A question many golfers as themselves is, why is a six-foot par putt (say) easier to sink than a six-foot birdie putt?<\/p>\n
There has even been some research done<\/a> on the question.<\/p>\n This what I think, and it’s kind of an easy answer.<\/p>\n You probably have lots more six-foot putts for par than for birdie. You know if you miss this one, another opportunity will come later in the round and you’ll probably sink it.<\/p>\n A six-foot birdie put, on the other hand, comes around maybe once every three rounds or so for most of us. We don’t get a chance like this very often and we have to make advantage of it when it comes up. And that is the problem right there.<\/p>\n I remember a round I played on a course that has fiendish 17th hole. Par 4, somewhat longish, with a bunker on the left guarding the entrance to the green. Even hitting the green with your second is hard to do.<\/p>\n The pin was in the back left. I hit a hybrid which drew perfectly and ended up eight feet past the hole. <\/p>\n Getting a birdie here would be a feather in my cap and I knew I would never have another chance like this again.<\/p>\n Of course, I missed the putt. <\/p>\n The urgency to get an unexpected birdie putt into the hole takes us out of our usual process, our usual mental approach to the putt. <\/p>\n Instead of knowing what we are doing, and being as comfortable with it as if it were a par putt, we are really uncomfortable because there is so much at stake. We are mentally adrift.<\/p>\n We start hoping the ball into the hole instead of hitting it in. And that’s the difference.<\/p>\n Think this, regardless: If the ball goes in, it goes in. If it doesn’t go in, it doesn’t. There’s nothing more to it. <\/p>\n Now if it were an eagle putt…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A question many golfers as themselves is, why is a six-foot par putt (say) easier to sink than a six-foot birdie putt? There has even been some research done on the question. This what I think, and it’s kind of an easy answer. You probably have lots more six-foot putts for par than for birdie. … Continue reading Par Putts and Birdie Putts<\/span>