This isn't a golf rule, but a club rule. We give out a prize for low putts for every tournament. What constitutes a putt?
If you use your putter from off the green, that does not count as a put. So a recipe for getting low putts is to miss a lot of greens, but not by very much. I'd rather have the GIR and a lower score than fewer putts.
If you use a wedge on the green (don't do that), then it's a putt. PGA tour pros can get away with this. You're not that good.
Once you've hit your first putt (defined as above), then every stroke after that on that hole is a putt. So if you putt off the front of the green, and you have to chip back up, for purposes of counting putts, that chip counts as a putt.
Maybe your club does it differently. I'd love to hear how you do it.
I've never liked the lowest putt contests unless it only includes total putts on greens hit in regulation.
ReplyDeleteBasically you're rewarding players who miss greens but were lucky enough to miss them fairly close to the pin. Let me illustrate it in an extreme.
One player hits 18 greens near the edge of the green and makes all 18 putts. Putt total 18. Another player misses all 18 but only a foot or so from the other player but off the green and on the shoulder. He also makes all 18 putts. Putt score? Zero.
How fair is that?
It's just for fun, and for a nominal prize. Many of the players in our club have zero chance of ever winning the low gross score. They could win low net, they could win closest to the pin, and they could win low putts. And we always have the exciting possibility of a tie and a putt-off. The last time that happened, it was pretty entertaining.
ReplyDeleteWell, many clubs have different flights so even high handicappers have the ability to win low gross in their flight.
ReplyDeleteBTW I didn't say stop the putting contest but one suggestion I might make is to count all strokes made from the putting green OR made using a putter. That would reward the players who were able to get up and down in two using a wedge from off the green.