Since I've been tagged several times in this thread, I'll try to give a condensed version of my putting method that I actually adapted from one that was handed down to me by one of the top golfers here who is no longer on the tour for reasons that I'm not going to get into.
Essentially, here's how it goes. I too have also made some minor adjustments as well and they are included below.
Step 1) Adjust Marker - The putting marker by default is borked. Especially on downhill putts. If your putt is 18 feet from the hole and it's a downhill slope of 6 inches, move the putting marker to 12 feet away from you (18-6). Do that for all downhill putts subtracting the slope from the distance. For uphill putts, do the reverse except add an extra 20% onto it. So, for an 18 foot putt with a 6 inch uphill slope, add 6 inches plus another 4 inches for a total of 28 feet.
Step 2) Adjust For Break - The green is going to either break left to right or right to left. Whatever direction the break is, move your putter in the direction of the break. Eventually, what you will notice is that the lines going across will straighten out. Make a note of how far you've moved the putter by counting the grid boxes. After you've done that, move the putter back even with the pin and then move it in the opposite direction (away from the break) the same distance you moved it with the break. Now, here's the last modification I've made and it's helped a lot. If the putt is downhill, you make an additional move of 2x clicks where x is the downhill slope. So if the downhill slope is 6 inches, you move the putter 12 more clicks in the opposite direction of the break.
Step 3) Calculating Pull Back Distance - This is the hardest part and the only way you're going to get good at this is with practice. Green speed has to be taken into consideration when doing this. So let's start with the easiest green speed which is actually 187.
Every 10 feet of putting distance is essentially a 1 second pull back. Actually, it's a little faster than 1 second and you will have to adjust. So for a 30 foot putt, I'll count 1, 2, 3 (actually I count 10, 20, 30 to coincide with the actual putting distance) and then let the putt fly. You also have to take into account the uphill or downhill slope. This is easy as you've already adjusted for it by moving the putting marker. So a 30 foot uphill putt with a 6 inch slope is really a 40 foot putt. So you'd count, 1, 2, 3, 4 before letting it go. A downhill putt of 18 feet with a 6 inch downward slope is pretty much a 10 foot putt. And even that may go a little long on 187 greens. You really need a light touch on downhill putts at that speed.
Now, what about the slower speeds? Well, this is where you have to start doing some crazy math. A green speed of 101 is not quite half the green speed of 187 but in practice turns out to he half the speed. In other words, I have found that for a 30 foot putt, I have to bring the putter back a count of 6. So what we need to do is calculate what 101 is of 187 and then figure the deviation between that number and the actual speed and apply that difference to all putts.
101/187 is 54%. In theory that means you'd have to add 46% to the putt pull back. But in practice, I find it to be 50%. That's a difference of about 10%. So you would add 10% to your pull back for all green speeds under 187.
So, let's take a green speed of 154.
154/187 = 82%. That means you have to add 18% to your pull back. So for a 30 foot putt, you'd have to add 18% of that or 5 additional feet. However, because of the 10% additional, you'd add another 2 feet for a total of 7 feet. So a 30 foot putt on green speed of 154 is equal to about a 37 foot putt. Since my system is 1,2,3,4, etc. you always want to go slightly over. Going under will leave you short. So play this like a 40 foot putt.
The key to all of this is getting the pull back just right. Count in your head. Do it over and over and over until you get that rhythm down just right. I don't even have to think about it anymore.
My putting has now gotten to the point where I'm missing 30 footers by a foot or less. But that's the problem. I'm still just missing my long putts. I haven't quite figured out that last piece of the puzzle. I suspect it has something to do with inconsistent breaks. They are they hardest to calculate.
I won't go into a full explanation on how I calculate inconsistent breaks but here's an example.
30 foot putt. The first 10 feet the break is flying from left to right. Between 10 and 20 feet, the break has slowed down to what I call one quarter speed. (This is a whole other lecture on calculating break speed). The last 10 feet there is no break at all.
Here is how I handle this. I'm coming closer but still not sinking many of these.
I move my putter in the direction of the break looking at the lines that are moving the fastest. I stop when the lines straighten out. I then move back in the opposite direction the same amount.
Now, if the break were this same speed all the way down, this putt would be very close. But I know that between 10 and 20 feet I'm at one quarter speed and between 20 and 30 feet it's a straight putt so, on a left to right break, I'm going to end up far left of the hole.
So the question is, how far back to the right do I bring my putter?
This is when I have to use my break speed formulas.
For one quarter break speeds, I take the distance and divide by 4. So, for a 30 foot left to right break, I take 30/4 and come up with about 7. That's 7 feet left of the pin. How do you figure where that is?
Now we go to the girds. Each grid box is a yard but actually plays like 5 feet. In other words, if you have a 5 foot fast breaking putt, left to right, move your putter to even with the left edge of the box the hole is located in, pull back half a second, and you'll sink that putt.
So with each box playing like 5 feet, from the center of box 1, where the pin is, to the center of box 2 to the left, is effectively 10 feet. So, to move it seven feet left of the hole, it's basically 5 feet plus a couple more clicks. You can try to eyeball it too.
Okay, so using this same formula, we have 30 feet for the fast break, 7 feet for the slow break and nothing for the straight putt.
It would be nice if we could just take those 3 values and divide by 3 and be done with it. But it doesn't work. Why? Well, the number we'd come up with is about 12 feet. That's essentially a little more than one grid box to the left. If we were to use this distance, we'd find our putt going way right of the hole.
Why?
Because that initial fast break of 30 feet carries the most weight putting at normal speed. Remember, we're only pulling back our putter for 3 seconds.
There are two ways to compensate for this.
1) Pull the putter back longer. This will hit the ball harder and delay the break. The problem with this method is that the ball is now traveling at the hole at a faster speed than you want. So you have to be dead on the money to sink this putt otherwise you're going to go way past the hole.
2) Adjust for the break. This is what I do. I rarely sink these but I come close. And this is how.
I simply knock off 10% for the 30 feet (bringing me back to 27 feet), 10% for the 7 feet (bringing me to about 26 feet) and another foot for the straightening out (bringing me to about 25 feet).
So instead of aiming 3 whole grids away from the pin, I aim 2.5 grids from the pin.
This method gets me pretty close, again, usually within a foot.
Once I can make that final adjustment that's been eluding me, I might actually be competitive in the PGA where I've missed my first 6 cuts. It has not been pretty.
Putting is, without any doubt, the hardest part of this game. Follow my ghost ball sometime for a good laugh and watch all the 30 and 40 footers I'm missing by inches. It's comical.
Now, some of the green textures, it's almost impossible to see the lines. On those greens, I'm pretty lost. The darker greens, easy. The lighter greens, very hard. I've almost given up on them and just play by feel. After a while, you will develop a feel for this. I promise you will.
Then you too can miss every putt by inches as well. LOL.
Good luck!
