Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
Bryson DeChambeau won last summer’s U.S. Open in thrilling fashion, hitting a long bunker shot on the final hole that will go down as one of the most clutch shots of all time. But while DeChambeau’s clutch up-and-down is the most famous shot of the championship, it was only made possible because of a couple infamous shots just moments before.
Holding a lead on the 16th green, Rory McIlroy lagged his birdie try within a couple feet of the cup. It looked like a sure gimme — but instead it resulted in disaster as he missed the par try to card a costly bogey. Two holes later, he missed a putt of similar length on the 18th green to drop another shot. Those two misses ended up being the difference as he finished one shot behind DeChambeau.
Fans and pundits alike were shocked by the two costly misses from McIlroy, and the mistakes were dissected ad nauseam in the days to come. Through the TV screen, the putts looked so simple. In reality, though, the two short putts were anything but — and not just because of the pressure of the moment.
You see, putting actually becomes more difficult as the day goes on. Stats guru Lou Stagner posted a chart on X a couple of years ago that illustrated as much, which you can see below.
So, why does it become more difficult to putt later in the day? There are a couple of reasons.
First off, the growth of the grass throughout the day can impact your putting. In the mornings right after the maintenance crew mows the greens, the greens roll like glass. If you put a good stroke on the ball on the correct line, there’s very little that will move it off course. But as the grass grows throughout the day, imperfections begin to emerge. And although these imperfections may not always be noticeable to the naked eye, they can nudge the ball off line just enough to cause a miss.
The second reason putting gets more difficult is foot traffic on the greens. When more and more people walk across the greens throughout the day, it begins to impact the putting surface. And just like with the growing grass, the impressions made by foot traffic will cause imperfections that will impact your putts.
This impact gets more and more pronounced the closer you get to the cup. In fact, directly around the cup, the imperfections caused by foot traffic are at their worst.
Putting coach Dave Pelz noted that as the day progresses, the area around the cup gets trampled down more and more. By day’s end, there’s a ring around the hole, creating what he called the “lumpy donut effect.“
“The lumpy donut is the congregation of footprints within a radius of 6 feet from the hole,” he said. “The last 12 inches is almost footprint free and from the donut’s hole. This creates a volcanic-like entrance ramp that can have significant impact on a ball’s line relative to its speed. The average 500-plus footprints a foursome makes in the green take up to two hours to spring back up to normal shape. Fresh footprints are to the golf ball like a curb is to a pedestrian crossing the street. … In other words, your ball can ‘trip’ on its way to the hole.”
So, next time you find yourself missing putts late in the round, don’t beat yourself up. The stats prove putting gets more difficult as the day goes on.
