OT. Giving putts

[mike_malone]

I’m in the Z flight of the club championship but it’s still a competition. My opponent was down 3 on 14. He had a tricky 3 foot putt to win the hole.  I made him putt it. He missed and was upset with me.


  I realized tonight that I use this indicator for judging whether to give a putt. 


Could I miss it ?

[Sean_A]

I’m in the Z flight of the club championship but it’s still a competition. My opponent was down 3 on 14. He had a tricky 3 foot putt to win the hole.  I made him putt it. He missed and was upset with me.


  I realized tonight that I use this indicator for judging whether to give a putt. 


Could I miss it ?

I am fast approaching 60 and care very little about any false idea of bad handicap competition. On the other hand, I don't care enough to get upset about not being given a putt. If I think someone is getting carried away with the real spirit of these we suck events, I will avoid playing with them in the future. I ain't gonna complain, but I may take the piss out of a guy if he's a mate. 😎 The bottom line is that golf boils down to putting the ball in the hole. To get upset about having to do that is daft.

Ciao

[Pete_Pittock]

I’m in the Z flight of the club championship but it’s still a competition. My opponent was down 3 on 14. He had a tricky 3 foot putt to win the hole.  I made him putt it. He missed and was upset with me.


  I realized tonight that I use this indicator for judging whether to give a putt. 


Could I miss it ?

Did he halve the hole?

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

For years the lengths of country club gimmies have been a joke!  In match play, it is a standard well proven strategy to give short putts early and then make the opponent putt them when the match is on the line. For a few long running money games over the years, there has been a hard rule that a putt is only good if it is inside the length of the actual standard grip.  A former great MLB player I play with always states, "if need that putt to be declared good, then let's see you prove that it is good!". And it is amazing how a $20 putt from 18 inches can completely miss the hole!

[Rob Marshall]

He shouldn’t be upset, he missed it. That’s on him.

[Cal Carlisle]

A lot can happen in three feet, especially above the hole. The only person he has to be pissed at is himself.

[mike_malone]

  He did halve the hole, Pete. I think I gave him that putt.


 In a recent club partnership event that goes all summer I gave a five footer to our opponent to halve 17. We were one up and I didn’t want to win by him missing. My partner wasn’t happy.


I knew if it went to extra holes we got strokes on one and two and the gifted guy got one on one.


Of course he birdied 18 to go even and we won on two.


I still would do that again. It was fun but a little stupid.
   

[Thomas Dai]

A notoriously poor putter of my acquaintance wasn’t happy when not conceded a short putt. His opponents response? “I like your putting stroke so much I thought I’d like to see it once again.”
Atb

[mike_malone]

I’m considered stingy by The Breakfast Club for not giving putts in casual matches.


  I like the occasional good/good to end a well contested match at even. Recently I offered this to an opponent who was outside my partner and he said “no”. I’m nervous around people who want to win ten dollars that much.


My partner missed while the other guy made. Btw my partner was the opponent in my initial post.

[Dan Boerger]

I am with you Mike. I always assume my hole ends when the ball is in the cup, and I never expect anyone to give me a putt.


I was in a friendly match this week, our opponent missed a very tricky downhill putt that would have (IMO) normally been in gimme range if it was uphill. He missed the putt and muttered "so it's going to be like that, is it."


All in good fun, but I do think we are all better golfers when we putt out.

[Michael Felton]

My point of view in this is if I think I should be given a putt, then it must be an easy putt, so if I don't get given it then just hole it. If I miss it, then my opponent was right not to give it. In OP's situation, I think it would depend a little on how putts like that had been treated earlier on in the game. If both sides were giving putts like that and then you made him putt one when he's 3 down and 5 to go, I could see them being a little annoyed (not that that means you should have given it to him). I suspect however that he was mostly annoyed at himself for missing the putt and decided to redirect it.

[John Kavanaugh]

I wish I had the control over my emotions all you do. Sometimes a Dick is a Dick.

