Martin Kaymer and a Round of 22 Putts at Doral

What is it like to "ride a hot putter" for a round of 22 putts? Perhaps not as great with the flatstick as first appears, although certainly noteworthy.

Martin Kaymer in the third round at Doral fired a 6-under 66 to climb from 22nd into 6th place 4 shots off the lead, taking only 22 putts for the 18 holes. The day before he struggle with 32 putts. The Golfweek headline reads, "Kaymer Riding Hot Putter at Doral". Well, let's take a closer look and see what we can learn.

Here is a putt-by-putt account of Martin's round, courtesy of Shot Tracker at the PGA Tour website for the Doral event:

Hole 1: a par-5 reached in regulation with a third shot from 18 yards to 2' 9" -- made that for birdie.

Hole 2: a par-4 missed from 146 yards and an up-and-down from 18 yards to 6' 11" -- made that to save par.

Hole 3: a par-4 reached in regulation from 110 yards to 46' 11', lagged to 3' 1" -- 2-putt for par.

Hole 4: a par-3 missed by 20 yards then chipped to 1' 8" -- made that to save par.

Hole 5: a par-4 reached in regulation from 135 yards to 4' 11" -- made that for birdie.

Hole 6: a par-4 missed from 108 yards into a bunker 21 yards out, landed 7' 10" from the pin -- made that to save par.

Hole 7: a par-4 missed from 192 yards in a bunker 21 yards out, landed 5' 6" from the pin -- - made that to save par.

Hole 8: a par-5 reached in regulation from 73 yards to 3' 1" -- made that for birdie.

Hole 9: a par-3 reached from 135 yards to 16' 11" lagged to 2' 3" -- 2-putt for par.

11 putts:

• 3 1-putt birdies from 2' 9", 4' 11", and 3' 1"
• 4 1-putt up-and-down par saves from 6' 1'1", 1' 8", 7' 10", and 5' 6"
• 2 2-putt pars, 46' 11" + 3' 1", and 16' 11" + 2' 3"

Hole 10: a par-5 reached in regulation from 93 yards to 5' 8" -- made that for birdie.

Hole 11: a par-4 missed from 90 yards into a bunker 16 yards out, landed 10' 5" right -- made that to save par.

Hole 12: a par-5 reached in regulation from 93 yards to 29' 11" lagged to 2' 3" -- 2-putt for par.

Hole 13: a par-3 missed 32 yards out chipped to 15' 3", lagged to 0' 2" -- 2-putt failed up and down bogey.

Hole 14: a par-4 missed from 165 off to the right 5 yards out, chipped in -- 0-putt chip-in for birdie.

Hole 15: a par-3 missed 6 yards short, chipped in -- 0-putt chip-in for birdie.

Hole 16: a par-4 reached in regulation from 36 yards to 3' 5" -- made that for birdie.

Hole 17: a par-4 reached in regulation from 100 yards to 35' 6", lagged to 4' 4", missed 1' 7" long -- 3-putt for bogey.

Hole 18: a par-4 reached in regulation from 131 yards to 19' 10" -- made that for birdie.

11 putts:

• 3 1-putt birdies from 5' 8", 3' 5", and 19' 10"
• 2 0-putt chip-ins from 5 yards and 6 yards out
• 1 1-putt up-and-down par save from 10' 5"
• 1 2-putt par, 29' 11" + 2' 3"
• 1 2-putt failed up-and-down, 15' 3" + 0' 2"
• 1 3-putt bogey, 35' 6" + 4' 4" + 1' 7"

For the 6 different 1-putt birdies, only one is remarkable, from 19' 10" on the final hole, the only birdie putt of 6 sinks from outside 6'.

The par-save putting is where it's at, so to speak, since a low total-putts round is always accompanied by a high number of missed greens -- in this case, Martin missed 8 greens. Of those, he saved par 4 for 4 with his putter on the front side (all putts from inside 8') and then saved par only 1 of 4 with the putter on the back (from 10' 5"), bogeyed 1 of these 4 with a poor chip to 15' 3" (which he missed by only 2"), but also "saved" 2 of the 4 green misses by chipping in for birdie. These back-side 4 missed greens entailed only 3 putts for a 1-under end result.

