PUTTING

On September 16th 1999 Thomas Svanstedt played for Stockholms Golftidning in SPY Bar Open at Arlandastad

"I knew that if I could just keep the in play then the birdieshots would come and with good putting it can also make a good score. I decided to go for birdieputts from the start and not just try to keep the score together like one would usually do when you're playing good, but keep going for birdies the entire lap.

The whole thing ended with 6 birdies, 1 bogey for 5 under par. 67 strokes, only 1 stroke after courserecordholder Joakim Haeggmann and 1 stroke ahead of Gabriel Hjertstedts 68 strokes.

A summary: Can you make the putts under 2 yards and drop a few of the longer ones then even your score will drop significantly.

Putting is often the difference between winning and loosing. It can also be the difference between a desent round of golf and your best ever. It can be the difference between playing on the US tour or just swedish clubtournaments.

Earlier we swedes where internationally known bad putters and it was blamed on our bad greens, etc. Our national team coaches didn't understand why golfers from other countries where such good putters.

It's been written numerous times about how swedish golfers had the best swings but the worst putts and therefore had so few international victories.
Was our season too short? Where our greens not in good condition enough? Did we train to little or the wrong way? Putting indoors during wintertime and with the right attitude I say is something that can make anyone to a good putter.

Think about how many times you use your driver during a lap on the course. Perhaps on 10 of the holes and probably not anymore any more than any other club. The putter on the other hand is used between 30 and 36 times per lap. That's 3 times as much as any other club in the bag, for most people.
Do you put 3 times as much time on the puttinggreen as you do on the drivingrange? Hardly.

One may here:
I played great today but as usual the putting was terrible. Although there are no shortcuts to good putting. The thing is to keep on with a goal-oriented training.

On the other hand I can cheer up the readers that when you get a good putt it's easier to keep it without having to train as often. This is because putting is more mentality than any other part of the game and if you believe you can putt with good results then you will put with good results.