Jackie Burke - Lag Putting

Jackie Burke shares his thoughts and what he feels on his lag putts.


Transcript

Lag putting. Yeah, so this is where a lot of guys hit the ball most of the time on the green. The average player-- if they're on the green they have they have these long putts. And I think even for us, it would be great to make it. But the idea is not to have any work left.

Something close, yeah.

So speed is really important. This is a downhill pretty big breaking. So I like to try to figure out where the center of the hole is. So from this angle, almost around three o'clock there.

It's almost that way.

In between three and four o'clock. And so that's where I look as the center hole, and it kind of helps me figure out how much to play.

Helps you get over there.

Because I know it's got to be coming in at that angle. So that kind of helps me figure out where the break is. But it's the same thing even with a long and shot putt, just like chipping, I try to same speed back, same speed through. And the ball just gets in the way.

And you're-- you lift the putter off the ground, just like you said today, where you get that real easy stroke coming away from it.

Yeah.

That's what you're looking for right there.

No work left at all.

You seem very content with sort of-- I don't want to say-- you're sort of like that's good enough for me. In your whole game you're like, that'll do me.

Well, I just--

You know what I'm saying?

I'm very strategic in how I play the game. And you know what, I've talked with-- on the mental side of the game-- some people. And we say, you know, say you go out and shoot 66. How many bad shots do you think you can hit in a round?

Probably not too many.

No. Three, four, five-- somewhere around there. So you know what? You go hit a bad one, it's no big deal. You know what? I still got a couple more. They're probably going to happen. I can still play a great round of golf. But you know, I look at every single-- every single shot and just figure out what's the best way to play this one. And for this one, it's not one-- you know what? If you make one out of 10, one out of 20, I'm fine with it.

This is not a make putt. This is a really good 2 putt right here.

Ans so if it goes in, it's a bonus. But you 2 putt and get out, you're very happy.

Speed's obviously the most important thing in live putting.

That and getting the idea of the read right. Getting the read.

I've got the read right.

Twice as good as the last one. Next one's got to be close.

Yeah, for sure. In 18 holes, if you have-- as far as putting-- if you have nine looks inside of 20 feet, you're probably playing a great round of golf.

Yeah.

And so those other nine, you just got to figure out how not to butcher them and 3 putt. 3 putt avoidance is I think a very big stat that gets overlooked.

Absolutely. I was maybe not the greatest putter when I played in my career, but I was a really good lag putter. So I never feared 3 putting. You know what I mean?

Of course. And I'll say like--

I always used to say to my caddie, I said I can lag it. You got it. Little bit--

Better each time. Right?

Better each time. Right. What a quick learner.

Yeah.