The lag putting was not remarkable either. There were only 4 holes reached in regulation with long first putts and of these, Martin saved par only 3 of 4 times. The fact that he faced only 4 2-putt-for-par holes is pretty unusual, as 2-putt pars are normally in the range of 8-10 holes per round. Only one of these 4 long first putts was legitimately makeable. The long first putts were from 43' 11", 16' 11", 29' 11' and 35' 6". His efforts left second putts of 3' 1", 2' 3", 0' 2", and 4' 4", respectively. Lagging 44' to 3' is good as is lagging 30' to 2", but lagging 17' to 2' 3" is not, and neither is lagging 36' to 4' 4". Fairly typical of normal rounds.

In terms of length of putts attempted and made or missed, Martin faced the following 22 putts:

1st putts:

Front: 2, 9", 6' 11", 46' 11", 1' 8", 4' 11", 7' 10", 5' 6", 3' 1", 16' 11" (Total of 96' 6")

Back: 5' 8", 10' 5", 29' 11", 15' 3", 0', 0', 3' 5", 35' 6", 19' 10" (Total of 120' 0")

2nd putts:

Front: 0, 0, 3' 1", 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2' 3" (Total of 5' 4")

Back: 0, 0, 2' 3", 0' 2", 0, 0, 0, 4' 4", 0, (Total of 6' 9")

3rd putts:

Front: none

Back: 17th hole from 1' 7"

Martin basically cleaned up 4 of 5 2nd putts, the longest of which was 3' 1". Okay.

Of the 1st putts on the front, he sank 7 of 9 for a total of 33' 4" and an average sink distance of 4.7'. That's not all that big a deal, although it's nice shootin'. On the back, Martin sank 4 of 7 first putts for 38' 6" and an average sink distance of 9.6' -- pretty darn great, unless you isolate the 19' 10" putt on the last hole and look again at the 3 of 6 remaining first putts on the back. These three were sinks from 5' 8", 10' 5, and 3' 5" -- a total of 19' 6" and an average sink of 6' 3". That's good by any standard, but not fantastic.

In terms of ranges of putts:

0-3': 6 for 6

3-5': 4 of 5

5-10': 4 of 4

10-15': 1 of 1

15-20': 1 of 3

20-50': 0 of 3

So what makes a round of 22 putts? In this case:

• Miss 8 greens (3 par-3s and 5 par-4s) plus chip-in twice;
• On the remaining 6 greens missed, save par 5 times including 4 in the range 5-11';
• Reach 10 greens in regulation (4 of which are par-5s, and only 1 par-3, and 5 par-4s);
• On 6 of the 10 greens reached, sink 5 birdie putts inside 6' plus a nice long 6th birdie putt of about 20' (3 par-5s and 3 par-4s with approaches from 18, 73,and 93 yards on the par-5s and 135, 36, and 131 yards on the par-4s);
• On the 4 other greens reached, 2-putt 3 holes for par and bogey 1 hole with a 3-putt.

So, the formula for 22 putts is: miss 8 greens, get a couple of chip-ins, don't fumble 4 easy birdies inside 5', sink 2 nice birdie putts of 6' and 20', lag okay 4 times, and clean-up 4 par putts in the 0-3' range, sink 4 par-save putts in the 6-11' range, miss one par-save from 15' for a 2-putt bogey and 3-putt from 36'.

Bottom line on Martin's round is that he had two nice birdie putts of 6' and 20' but the real deal was saving par 4 times in the 6-11' range. The 5-15' range seems to make the difference. Here, Martin was 5 of 5, and in the range 5-17' he was 6 of 6. For 2009 on the PGA Tour, the number-1 ranked player averaged 54% in the 5-15' range; the middle of the pack averaged 45.5%. So Martin putted this range like a champ but also sank perhaps 3 putts more than one might expect even of a champ and also sank a birdie bomb from 20'.

That's stout putting.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum

Putting Coach and Theorist

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