Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Good, poor putting

I'm not a good golfer, and I'm certainly not an experienced golfer, but I'll say what I think, and it's there, open to critique.

Golf on the green, or good, poor golf there anyway, isn't about precision, but about shortening distances. Back at the start of the hole, when I step up to the tee, I plan on gracefully driving the ball a good distance toward a goal, but I don't (hopefully) tighten up with any responsibility for getting it exactly to a goal; similarly, when I'm on the green, it seems wise to putt toward the hole, but not hold the burden of dropping it in the hole.

If I average two or more putts per hole (I average far more than two putts per hole), then I think I should always be "two-putting"-- that is, before every putt (even my third or fourth putt), I should perhaps be aiming more precisely than the last (unless my distance didn't shorten!), but still allowing my mind another putt: In the end, aiming toward that center of the hole, but Banking on reaching that goal only with my next putt (with my very limited ability to be precise). In this way, I can focus more on my body, or nothing at all, and less on my brain.

This helped me a lot today-- I enjoyed my putts, and I putted much better.

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