Author Archives: Jay

About Jay

Weekend golfer whose goal is to always break 80.

Research Reveals the Secrets of the World’s Greatest Putters

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Mark Broadie of Golf.com posted an article about some “Secrets of the World’s Greatest Putters“.

It’s a very interesting article about the what is more important, having more one-putts or eliminating three-putts.  The importance really depends on what is your usual game.

Here are a couple of things from the article:

  • ” I compared the best putters on Tour today — that is, the leaders in Strokes Gained Putting — with the Tour’s average putters. The bottom line? The very best putters have 0.6 more one-putt greens (7.5 versus 6.9 per round) and just 0.15 fewer three-putt greens (0.40 versus 0.55 per round). The elite putters gain about four times as much from more one-putts than they do from fewer three-putts. (Granted, pros rarely three-putt.)”
  • “Takeaway 1: Get short putts to the hole. The better-putting 80-shooters leave 12 percent of their 10-footers short, compared with 17 percent for 90-shooters. [For pros, it’s only 7 percent.]”
  • “Takeaway 2: Short putts [say, three to eight feet] matter most. Better short putting leads to more one-putts and fewer three-putts.”
  • “Takeaway 3: Distance control matters. As Pat Goss, Luke Donald’s short-game coach, has said, “I don’t think there’s a more important skill in golf than controlling distance in putting.””
  • “Takeaway 4: Compare your putting with the benchmark: 80-shooters average about one three-putt per round, 90-shooters average about two, and 100-shooters about three. If you average more three-putts than your benchmark, consider a putting lesson.”

I think the biggest takeaway is that anyone who has more than 30 putts in 18 holes needs to work on their putting (I average 33 putts per 18 holes).

A different type of golf

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The second “hole” at White Spruce Park

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The fifth “hole” at White Spruce Park

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The seventh “hole” at White Spruce Park

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Welcome to Endor. The ninth “hole” at White Spruce Park

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Nature watching while playing a round. This woodpecker was just behind the teeing area for the seventh “hole”.

For the last few years I have been playing another type of golf, known as disc golf (do not call it Frisbee golf or “Frolf”).  There is a great course not far from my house that winds through the woods of White Spruce Park.

I don’t know if you have ever played disc golf, but it is a lot of fun and very accessible to people of all ages and skill level. And it is a great reason to go for a walk in the woods.

Rounds of disc golf are also very quick.  Each “hole” is usually between 200 and 300 feet, with the long holes being around 400 feet. Two people can play 9 holes in about 45 minutes, without feeling like they are rushing.  Eighteen holes in an hour and a half is good exercise with walking up and down the hills and making throws.  And you can play 36 holes in just a morning and then have the afternoon (ie. you don’t lose the whole day).

I have yet to achieve a hole-in-one, although I have been close a couple of times. I have heard a hole-in-one before, as you can hear the loud rattle of the chains on the basket when a long shot is “made”. The longest shot I have made is about 50 feet, which was pretty exciting.

Not only is disc golf quicker to play than regular golf, but it also much cheaper.  Most courses are free to play (as White Spruce Park is), or possibly just a nominal entry fee into a conservation area that has a disc golf course on the property.

You can also play with just one disc.  I use three.  I bought a starter set of 3 discs from ebay and have since bought a few more sets so that my friends can play too.  You can get a starter set of 3 discs for under $30.  A starter set consists of a driver, a mid-range, and a putter.  The discs are not your usual frisbees that you play with at the beach.

I also play disc golf year round and find winter disc golf to be much easier than in the summer (all the leaves being off of the trees and all).

I don’t play a lot (maybe once a month or so, but it is always great fun, and I never leave the disc golf course feeling frustrated (unlike how I sometimes leave the regular golf course).

So that’s my rambling post about disc golf.

Here is a video (not me) that I found on youtube of a guy getting an ace on the second hole.  It’s pretty impressive.

World’s Fastest Golf Cart

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Golf.com posted about a golf cart that set the world record for speed at almost 120 mph.

The article says:

A team from Plum Quick Motors claims to have reset their own Guinness World Record mark for “Fastest Golf Cart” at the Darlington Dragway in South Carolina on Friday.

The Plum Quick-designed cart reached a speed of 118.76 mph, annihilating their previous record of 103.65 mph.

“It was a very wild ride, right on the edge of being a very bad day,” wrote Robby [Steen], 52, who piloted the cart on its record-setting drive, in an email to Golf.com. “Prayed a lot and the good Lord let me walk away safe.”

Here is a Youtube clip of the ride from another perspective than seen in the Golf.com article.

I will stick with carrying my own clubs and walking.

How to Hit a Long Bunker Shot

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Do you dread hitting the long bunker shot as much as I do? You know the one I mean. The one where you are too close to hit a full shot, but too far away to blast out onto the green.  I usually hit these shots so good (rarely), or so bad (a lot).  This might help.