The post ‘It’s very simple’: One of the best putters on the PGA Tour shares his secrets appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘It’s very simple’: One of the best putters on the PGA Tour shares his secrets appeared first on Golf.

Denny McCarthy is undoubtedly one of the best putters on the PGA Tour. He’s played five seasons on the PGA Tour thus far, and he’s finished first in SG: Putting twice, with his worst finish at 22nd. Suffice to say, McCarthy can roll the rock.

Putting

McCarthy didn’t become one of the best putters in the game by pure happenstance, though. It took years of practice and reps for him to master his stroke on the greens — and that work has (obviously) paid off.

But while McCarthy’s results are elite, his process is actually quite simple. As he explained on The Fried Egg podcast this week, he keeps things pretty basic on the greens.

“It’s sounds all, like, very complicated,” he says. “But it’s very simple when I get out to the course.”

Check out below for some of his best tips.

Find a spot

When McCarthy is reading the green, he always tries to find a spot on his line to aim for.

“More times than not, it’s a spot halfway through the putt,” he says. “It could be 15 feet away, but more times than not, it’s somewhere in the middle of the putt, whether it’s a ball mark, a piece of sand, a shade of grass.”

This external cue gives him something to try and toll his ball over on the way to the hole, and helps him visualize the line.

Use a line (kind of)

The line vs. no-line debate is a polarizing topic in golf instruction, and everyone has their own opinion on what works. McCarthy tends to use a line, but with a caveat.

“I’ll use the full line closer in on less-breaking putts,” he says. “But the farther I get away, and the more it breaks, I actually tilt my line down.”

Using the line on short, straight-ish putts makes sense. If you can hit the ball directly down the line, it’ll tend to go in. But on longer putts with more break, more feel comes into the equation.

That’s why McCarthy hides more of the line on longer putt. It still gives him the confidence that he is lined up properly, but it gives him wiggle room to incorporate feel into the stroke.

“When I get over the ball, I’m not so line-obsessed,” he says. “I know it’s pointed right near the spot, and then I can kind of play with it.”

Think about speed (but not too much)

Speed is obviously important to putting, but McCarthy tries not to get too bogged down in thinking about it when he steps into his putt. Instead, he tries to rely on his feel to get the ball on line and with the proper pace.

“It’s factored into what I’m seeing,” McCarthy says. “People ask me why I’m such a good putter, and it’s because I have a really good feel, my speed is really good and I read the greens really well.”

Speed is certainly a factor in the equation, but it’s not the only factor. To become a good putter, you need to become dialed in on all aspects on the greens.

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The post ‘I don’t know if I’ve ever really seen this’: Pro slips, hits, nearly falls over appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘I don’t know if I’ve ever really seen this’: Pro slips, hits, nearly falls over appeared first on Golf.

Denny McCarthy is a golfer. But he’s a hooper at heart. His first love, he admits, was basketball, but he was quite aware that, as he grew to 5 feet and 9 inches, he couldn’t ever post up LeBron or Giannis. 

Still, the man hasn’t completely shut it down. 

“I still shoot around a lot,” McCarthy said earlier this week. “I have a hoop in my backyard in Florida. Some days, when I’m not playing golf, I still like to stay active and go out and shoot around.”

Should you have any at all doubt that he does, let’s go over to the 13th tee at TPC Potomac. 

There, during Friday’s second round of the Wells Fargo Championship, McCarthy took his driver back. There, at the top of his backswing, McCarthy planted his left foot (the right-hander’s lead foot). There, as his club came down, on a soggy day just outside of the nation’s capital, his left foot slipped forward. 

And the club kept moving.  

“If he hits this in the fairway, it’s my shot of the day,” analyst Trevor Immelman said on the Golf Channel broadcast. 

He did. Incredibly. Athletically. On McCarthy’s downswing, his body tried to balance itself, and upon contact, he almost pirouetted. From there, McCarthy took a few steps to his left and watched as it cleared water to the left and dropped 232 yards out into the fairway. 

News

“I don’t know if I’ve ever really seen this,” analyst Brandel Chamblee said afterward on Golf Channel’s Golf Central show. “You’ll see guys … By the way, the fact that this ended up in the fairway speaks to how athletic this guy was, and he was a heck of a basketball player. 

“You’ll see the rear foot, or the trail foot, slip a lot, but not the lead foot. Watch that: As he goes to push it into the ground, no friction. It moves forward. You don’t often see a drive go that far, followed by a pirouette, but it was close enough.”

What say you, Denny?  

