The 90/10 Rule of Putting
from "The Lost Art of Putting" by Gary Nicol & Karl Morris
This is day 4 in our 7-part series on The Lost Art of Putting by Gary Nicol and Karl Morris.
After years of coaching, the authors found that most golfers spend 90% of their time focusing on getting the right line. But in fact, pace is 90% more important. Pace determines line. You might even say that without pace, the line does not exist.
That’s the lesson a young Jordan Spieth learned from Ben Crenshaw.
Ben is one of the greatest putters of all time. One day, they were putting around Augusta like a couple of regular guys.
Jordan says, “Ben told me not to worry about my stroke, but to focus on the speed. If you hit your putts with the right pace, somewhere near the right line, you’re going to scare the hole. When my pace feels good, that’s when my putts start to go in.”
I love that line, “Scare the hole.”
The length of a dollar bill.
So Ben and Jordan agree with the authors. But what does the data show?
The hole is 4¼ inches round. That’s what researchers call the “effective width.” A ball hit at the right pace can fall in from the left edge, center, or right edge. You have all 4¼ inches to work with.
The golf ball is just 1.68 inches round. But for every turn that the ball takes, it moves 5¼ inches, about the length of a dollar bill.
I found that hard to believe. So I grabbed a golf ball and a dollar bill. I slowly rolled the ball one revolution. And guess what? It’s true.
Speed overpowers gravity.
According to extensive research, each full turn of the ball shrinks the effective width of the hole by 12%.
In other words, the speed overpowers the pull of gravity. So the faster the ball is moving, the more dead-center the putt needs to be.
Here’s the data.
If your ball has enough speed to roll 6 inches past, the effective hole width drops to 3.8 inches.
If your ball rolls 12 inches past, the effective hole width is 2.6 inches.
And if your ball rolls 18 inches past, the effective hole width is just 1.9 inches—less than half the size.
“The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.” Moliere
How many times have you slowed down in life and realized, “Wow, I should do this more often”? That’s the attitude the authors want us to bring to the green.
The great Harvey Penick agrees. He said that “never up, never in” was bad advice. Harvey suggested we cozy the ball up to the hole and give luck and gravity a chance.
So get a dollar bill and a golf ball. See for yourself how far the ball travels in just one turn. Then spend 90% more time practicing pace than line. Like Jordan Spieth, you may find that if you hit your putts with the right pace, somewhere near the right line, you’re going to “scare the hole.”
That’s all for today. Tomorrow, we’ll learn how to slow down on the greens and see the ball in a completely new way. Until then, keep imagining what’s possible.
best advice EVER for putting !
“Place it with pace” or “pace it in place!”