The 2nd Cut Newsletter: Edition #6

The 68% Rule, Stat of the Week, Tweets of the Week, Cam Smith’s Putter, Putting like a Free Throw, and Range Practice

The 2nd Cut

Jul 19, 2023

“The best way to approach learning is with childlike curiosity and a questioning mindset.” -Laurence Endersen

Edition #6

Welcome back to The 2nd Cut Newsletter, Edition #6! Thank you all for reading and subscribing.

In today’s Newsletter: The 68% Rule, Stat of the Week, Tweets of the Week, Cam Smith’s Putter, Putting like a Free Throw, and Range Practice

If you’re new here, this newsletter is designed to provide you with valuable insights, tips, and ideas to improve your golf game from around the internet.

What you get: (new schedule)

1 - Newsletter every Wednesday
1 - Deep dive every Friday

The 68% Rule

I recently read a golf digest article by Luke Kerr-Dineen (@lukekerrdineen) describing the 68% rule for warming up or practicing on the range. (link)

“The 68 percent rule is that 68 percent of your your practice sessions should be spent hitting those three clubs. That means, if you have 100 golf balls to warm up, you should be hitting about 25 putts, 25 drivers, 23 wedge shots, then your final 27 golf balls should be spread out amoung all your other irons, hybrids and fairway woods.”

The math above is for a 10 Handicap that averages around 85 strokes. A 10 HC averages 32 putts and 6 GIRs. That comes to roughly 14 drives, 12 chips (for the missed GIRs), 32 putts, for a total of 58 shots. 58 divided by 85 is 68%.

Don’t worry too much about the math. The lesson here is directionally true for all of us. We should be warming up or practicing (mostly) in proportion to what we’ll be hitting during our rounds.

It seems obvious, but I would bet most golfers do not do this. Many don’t putt or chip at all. Hand up I’ve done this myself many times, but I now at least try to get closer to that 68% number.

Using myself as an example, I’ve been averaging 9.5 GIRs, 36 putts (ugh), and 82 strokes. I also hit my 5-wood off the tee a few times a round. So that’s 36 putts, 8 chips, 11 drivers = 55 / 82 = 67%. As you can see it’s still directionally the same as the above example with maybe a tiny bit more focus on putting.

TLDR: You should be hitting more drivers, wedges, and putts.

*Quick caveat. Practicing outside of the 68% is needed at times. Maybe you want to work on long irons or your fairway woods. No problem. Just remember on average where your bread and butter is.

Stat of the Week

The above chart (from Jon Sherman) shows the average approach proximity for various handicaps from different yardages. Like I’ve said many times before, matching your expectations with reality can be freeing and help you maintain composure.

If I gave you 3 guesses at how far a scratch golfer averages in proximity from 100 yards I think most people would say 10 or 15 feet. But the answer is nearly 40 feet on average for a scratch golfer!

Just remember a few of these key stats and you’ll find golf less frustrating.

T2C Tweets of the Week

A phenomenal video detailing Cam Smith’s putting stroke. It’s a work of art.

The biggest takeaway for me is the importance of focusing on the target. Cam Smith takes one last long look at his target. Most of us are thinking too much about our line, setup, or swing path and losing focus of the target. Lately, I’ve been trying to make my very last move before the putt a long look at the target. (link)

This one kind of ties in with the 68% rule article from earlier. As you can see, Billy Horschel pre-arranges his balls into small groupings. He’ll hit 5 sand wedges, 5 drivers, etc. I don’t think you need to be this precise, but the idea of pre-selecting a number will help you adhere to the 68% rule better.

How often do you end up rifling off 30 balls with the driver because you snap-hooked one left, topped another, and then you start to swing harder and harder taking about 10 seconds between shots? Now you have zero confidence and are completely frustrated while headed to the first tee.

A better idea would be to lay down 12 balls designated for just your driver. Having a pre-selected amount will keep you from mindlessly swinging away. Twelve focused swings, with intent. Next club.

When I go to the range I like to put down 5 balls at a time. Putting 5 balls down on the mat keeps me focused and intentional; whereas, with a full bucket I tend to go machine gun approach. (link)

T2C Media Corner

The video above is from The Chasing Scratch Podcast, which I’ve recommended here before. In this video, Dr. Greg Rose from TPI helps Eli with his putting. What I like about this video is he focuses on the EXACT same thing talked about in the Cam Smith putting video above. Focusing on the target.

Greg uses free throws as an example for approaching your putt. When your taking a free throw where is your focus? It’s not your arm or your feet, or watching your arm go back, it’s the rim! The target. There is a lot of data behind this, which I’ll get into another time. The free throw example is about 5:30 min into the video. Give it a watch (12 minutes).

Another great golf course menu. I don’t know what course this is but I want to go. Let’s normalize affordable golf menus.

PS - Send me any good menus you find in the wild.

The video above is from newsletter regular Ryan Mouque. He focuses on what the right arm is supposed to do in the swing. Good watch. (9 minutes)

Subscriber Q&A Giveaway

I’ll be doing another Subscriber Q&A in a future deep dive so please submit a question below in the comment section or email the2ndcut@substack.com.

All questions used will receive a personalized T2C gift!

Reader Poll

Post Round Wrap Up:

The 68% Rule. Match your warms up with your on-course club usage
A scratch golfer averages ~39 feet from the pin from 100 yards out
When putting, focus on the target like a Free Throw
To help with focus and patience while on the range, put down 5 balls at a time

T2C Discount

In last week’s deep dive into Online Lessons, I talked about the Skillest app. With The Open starting tomorrow Skillest is offering a 20% discount on lessons.

Code: THEOPEN20