“Yeah, I tend to slip every now and then,” said McCarthy, who parred the hole on his way to a one-under 70. “My feet like to get happy from time to time. Yeah, my left foot likes to do a little toe tap and it slipped there and I was able to — fortunately I’m pretty good, I’m experienced with slipping and still being able to make solid contact, and fortunately I did that there.”

Good body control. Good finish. Who says basketball and golf can’t mix?

“Unbelievable athleticism to hit that ball over that water and into the fairway,” Immelman said on the Golf Channel broadcast. 

“Good thing he’s an athlete,” Byrum said. “He’s a high school basketball player. Paid off.” 

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The post Unlikely pro quietly on the verge of matching a PGA Tour record appeared first on Golf.

The post Unlikely pro quietly on the verge of matching a PGA Tour record appeared first on Golf.

Denny McCarthy’s 2019-20 PGA Tour performance didn’t turn many heads. He finished 73rd in the FedEx Cup standings, had four top 10s and registered a season-best finish of T8. The $1,178,557 he made on the course was solid, but a far cry from the more than $20 million earned by Dustin Johnson during the same season.

But beyond McCarthy’s baseline statistics, advanced analytics show he had a historic season. He led the Tour in SG: Putting metric, gaining an average of .988 strokes per round on the greens. This performance on the greens ranks as the second-best putting season of the ShotLink era (since 2004), ranking only behind Jason Day’s ridiculous 1.13 strokes gained per round in 2016.

McCarthy led the Tour in SG: Putting last season, too, gaining .926 strokes per round. Being the leader in SG: Putting in back-to-back years is a rare feat, and one that puts him in elite company.

Luke Donald is the only other pro to lead the Tour in SG: Putting in back-to-back seasons as he took the title as the Tour’s top putter in three straight years from 2009 to 2011. Donald nearly made it four in a row at the top of the Tour in putting, but he was narrowly edged out by Brandt Snedeker in 2012.

McCarthy is off to a bit of a slow start this season in his quest to match Donald, ranking 86th in SG: Putting through two events. But considering the 27-year-old has never finished outside the top 20 during his first three seasons on Tour, it’s safe to assume he will find his groove on the greens as the season progresses.

If he putts like he has the last two seasons, he could soon write his name in the record books.

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The post PGA Tour rescinds controversial penalty, promises to work with USGA and R&A to properly interpret rule appeared first on Golf.

The post PGA Tour rescinds controversial penalty, promises to work with USGA and R&A to properly interpret rule appeared first on Golf.

The highly-publicized two-stroke penalty handed down to Denny McCarthy at the Waste Management Phoenix Open Friday evening was rescinded by the Tour Saturday.

It’s an unprecedented decision during unprecedented times with the Rules of Golf, but the result is clear: McCarthy was not penalized for the notion that his caddie stood behind him to help line him up at his intended target. McCarthy’s score has been adjusted to reflect the change.

The rule in question is 10.2b(4), which garnered attention just last week when Haotong Li was penalized two strokes for a similar situation on the European Tour, causing uproar from players and fans. Even Euro Tour CEO Keith Pelley called the ruling “grossly unfair,” despite admitting it was the correct call.

On Saturday morning a similar situation occurred with Justin Thomas, according to a statement from the PGA Tour, helping further inspire the Tour to take action.

“It is clear that there is a great deal of confusion among players and caddies on the practice application of the new rule during competition, as well as questions surrounding the language of the rule itself and how it should be interpreted,” the Tour statement said. “As a result, with the full support of the USGA and R&A, the rule will be interpreted whereby the two aforementioned situations as well as future similar situations will not result in a penalty. McCarthy’s score has been updated accordingly.

“We will be working vigorously with the USGA and The R&A over the coming days to further analyze and improve the situation with this rule.”

PGA Tour rules official Slugger White joined the Golf Channel broadcast from the Phoenix Open to help explain the Tour’s perspective to viewers. “We saw the video many, many times and we just felt like we need to look at the interpretation a little more,” White said. “It’s a new rule. We agree with the rule. Just the interpretation is a little difficult right now.” You can watch the rest of his interview in the clip below.

Denny McCarthy’s two-shot penalty from Friday’s round has been rescinded.

Here’s why: pic.twitter.com/RPCck88UMV

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 2, 2019

The exact wording of Rule 10.2b(4) is as follows: “The player’s caddie must not deliberately stand in a location on or close to an extension of the line of play behind the ball for any reason.” It continues with the clause that if a player takes a stance to hit their shot while their caddie is in that position, they “cannot avoid penalty by backing away.”

