1/15/17 - Don't Wait to Taste Your Putts

When I was in Florida for the PGA Tournament Series in December, one of the marshals gave me the best putting lesson ever. Our group was lagging nearly two holes behind pace as we were taking turns riding the struggle bus. One of the guys in our group couldn't keep a ball in bounds, the other was having a career run on Tinder, and I was confusing trying hard with playing good golf. The marshal pulled me aside after a particularly lethargic group effort on the Par 3 13th and asked if I knew how long it took to hit my putt. I have a tendency to go into a bit of an alternate dimension while putting where time is essentially imperceptible. I think I may have minor synesthesia as occasionally I will be overcome by a metallic taste when I know a putt is going to drop or will see a physical manifestation of a faint yellow ring around the cup if I focus in the right way about the line. Yes, I am a freak. Anyways, I figured that I had taken longer than acceptable given the marsh's inquiry so I politely guessed 40 seconds or something. He showed me the stopwatch app on his phone and it had taken me nearly 2 minutes to hit a simple 8 foot putt. I was shocked, sincerely apologized as I hate slow play, and vowed to him and myself to pick up the pace. For the last 5 holes, I did not wait around to see if the magic yellow ring would materialize and I did not taste any putts. I did however 1 putt 4 of the remaining 5 holes simply by quickly reading the putt from below the hole, taking two quick practice strokes, and letting it go. In reality, the process probably still took 20 seconds or so but to me it felt like a sprint. I've carried this method over full time now and have been putting nicely.