David Leadbetter on Putting from Off the Green

David Leadbetter did a short article for Golf Digest called Rollerball on how to putt from off the green. It's a very short article with diagrams and a video.





There's one tip in particular that I think you'll want to glean from his post. David suggests hitting the ball 10% to 15% harder than a regular putt to be sure you get it there. Personally, I always find these percentage figures confusing when I'm on the course, so here's a simpler way you might want to try:

For every 3 paces you need to roll the ball through the "rough," count an extra pace to get your distance.

Example: Let's say you pace off your putt and it's 12 paces from the ball to the hole, but 5 of those paces are off the green. I'd add 2 paces -- I'm rounding off here -- to compensate for the 5 paces that are in the rough, and try to hit my putt about 14 paces.

Look, there's no one easy formula for this because the grass on every course is different. You'll have to learn how to adjust for the type and height of grass on your course, and of course downhill putts roll farther with less effort than uphill putts. But this is a good place to start -- the more rough you have to putt through, the harder you'll hit the ball -- and it's much easier than calculating percentages for each putt.

To adjust: If you're hitting the ball a little too far this way, add fewer paces; if you don't hit it far enough, add more paces. But this is a simple way to get a ballpark figure.