In lieu of the PGA Tour’s statement, the USGA released a statement of its own: “In each of these cases, when the caddie was standing behind the player, the player had not yet begun taking the stance for the stroke, nor could useful guidance on aiming be given because the player was still in the process of determining how to play the stroke. The same would be true for any similar situation that might occur.

“The USGA and The R&A recognize that further clarity on how to appropriately apply this Rule is needed. We are committed to assessing its impact and will provide the necessary clarifications in the coming days.”

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The post ‘Ridiculous’ and ‘mind blowing’: Justin Thomas rails against application of new rule appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Ridiculous’ and ‘mind blowing’: Justin Thomas rails against application of new rule appeared first on Golf.

Another day, another rules debacle. This time, though, some high-profile Tour players are adding their takes via social media.

The issue? Newly enacted Rule 10.2b(4), which declares that “once the player begins taking a stance for the stroke, and until the stroke is made, the player’s caddie must not deliberately stand on or close to an extension of the line of play behind the ball for any reason.”

It was less than a week ago that Haotong Li was controversially penalized two strokes for violating this very rule on the European Tour— and the social media censure was swift. Pros chimed in from around the world condemning the ruling. Now, another player has been penalized, and this time it was stateside, at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

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Twitter user Brad Schneider first brought the issue to light by posting footage from NBC’s Round 2 broadcast, which showed Tour player Denny McCarthy and his caddie sizing up a shot.

This is even worse than Haotong Li!! Y’all did my boy @_dennymccarthy dirty!! Practice swings, no intention to hit the ball, lines HIMSELF up, AND THEN GOES INTO HIS STANCE… get outta here @PGATOUR @WMPhoenixOpen pic.twitter.com/sbBbsaaLjl

— Brad Schneider (@bschneid117) February 2, 2019

The footage shows McCarthy taking practice swings as his caddie stands behind him. His caddie then moves away, and McCarthy steps off his original address position and resets himself. McCarthy was penalized two shots for violating Rule 10.2b(4).

Schneider’s tweet quickly went viral, garnering tens of thousands of views and dozens of fans and high-profile players chiming in with their dismay. Most notable among them was Justin Thomas, who called the ruling “ridiculous” and “mind blowing.”

This is ridiculous… the fact this is a penalty is mind blowing. @USGA this NEEDS to be changed ASAP… there is nothing about this rule that makes the game better https://t.co/wtPmPOcss4

— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) February 2, 2019

Fellow pros Eddie Pepperell, Luke Donald, Brandt Snedeker and Golf Channel’s Robert Damron were quick to share their outrage.

Shut the front door… He got penalised for this?!

— Eddie Pepperell (@PepperellEddie) February 2, 2019

This can’t have been a penalty surely??

— Luke Donald (@LukeDonald) February 2, 2019

Unbelievable… @USGA Good job simplifying the rules..

— Brandt Snedeker (@BrandtSnedeker) February 2, 2019

100%. I thought @haotong_li ruling was worst I’ve seen in 40 years of golf. I was wrong

— Robert Damron (@RobertDDamron) February 2, 2019

Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner contacted McCarthy, who revealed that the crux of the issue was that he had assumed a “golf posture” near the ball.

Just talked to Denny McCarthy. It was a 65-yard shot. Said he’s “never had a caddie line me up” and was told he was penalized 2 shots because he had assumed a “golf posture” near the ball. Seriously. https://t.co/AjZrAv3O8F

— Ryan Lavner (@RyanLavnerGC) February 2, 2019

According to the wording of the rule, if a player takes a stance and his or her caddie is standing in an extension of the line of play, even a reset is not enough to avoid the penalty (the putting green being an exception). The problem, it seems, is that the interpretation of the rule has some gray area when it comes to what it means to take a stance, as highlighted by Twitter user Brandon.

???? guys… I just got sent this… so stupid but it does seem like a penalty given the interpretation… the rule needs some SERIOUS WORK. ESPECIALLY when a guy backs off and has to go through his entire setup process again by himself! This is beyond brutal. pic.twitter.com/87uT1ac2FM

— Brandon (@bllawson62) February 2, 2019

The USGA’s reasons for updating the rule state that a “player’s need to use his or her own alignment skills and judgment” is a fundamental skill, and allowing a caddie to stand behind a player taking a stance undermines that skill.

Whether or not there will be future clarity on this issue remains to be seen, but it’s likely caddies will start to be more mindful of their positions going forward. 

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