Test Your Putting Skill

Test Your Putting Skill

By Bradley Turner, Keiser University College of Golf Executive Director and PGA Certified Professional

The majority of lessons that I have given in my career have been focused on improving a student’s ball-striking skills. Surveys continue to verify that golfers are concerned with hitting the ball farther and with more consistency. As an advocate of the short game, I find myself concerned with the same thing! There is something so satisfying with a well-struck iron shot that flies exactly how you pictured it. The strike of the club against the ball is what addicts golfers to the game.

Consequently, the short game and putting get a lot of lip service from the average golfer. These skills seem to be somewhat comparable to the PGA Tour player. Any avid golfer has made some long curling putts, and they all have chipped or pitched the ball in the hole, just like a PGA Tour player. What most of them have never done is hit a 230-yard five-iron over water to three feet from the flagstick. Most will never do that, which is precisely one reason people get hooked on golf. Is there a secret to hitting the ball like a tour player? How can I do that?

My First Putting Test

Many years ago, I was working regularly with John, who was a good young player with a seven handicap. We worked exclusively on his ball-striking skills, and during our practice sessions, I was convinced that he was going to shoot under par very soon. I would check his handicap postings and tournament scores and see that the scores were not changing very much. I could not figure out the core issue and thought that maybe he just had mental struggles on the course. Finally, I decided to have a simple putting contest with him, and that is when we found the problem.

I asked him, “What do you think you could shoot if you hit every green in regulation?” He said, “It depends on how close to the hole I hit the ball.” That was a great response, so I said, “You will have six short birdie putts, six medium-length birdie putts, and six from 30 feet.” He responded after a bit of thought, “66 seems like a good number to me.” So off we went to play 18 holes on the putting green with every putt different, attempting to replicate a great ball-striking day. When John completed this putting skills test with a score of 74, we decided to focus entirely on the short game, and we started with putting immediately. Can you imagine hitting every green in regulation and shooting over par? I started testing more and more students and found out how difficult it is for a good amateur player to shoot a low score even if they putt a birdie on every hole. I put hundreds of my students through this putting test and in 1992, I created a scoring rubric for it. Even par score equaling 72.

64 A hot day for a PGA Player

65-66 An average PGA Tour Player

67-68 Just missed the 36-hole cut

69-70 Will never make the field

71-72 Keep practicing

73+ Don’t hit another range ball!

PGA Tour Putting Stats

I recently reflected on my rubric from the early nineties to update it using the latest data from the PGA Tour website. The stats from the PGA Tour website are excellent for evaluating how the best in the world perform on various statistical measurements. I was pleasantly surprised that there has been little change from the research I had done 30 years ago. I have since modified the original test slightly, but the overall rubric still works well today. Here is what you can expect a PGA Tour player to perform in this putting skills test.

The first chart indicates the percentage of putts made by distance. There are six distance categories in the chart, with the best on the Tour, the average, and the 200th ranked tour player.

The Putting Skills Test

In the updated putting skills test, you will attempt three putts from each of the above distance categories. You would want to have a nice blend of uphill and downhill putts along with left to right and right to left. I suggest stepping off your putting start points as it does not have to be an exact distance, just somewhere close to each of the noted categories. The longest putt should be 30 feet, and the shortest 3 feet. The chart below shows how many under-par a tour player can expect to be with three attempts at each of the distances. Remember, we are hitting all 18 greens in regulation in this putting test. You will have three putts from 3-5 feet, three putts from 5-10 feet, and so on. What can you shoot?

Since the data does not include three putts, we will need to factor that into the total score. The best on the Tour for three putts per round is .30, which is one three-putt every three and half rounds. That is really good! The average PGA tour player will three-putt once every other round, which is .50 per round. The worst on the Tour is about .80 per round. Adding this back into the score, the Best on Tour will shoot 64.2, and Tour Average will shoot 66.1, and the 200th on Tour will shoot 67.9.

Take the Test

After a few months of hard work on the putting green, John started to shoot some low scores. He eventually broke par and shot a career-best 69. It was not easy, but understanding the areas of opportunity is essential to playing to your potential.

Find some time to go to a quality practice putting green and take the test yourself. What do you think you can shoot? I think it is important for golfers to assess their expectations before the test. Eighteen different putts from various distances. All putts for birdie. Seems like it would be easy to go low, but you will need to be highly skilled to reach the level of the 200th-ranked putter on the Tour. And if you score over par like John, with a little work on the greens, you may eventually shoot a career-best yourself.

Learn more!

Want more tips? If you want to take your game to the next level, contact our team at Keiser University’s College of Golf & Sport Management today. With our dedication and experience, we can elevate your game to new heights together. Give us a call today at 888-355-4465.