If You Miss a Putt are a Judge or a Scientist?

Speaker 1: CJ Goecks here from shortgamesecrets.com.

I'm looking around to see if there's anyone here because this is the most important thing I'm going to teach you when it comes to putting.

It is not your job to make a putt.

Let me say that again.

It is not your job to make a putt.

Right now you're probably ready to turn the channel and go to the next video but stay with me for a second.

Okay? Making a putt is an outcome based goal.

Okay? Think about in college for example, you walk in, you go to your class let's call it Algebra just for the heck of it and you want to make an A in that class.

Well how are you gonna do it? You have to go to class, you have to pay attention, you have to take notes, you have to read the book, you have to study.

All of those things will hopefully add up to the A.

You have the process and the outcome.

You cannot control the outcome.

If I took you to the first tee and said, "Hey I want you to shoot even par, 80 or 90, whatever is within your limits.

Can you control that standing on the first tee? Absolutely not.

All you can control on that first tee is that one shot.

If you hit it into the rough, can you still shoot even par? Sure absolutely.

Even if you hit the out of bounds you can think about a tour player, they can still shoot even par.

Again understand that it is not your job to make a putt.

I'm gonna say that about another 100 times so bare with me because if you get this philosophy down your putting will automatically improve.

You will love putting so much more.

All of the anxiety is gone.

The fear is gone, everything.

You're gonna have a philosophy that you can start improving. There are three factors that go into making a putt; speed, roll break.

Speed, roll, break, okay? The three factors.

Speed in its simplest form.

Break it down.

We're not talking about technique yet.

Speed in its simplest form is related to practice.

Are you actually out practicing? Are you practicing the right way? Here at shortgamesecrets.com I will teach you the right way to practice so that way you can improve in a short amount of time. Roll, roll is the second thing that improves.

Right? So speed, roll, and break.

Roll is the second component.

Roll is related to technique.

How well is that ball rolling end over end? I'm gonna show you that in a little bit but if that ball is rolling end over end, your technique's good.

You don't need to come see me.

You don't need to come take lessons.

Finally, break.

Break is your best guess.

It's based on experience.

If you know aim point, which I'll teach you some here in a little bit, but again if you know aim point it's an educated guess.

A very educated guess.

At the end of the day it is not your job to make a putt.

There are three factors.

What are they? Speed, roll, break.

What's speed related to? Practice.

Roll is technique.

Break is experience or your best guess.

What I want you to understand here is when you are going to hit a putt here you're going to stand behind the ball, you're going to line up this line and you're going to say out loud or to yourself, "What speed am I gonna go?" We're gonna call this medium.

I come up and I'm gonna do this quick.

I hit this putt and I'm gonna miss this.

Let me aim off here just a second.

Afterwards I have to become one of two players.

I can either become a scientist or a judge.

A judge, "Gosh darn it.

I missed that putt.

I can't buy a putt today." We've all played with people like that right? It was never us we're complaining about our putting it was always someone we played with.

Right? Somehow I doubt that but we've all been there.

We've all been judgmental and when that happens we really start this downward cycle of what is called ...

Right.

That hole we don't even want to even get into it but we don't want to be in that little rut if you will.

We'll just call it that.

I'm not going to go into any other details here but you do not want to do that with your putting.

What we want to become is a scientist.

A scientist, he does an experience, it blows up in his face, he just wants to know what two chemicals don't go together.

For me right here, I'm gonna ask why.

I'm gonna become that scientist.

Why did I miss that putt? Well my speed was a little firm but this thing breaks from right to left.

Had I hit that a little softer it would have broken in hypothetically.

Make sure you ask yourself these questions.

If this ball, and it's gonna be difficult for the camera to see just with this line, but if my stroke and my technique is good this ball will roll end over end back and through perfectly.

When that ball is rolling end over end I know my technique's good.

I just ask myself, "Why did I make or why did I miss? Was my speed what I wanted?" If it was that's a perfect 10. We've all watched golf on TV before where the commentators say, "Everyone's misread this putt." You have the best players in the world.

The best caddies who the caddies are all putting levels on the greens during the practice rounds trying to figure out the exact slope and they still misread putts.

How can we amateurs or people that don't play that often or do all that expect to read every green properly every time? We can't.

If your speed's good and your roll is good it's a 10. Again let me summarize here.

The three factors that go into making a putt are speed, roll and break.

When you set up to a hole you're gonna line up the line.

Right here.

You're gonna line that up exactly where you want to go.

You're gonna come behind the ball, you're gonna say out loud front, middle or back.

Again just so if we can see there's a hole right here ...

this far by if I'm putting from over in this direction.

This far bay, about a putter length or so, that's front.

If I miss and it rolls this far by, 10, 12 inches.

Right? That's medium and if it goes by a little bit further that's firm.

Now we know what we're trying to do for our speed.

I'm gonna putt here.

I'm gonna go medium speed.

I'm committed.

I come up.

I go through my routine.

Couple looks at the hole and I hit the putt.

The roll is great, speed okay.

Speed was good.

I did not make the putt.

Why didn't I make it? If my speed's good and roll is good then I missed it because of break.

That right there is a scale of one to ten.

Remember it's not your job to make a putt.

You need to focus on what you can control; speed, roll and break.

Speed and roll more specifically.

After you hit the putt become that scientist.

Ask why.

If you can do that your philosophy for putting is gonna get a lot better.

You're gonna alleviate all the stress.

You're gonna see that ball go in a lot more but more importantly if you do miss you're gonna know what you need to do to improve.

That is the key to better putting and better scores.