CHEER-FULL PUTTING
I pretty much agree with our Shivas, Steve Cohen, that the team golf and intra-nation rivalries of Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup, et al, create a strange brew of paradoxical qualities that are at times fun due to the match play format, but for the most part are either hollow in forced partisanship or antithetical to golf’s graces with all the phony who-o-o-o-p who-o-o-o-p who-o-o-o-p-ing and artificial exhortations to galleries which look almost embarrassed by players’ demands for ever louder yelping and outward demonstrations of support when the biggest rise a golf crowd feels is inevitably when silent tension explodes from unlikely success.
And yet there is one thing about these competitions that I always love -- and that is what they teach us about putting.
I was reminded of this again during last week’s Solheim Cup when watching Sergio-like choke putters like Paula Creamer and Michelle Wie suddenly start to drain both 60 footers and 4 footers with over the top joy and obvious relish regardless of tier, grain, break, or drainage patterns in devilishly plotted greens.
What is it about these “team” situations that they’re suddenly capable of turning the worst putters into the best?
Clearly it’s attitude, not anything physical.
Sure, the “analysts” were quick to talk about Michelle Wie turning to her new “Stockton gurus,” or Paula Creamer finally being “fit” at this point in “her” season.
But the reality is that in these cup competitions even pro golfers give off the obvious appearance of the veil of putting’s tension being lifted.
No doubt, part of it is the “second putt syndrome.”
We’ve all experienced this, in which the miss of a much desired putt can be immediately followed by a tension free practice putt that “doesn’t count” on a green before walking to the next tee. The sound of that “doesn’t count” putt dropping is almost automatic. And in these competitions, this syndrome rules because of the feeling that a player can just “go for it” because there is always the chance that his/her teammate will hole a follow up putt even if you miss yours.
But there is also the foreign sensation -- to a golf match anyway -- that golfers all over the course are cheering you on, even if they’re nowhere near you when you stand over a putt on the “farthest green from home.”
By contrast, I’d say it’s fair to characterize the more common emotion prevalent around a green as either fear of or the rooting for a miss (by one’s opponent certainly… and, dare I say it, even one’s friends… ah, forgive us humans our schadenfreude…).
Some golfers think of every putt -- even a 3 footer -- as a lag putt, in which the goal is to leave an easy “next putt.”
Others are more concerned with the reactions of those around the green, including their caddies, to what they do with their putts.
But under these team cup circumstances, players suddenly start prancing, smiling, and looking like Tiger Woods as they dance after their ball almost daring it not to go in.
There is simply a complete reversal in attitude on the green.
I don’t know if it’s possible to fool the mind into creating such an environment of “cheered-on” putting when it’s not naturally imposed by a tournament’s structure.
But I do know that cheer-full putting works.
And that getting in touch with that sensation is probably far more valuable than any amount of repetitive practice or concentration on mechanics and technique.
The body knows how to putt. You can see this by handing a putter to a toddler who has yet to speak the word “golf.”
It’s the mind that interferes with the fun and natural cheer of rooting -- even willing with a laugh or a smile -- a rolling ball into that cup.
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Richard Lees is on The Board of Directors of The Shivas Irons Society, and President of Richard Lees Capital Management in Los Angeles ( www.RichardLees.com ). STREAMERS attempts to reveal bits and pieces of one golfer's ”fascination.” As Shivas Irons puts it, “Gowf is a place to practice fascination, and as fascination is practiced, a capacity develops to put forth streamers of heart power for the ball to fly on."