[Kevin Pallier]

He shouldn’t be upset, he missed it. That’s on him.

+1

[John Kavanaugh]

99% of given putts speed up play. In every money game that I participate a length that is good is predetermined before play begins.


For those of you who don’t understand the effects of aging on the golfing mind please note: Old dudes get physically and emotionally tired during competition. Putting everything out and digging the ball out of the hole 18 times is beyond the pale of relaxation.

[Kalen Braley]

A 3 footer, that's tricky too?  Hell no I wouldn't concede it!

That dude was clearly already on tilt being down 3 that late in the match..

We can't all be Nicklaus!

[Kyle Harris]

I’m in the Z flight of the club championship but it’s still a competition. My opponent was down 3 on 14. He had a tricky 3 foot putt to win the hole.  I made him putt it. He missed and was upset with me.


  I realized tonight that I use this indicator for judging whether to give a putt. 


Could I miss it ?

No putt to win/extend a match or prevent Dormie is ever good. Come on.

[Kyle Harris]

99% of given putts speed up play. In every money game that I participate a length that is good is predetermined before play begins.


For those of you who don’t understand the effects of aging on the golfing mind please note: Old dudes get physically and emotionally tired during competition. Putting everything out and digging the ball out of the hole 18 times is beyond the pale of relaxation.

That length is roughly 1.5” from the center of the flagstick.

[Ian Mackenzie]

I would never give a tricky 3-footer in a match. Period.


An easy 2-footer...?...perhaps.
A 12"-er...?...all day.


Competitive match play, no matter the level or context, does strange things to people's putting.

[Steve Lang]

I’m in the Z flight of the club championship but it’s still a competition. My opponent was down 3 on 14. He had a tricky 3 foot putt to win the hole.  I made him putt it. He missed and was upset with me.


  I realized tonight that I use this indicator for judging whether to give a putt. 


Could I miss it ?

I read once that Arnie & Jack used the standard, "If you can make it, take it" and let's move on...


My dad used to kid me with "real men don't take strokes, play it out before I give it to you!"

[Jim_Coleman]

   I’m a situational giver, and sometimes a beggar. If I’m 3 up at pretty much any point in the match, I’ll give any givable putt and will defer to my opponent on whether it’s givable. I’ll also give pretty much any givable putt for a halve on the back nine when I’m 2 up. If I like the guy, I’ll leave it up to him and hope he would do the same for me.  If someone won’t give me a givable putt, I don’t say anything, but it’s less fun to play with that guy.

[Carl Nichols]

I would never complain about not being given a putt that I just missed. 

[Rob Marshall]

   I’m a situational giver, and sometimes a beggar. If I’m 3 up at pretty much any point in the match, I’ll give any givable putt and will defer to my opponent on whether it’s givable. I’ll also give pretty much any givable putt for a halve on the back nine when I’m 2 up. If I like the guy, I’ll leave it up to him and hope he would do the same for me.  If someone won’t give me a givable putt, I don’t say anything, but it’s less fun to play with that guy.

Once you concede a putt isn't it over? Doesn't matter if he accepts it. In a tournament anyways.

[Jim_Coleman]

   A concession isn’t a contract requiring a meeting of the minds. It’s a gift.

[A.G._Crockett]

Rule of thumb: Always expect to have to putt, and a concession by the opponent is a bonus.
Rule of thumb: If a putt isn't conceded and is then missed, we now know WHY it wasn't conceded. 

As others have said, if the guy is mad at YOU because he missed a putt, he needs to go home and think about it.  Not all 3' putts are created equal, both because of the greens, and because of pressure and the meaning of the putt. 

Each of the majors has been lost at least once by missed putts of LESS than 3'.  Scott Hoch and Doug Sanders leap to mind.  There wasn't a concession possibility there of course, but the idea that somebody OWES me a concession because I was able to get within 3' of the hole is begging, not golf.

[Ken Moum]

A gimmee is nothing more than agreement between two golfers who can't putt.