putting

Hi guys, question, I have just started counting my puts (which is averaging 33) but do you only count the puts you actually use with your putter, as a friend of mine usea a shot which I also use sometimes use, when its a very long put and its on the fringe we use a 5 wood or he uses driver to very good effect is this classed as a put, so on the fringe someone else uses a putter is this a put.

The only shot that I count as a putt are the ones where the ball is on the green.

Using your putter on the fringe or further out is not a putt to me it's just another shot.

If my ball is only six inches off the green and I putt the ball into the hole then I put that down as a zero for putts on that hole.

Russ

Call me old fashioned but if your using your putter then it's a putt.

OK let me put it another way, is the ball airborne? If so it's a chip, with all the unpredictability of the first bounce. If you've got your own agenda re stats on hitting greens in regulation and no of putts then of course there'll be some bias but lets call a spade a spade.

The instructions for my analysis software particularly say "only record putts taken from on the putting surface", so that's what I do.

 OK call off the dogs. It seems the general concensus that fewer putts is better though if your overall total shots are the same I don't see what the fuss is all about.

 Nick's point re putting out of a bunker. I do it whenever possible. If some of the lips on bunkers are smooth you'd be a fool not to consider putting from the bunker. Does depend on the sand and where the pin is of course.

Just chuck my twopenneth in.  The last few games I've used my putter left handed to get back onto the fairway when stuck behind a tree.  I can get 20 yards and a good couple of feet high with it - the last time I was still 180yds from the green so that wasn't really a putt...

I think stats are only there to help you improve your game by highlighting what to work on.  Personally I count it as a putt if it is just off the green....but then I don't putt it if I am half way down the fairway.

If you take it to extremes, if someone missed every green by 6 inches and putted from there each time, and each time took 3 to get down would you record that as 0 greens hit and 36 putts so go and work on your short irons?! 

 I did once play with someone who would use their putter from 60 yards out as they couldn't hit pitch shots, but then used to haed off the green muttering about "another bl**dy 3 putt".....

I keep my stats as I too believe that it will help my game.

When I first started keeping them I soon worked out that I wasn't hitting enough fairways from the tee.

It also pointed out to me that putting was probably the best part of my game.

Russ

 Russ, couldn't you see the fairways from the tee? Only joking... 

My tee shots are allergic to fairways.

Patrick, it was realising how few fairways I was actually hitting during a round that was surprising.

It was the same with putting, only after writing down how many putts I was taking during a round did I realise that it was the best part of my game.

Russ

Allergic John, you sure you dont mean attracted!!

Anyway, I would only count the ones on the green - if only I could get there!!

Hi Dennis, Waterloo on Monday if they have buggies. Club stableford.

 Russ your post also reminded me of my club Calverley (I'm leaving next week...just had a game today and though temp greens reduced to three, no doubt to placate members around renewal time, it must have been 35mph winds) and hitting fairways. Of the ten par 4's and sole par 5 there are no less than 7 blind drives.

Hi John, played Wellington today and had a mare!!

Would love to play Monday but work is hectic this week. May be able to catch up on the range on Tuesday / Wednesday altough I know youre playing now too!

Will soon organise every Monday morning off so I can start to participate in these events!

Will always make myself available for the range, Dennis, you know that. Just let me know the day and tiume and I will be there.