I’m not a great putter so it infuriates me how much of your total golf score comprises of putts. Fiddling about with slopes and tap-ins and aim point, claw grips and arm locking, the knap, the mysterious effects of water, arc and angles and roll… It’s by far the most boring, time-consuming and fiddly element of our majestic game. Putting is the least golf-like thing about golf. And I love golf. I love the feeling of making a solid swing and getting a booming drive away. Of making that carry on the par-5 of playing an accurate iron into the heart of a green. Those athletic and, or measured blows should be given more emphasis. Here’s a practical scenario that explains why I think that.
On a 500-yard hole, one could smack a 300-yard drive. The perfect launch a beautiful flight with a touch of draw, piercing and fizzing its way through the air and covering nearly a fifth of a mile… One shot. Then a majestic 5-iron from 200 out, into the heart of the green, beautifully struck with the right power and the right shape. It sounded like a gunshot when the club made contact, the ball towered into the air, flew as straight as an arrow and landed softly 20 feet from the pin… One shot.
Then. the resulting putt narrowly misses, grazing the edge. It rolls three feet by. The return hits an imperfection on the surface, deviates by an inch causing it too to grab the edge of the hole, horseshoe round and narrowly miss. You’re then tapping in from an inch – Three shots. Two shots covered 497 yards and then three covered about seven yards. That doesn’t seem proportionately correct or fair. That’s why I like the idea of strokes made on the putting surface counting for just half a shot each.
That would put far greater importance on full shots and, particularly, on the accuracy of drives and approaches. I know that will be an unpopular thought with good putters but those whose strength is ball striking might just be inclined to agree.
I think it would also make for far more exciting viewing in tournament golf. Watching players laboriously looking at putts from every angle is so boring in comparison to watching the best swingers producing laser like drives and soaring approaches.
What is preferable, watching Rory McIlroy unleashing tee shots or missing three-footers? If those three-footers were a little less significant, his mastery of the long-game would be even more of a spectacle.
Alright – I know this half shot putting concept is a pipe dream but sometimes it’s important for us golfers to dream. If we didn’t dream of golfing possibility most of us would give up!
