Putting accounts for 36 strokes of par on an 18 hole course - approximately half of the shots you attempt in a single round of golf… if you’re a scratch golfer. For good putters, it’s fewer than half, and for bad putters, well… you know what Seve Ballesteros meant when he answered “I miss, I miss, I miss, I make!” when a reporter asked him about a four putt.

If you’re solely a weekend golfer - a golfer who plays, say, 10-20 rounds a year - putting is probably not something you practice. And if it is, you maybe roll a few putts before heading to the first tee, and that’s the extent of the work you put in with the flatstick.

One of my goals with this podcast is to not just talk to good players - people who play in USGA Championships and majors and go out on tour and try to make a living playing golf - but to also talk to people who will make your game better.

Bill Smittle is one of those people. You can follow him on instagram @SmittlePutting. He was the long time head professional at Scarsdale Golf Club in Scarsdale, New York - one of five A.W. Tillinghast courses in a roughly 10 mile radius. (If you’re the first person to email leif@thegolfleif.com with the names of the other four, I’ll send you some Golf Leif swag!) 

He’s gone out on his own and built a business as a putting coach to elite players, turning the garage at his home in Valhalla, New York into an incredible putting studio, where he works with a lot of great players from the junior ranks to tour pros on their short stroke.

So let’s hear from the former Livonia, Michigan City Putt-Putt Champion on how you can improve your putting.