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Putting - An UnnecessaryEvil
1/19/2004
The easiest shot in golf is the fourth putt.
If the inventors of this game had any idea of the lasting psychological effect putting would have on mankind, I am sure that they could have found a better alternative.
Putting is a game within a game, and as described by Ben Hogan, “One is played in the air, and the other on the ground. Unfortunately, so many fine hitters of the ball have succumbed to the putter, and putting.
Back in the thirties and forties there was a fine professional golfer by the name of Dick Metz. He won many tournaments on the, what was then known as the Circuit. He was best known for blowing the 1938 U. S. Open on the last round and losing to Ralph Gullsahl. He was known as “Handsome” Dick Metz, and at the beginning of the lat round he was offered a movie contract if he won. That didn’t help, because at that time he had just gotten out of the hospital from an car wreck, and was badly in need of money. Dick was noted for being one of the finest hitters of the ball, but one of the worst putters.
Some years later, I was doing a weekly TV show, when the President of a Golf Company that I worked with, called me up and wanted to know if I had seen Dick Metz, seeing g that he lived in my area. I had no idea he lived here but I tracked him down
Dick had a four thousand acres cattle farm out in the country, and I went out and visited with him. While I was there I asked him if he would be a guest on my program. He said, “No , I have quit the game and have not hit a ball in over two years, and I will show you why.” He took me to an adjacent building, and leaning against one wall were over one hundred putters. There was every type and description of putter known to man at that time. I wanted to buy a bunch of them to sell at my club, but he had a sentimental attachment for most of them.
“Show me a man with two putters in his bag and I will show you a bad putter“
I finally talked him into going on the show, not once, but twice. It was not too long when he got the itch again and came out to the club and started practicing. Soon he was playing, and I played with him many times. He hit the ball like a machine, but you had to turn your back on him when he got into the under six foot range. It was if he had decided to hit the ball firmly into the back of the cup, but during the course of the stroke, one hand would say to the other, “Damned if I will.” One hand would quit and the other kept going. It was awful to watch.
I finally talked him into playing in the State PGA. It was 54 holes, and the first day he shot 36-36-36. He came off of the last hole and held up his putter, and said, “This is what keeps me in the cattle business.” The next morning I took him out on the putting green and offered to help him. He said, “Everyone has tried to help me. “Jerry Barber felt so bad about my putting that he flew five hundred miles just to give me a putting lesson.” I told him I had a temporary fix for him for that day. All I did was move the ball back a little in his stance. He wasn’t used to choking that far back. He shot 33-33-33, and won the tournament. He was elated and started talking about going back to playing. I told him that fix was only temporary. and by next week I would have to move the ball behind him.
Dick went on to with the State Open, sold his ranch, and took a big pro job in Texas, and he went on to win the PGA Seniors, and the International Seniors. I met him at an airport some years later and he was back in the cattle business. Not too many years ago Dick committed suicide. I would like to believe it was for health reasons, not putting.
Shortly after the war I was Assistant Pro at the Hermitage C. C. in Richmond, Va., when Bobby Locke first came to this country. He was noted as being the best putter in the world, and he proved it to the pros in this country while he was here. He had the worst looking putter you have ever seen, but when he stroked the ball he had the touch of a brain surgeon. His putting stroke gave you the impression that he was trying to hook the put, not unlike the rest of his game, which was all hook. I found a putter exactly like his and good not knock one in a barrel with it.
We, in the golf profession, try to teach putting. For years we used a pretty standard way in gripping the putter. Now some of the pros look as if they were contortionists in gripping the club. All of these grips are ways these individuals have found to prevent themselves from choking. There are days when you go out and the hole looks like a barrel, and other days it looks like a thimble and you are putting with a basketball. If you have the touch and confidence, you can putt with a broomstick.
I have attended many seminars, and clinics, on putting. When you leave them, you realize that all of the theories that are involved makes putting virtually impossible. You have to worry where you place the ball, worry about all of the footprints on the green, which way the grain is running, and you have a breaking putt to the left, and the grain is running to the right, and a thousand other things. Every time I leave one of those clinics I am thoroughly confused. Not at all like when I was a youngster on the putting green. I putted right handed, left handed, cross handed, and won every tournament in the world on that putting green. I had no fear. It was not until many years of missing important putts did I develop the fear of that three footer coming back. Suddenly you stop thinking of making a putt, but just don’t three putt.
An unscruoupulous individual died and was sent to hell. One day he mentioned to someone how much he missed golf. One of them said, “We have golf courses down here.” They took him out to a fine golf course. He got a set of clubs, some balls, and with a caddie, headed out to the first tee. He was an ordinary golf and hit it everywhere and had a 20 handicap. On the firs tee he nailed on 250 yards right down the middle. His second shot was 10 feet from the hole. The following holes he was hitting it like a machine from tee to green, but had not made a putt. He was getting a little cocky by now, and said if I can get this putter to working, I will tear this course up. His caddie replied, "You will 2 put every green down here, That is the hell of it.”
©2004 Fred Larsen All Rights Reserved.