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How Much of Putting is Luck?

Idrops

Idrops

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I think there are three main aspects to putting:

1 Reading the break and devising your line.

2 Hitting the ball with proper club face angle and path.

3 Hitting the ball with proper speed.

If you do all three properly you should sink the putt, but we all know there are little idiosyncrasies in every putt. For example, the ball may be influenced by a few blades of different grass, or a piece of dirt may alter the path, or the wind can change the speed or line. There are so many little things that influence the roll that you may not see or plan for unless you studied each putt with a level and magnifying glass. The further the putt, the more these things come into play. So how much is luck or random occurrence? I believe if you do the above three things well, you only increase your chance of sinking the putt. There has to be some luck involved.
 
Or the groundskeeper plants C4 around the course to kill a pesky gopher.

Luck is nothing more than when skill and preparation come together. The amount of luck needed to sink a putt is less when the line and speed are read properly.
 
Thainer said:
Like Gary Player always said. The more I practice, the luckier I get!
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That's what I was planning to say. That is it in a nutshell.
 
There's always going to be random elements that influence the ball just by virtue of the fact that golf is played outside in a dynamic and changing environment. This isn't shuffleboard where you can make the playing surface relatively uniform and static. The skill involved in reading your line, proper face angle, and speed definitly protects you as much as possible from those unforseen influences. When I get a good break in golf I never feel guilty, because I will always remember those putts that were headed for the cup and then inexplicable took a weird turn.
 
Canadan said:
Oh there's luck, but isn't there luck in every element of the game of golf?
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its all skill, especially when you are putting with a Top Flight XL Distance...doesnt get much better than that
 
Skill and hard work are both involved so that when Lady Luck taps you on the shoulder you are "ready to dance."
 
I just hole out from the fairway everytime, and have no idea what this "putting" thing you speak of is.
 
I really don't think there is more luck to putting than there is to any other aspect of the game and there may be less in some cases. If you play courses where the groundskeeper is both good and consistent in his handling of the greens then I think luck plays less of a role.

I am not sure if your point number 2 covers it but hitting the ball on the sweet spot has a major impact on the quality o the roll and the distance the ball will go. If you rarely hit the ball on the sweet spot it is probably hard to get a feel for how hard you need to hit the ball.
 
I would say half skill and half luck i don't really know though. Cause sometimes everything rolls in and sometimes it burns the edges. It can go either way on a specific day

But my dad has always told me putting is where you make your money
 
There's always a small element of luck with any golf shot....if your drive came down 2 inches to the right it would have hit the 150 yard marker in the fairway and bounced another 50 yards....things like that. But without great speed and a good line and good execution, that put doesn't get anywhere near the hole so it can drop over the edge when blugold blows up the C4 he is using to kill the gophers.....just sayin'
 
I'm with census. Maybe little bit of luck But whole lot of skill to make everything come together
 
Personally, I think luck is about one fourth of putting. Call it luck or random occurences or dynamic influences or whatever, you can only manage the other three things to increase your odds of sinking the putt.
 
Idrops said:
I think there are three main aspects to putting:

1 Reading the break and devising your line.

2 Hitting the ball with proper club face angle and path.

3 Hitting the ball with proper speed.

If you do all three properly you should sink the putt, but we all know there are little idiosyncrasies in every putt. For example, the ball may be influenced by a few blades of different grass, or a piece of dirt may alter the path, or the wind can change the speed or line. There are so many little things that influence the roll that you may not see or plan for unless you studied each putt with a level and magnifying glass. The further the putt, the more these things come into play. So how much is luck or random occurrence? I believe if you do the above three things well, you only increase your chance of sinking the putt. There has to be some luck involved.
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That's a good question.

Obviously there's some luck involved and I think that the percentage of luck versus skill and planning increases as the putt gets longer or more severe.
But I'd say that inside of ten feet the amount of luck wouldn't (shouldn't?) be more than 5 percent and I'd add about 5% more for a twenty footer.
Outside of that, I'd add a percentage point for every foot beyond twenty.
 
A couple of years ago, after a particularly bad run of putting, I decided to make the three hour drive to Cog Hill for a putting lesson from Kevin Weeks, a noted putting guru here in the mid west. After watching me roll a few, Kevin asked me what was I trying to accomplish. Seemed like an obvious answer: "trying to put this ball in that hole". Kevin then explained that the only thing I couldn't control was the ball going in the hole, so if you hit the ball on the chosen line at the chosen speed, it's a good putt whether it goes in or not. Best putting advice I ever got as it took all the pressure to make putts away.
 
Well, when you put it that way. Thats the goal of golf itself. Put the ball in the hole. No matter if you are putting, chipping, or hitting your driver from 400 yrds out. You still want the ball to fall in that white space surrounded by all that green stuff.
 
The worse putter you are, the more luck is involved with making it. For me luck is 114% :D
 
I would say there is luck, but mainly with the weather. You hit the perfect putt but a gust of wind comes up and you lip out; bad luck. You hit a terrible shot, but it goes so far off line it hits something and rolls in; good luck. You've played the front nine and the crew have been watering the greens on the back and you have no idea how slow they've gotten; bad luck (unless you've been putting terribly, then it can only help as good luck). Really I think the weather is most unpredictable thing in the game, and unpredictability is what we call luck.

My favourite saying for us non-scratch middlers: Golf is 90% mental, 9% physical, and 1% luck.
 
If putting involved this much luck, the same guys would not be the best putters on tour year after year.
Luck in putting is no more to me than luck in any other shot in golf.
It is still about the same 3-4 things for me.
Tools fitting the player
Line
Execution
Stroke
 
The luck involved in putting:

lucky to have good eyesight;
lucky to have good hand/eye coordination;
lucky to have the desire to be a good putter;
lucky to play on a course where luck is less of a factor.
 
Jeanthemachine said:
The luck involved in putting:

lucky to have good eyesight;
lucky to have good hand/eye coordination;
lucky to have the desire to be a good putter;
lucky to play on a course where luck is less of a factor.
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I'd say the last one is luck.

The first three are genetic.
 
JB said:
If putting involved this much luck, the same guys would not be the best putters on tour year after year.
Luck in putting is no more to me than luck in any other shot in golf.
It is still about the same 3-4 things for me.
Tools fitting the player
Line
Execution
Stroke
Click to expand...

Not sure how I missed this thread, but I will agree with this 100%. Bad golfers can make great shots, just like a guy with a terrible putting stroke could drain a 20 footer. Thats lucky.. but whats not lucky is the guy who practices and has the right equipment and a good swing will make a lot more of the 20 footers than the bad golfer.
 
I'd say if there's luck involved, it's luck in choosing the right line and speed.
 
I'm in the not so much luck camp. Of course reading a green is a skill set as it can be learned and developed. There are of course uncontrollable acts of nature that have an influence but if you don't put yourself in that situation or knowing how that can influence it again then it still comes down to skill in the end.
 
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