starting this project. I just approached the ball in a position that felt natural and tried to roll it in the hole. Boy, was I doing it all wrong. I wrote about sending videos of my putting stroke to my coach, Sam Hahn, in a previous article, but his response is worth repeating.
“Well, the good news is you don’t have the yips and there’s nothing genetically wrong with you,” Sam said in a text. “The bad news is you have super-shitty fundamentals and some bad mechanics.”
That critique might sound harsh but I was actually relieved when he told me my putting stroke was so broken. Because if it’s broken, there might be a way to fix it. If Sam would’ve suggested just tweaking one or two little things, I would’ve been pretty disappointed. But a full putting stroke overhaul? That sounds like I have the potential for some significant improvement.
I don’t think every six-footer is going to magically start dropping but if I could make a couple of those per round, I could start shaving some strokes off my game and walk onto the green with more confidence. So I set up a video call so Sam could watch me putt on a mat in my backyard and offer his advice. I’m sure the putting overhaul is going to be a multi-week journey full of trials and tribulations similar to The Odyssey but Sam suggested some big changes to my setup and stroke right out of the gate.
He saw two primary issues on that video call. First, I was crowding the ball. He had me address the ball in my normal putting position and then bring a second ball up to my left eye and drop it straight to the ground. The dropped ball landed several inches outside of the ball I was going to putt, which means I was standing way too close. He had me move a step back and drop the ball again so that it landed just inside the ball I’m putting. That’s the distance I want from now on.
Sam also saw that I was putting almost entirely with my hands. In order to start engaging my shoulders in the stroke, he had me putt with my thumbs completely off of the grip. It’s amazing how this simple drill forces you to make the movement of the stroke with your shoulders instead of your hands.
There were a few other things Sam suggested I work on, like incorporating a more athletic stance over the ball and experimenting with some grip options, but those adjustments to the setup and mechanics were my main marching orders this week.
After our video lesson, I spent some time putting on my home mat and at my club’s practice green. I’ve been doing the “thumbs off” drill constantly and have even used that technique during some nine-hole practice rounds this week. Sam says my one thought process with the actual stroke should be that my right shoulder pulls back to start the backswing and my left shoulder pulls back to start the downswing.
I haven’t found a grip that I absolutely love yet and I’m toying with the notion of putting with straight arms, a la Bryson DeChambeau. I’ve lost my feel for distance control on lag putts with the new stroke but I think I just need more reps under my belt to get a better feel for matching the distance to the movement. I’ve even noticed this progression during my rounds. I’ll leave a 30-footer way short within the first few holes but get a similar putt close to the hole by the end of the round.
What’s interesting about this putting overhaul is that the adjustments don’t feel awkward. Some of the changes I made to my full swing at the beginning of this project made me feel like I was going through puberty again. My body felt weird. I didn’t know what to do with my hands. But these adjustments to my putting stroke feel easier to digest. And they’re already starting to pay off.
I played a single 18-hole round this week. I didn’t hit the ball particularly well and I even had three penalties off the tee which is usually the recipe for a scoring disaster. But I broke 80 for the first time in my life, carding a 78 at my home course. The biggest difference? No three-putts. I wasn’t suddenly sinking 20-footers for birdie. In fact, I didn’t sink any putt longer than 10 feet. But I had seven putts in the six- to 10-foot range and I made two of them. I typically make zero in that range. And that’s the difference between scoring 80 and 78.
Turns out that everyone was right all along. Putting really does make a difference.
Dig deeper into one golfer’s struggle to get better at golf in middle age and read last week’s Scratch By 50 where Graham goes deep into his mental game.
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