Two Strategies for Putting without a Meter

The new Pro Tournaments available online in this year’s edition of the game have introduced some new hardcore settings to which some players (including myself) are becoming addicted. I’m currently in the middle of a tournament series hosted by bjlevine in which players must incorporate realistic settings like no putt meter, and I’ve quickly had to learn a lot about putting without a meter to even be competitive with some of the crazy scores that players are already throwing down! In this article, I’d like to discuss two strategies I’ve come up with for putting without a meter.

You may already be thinking, “Why would I ever want to play without a putt meter?” I definitely thought that for a long while, because there was no way to play others online with these settings. So I figured I’d get good at standard settings, because that’s what I would be facing online. Then I heard from EA Developer Eric Busch, that they’ve already made the decision to allow us to force advanced settings such as advanced swing on our online opponents for TW11 (check out his post here). I anticipate that they will be allowing us to force no putt meter on opponents as well, since they are already forcing that on us for things like the pro tournaments. But these strategies also work well for when putt preview is turned off, which will be the case when playing with advanced swing.

So let’s get to it. When I play without a putt meter, I usually have one goal in mind, and that is to make par. I figure that making a par on every hole gives me a 72, and that’s a good starting spot. While I’d really like to shoot in the high 50s, thinking that way will usually lead me to playing too aggressively, trying to force situations and make hero shots.  Not good. That’s when bogeys arrive, and you’ve ruined your round. The key is to have a balanced strategy. You want to play conservatively until you see a scoring opportunity staring you in the face, in which case you’ll want to go for it to get a bit ahead. If you get a bit ahead a bunch of times during a round, you’ll wake up on the 18th 12 under par! There are two strategies that I use when putting without a meter that cater to both conservative play, and trying to score.

Let’s look at the first type, which is the conservative putt. This is referred to as a “lag putt,” and you’ll notice that PGA tour players do this beautifully. When Tiger Woods is 50 feet from the cup, he’s not trying to make it, he’s just trying to get it close. This is the approach I’ll take on the majority of my putts outside of 10 feet. If there is any break at all, my goal will be to trickle the ball in at the end of its roll. The downside to this approach is that you have to not only hit your distance perfectly, but you also need to read the break perfectly as well, because the ball is going to have to drop in at the last moment of its roll when it’s about to stop. The upside to this (and I think this is a pretty big upside), is that when you miss, you always leave yourself with a tap-in putt. This is the backbone of my game when playing without a putt meter or putt preview. When my approach shot is good enough to get me close, I’ll often make birdie from within 10 feet. But if my approach shot leaves me outside of 10 feet, I’ll at worst make par, which means I’m not sliding backwards, but staying consistent. A lot of pars and a few birdies along the way add up to a pretty good round!

I’d say 80%-85% of my putts use the method above when I’m playing without putt preview and without a putt meter. For the other 10%-15%, I use a different strategy. If I’m faced with a scoring opportunity, I want to play more aggressively. So let’s say my approach lands 7 feet from the hole, but there is a pretty nasty left-to-right break  between the cup and me. This putt is close enough to make for birdie, but the break is going to make it very difficult for me to accurately read how to trickle the ball in using my first strategy. So what I’ll want to do here is to minimize the effect the break has on my shot. In other words, I’ll need to muscle it in there with a nice, firm stroke, and hope for the best.

Remember that the forward velocity of the ball will cause the effect of gravity (i.e. the slope) to occur over a longer distance. Since the distance between the ball and the cup won’t change, we’re essentially reducing the effect of the break. Since we’re reducing the effect, we don’t need to adjust our aim as much. In other words, aim closer to the cup. So on breaks that are less severe, I’ll actually try to aim somewhat close to the center of the cup, and in most cases, I’ll want to aim for the high edge of the cup. This gives me the greatest chance of making the putt. If I accounted for too much break, my shot will go relatively straight, and I’ll make the putt in the left side of the cup. If I read the break correctly, the break will bring my ball to the center of the cup. If I did not account for enough break, the slope will bring my ball to the low edge of the cup, and I’ll still make it! So what I’ve basically done here, is allowed for a fair amount of error on my part, while still giving me a chance to make the putt. 

When using the above strategy, I’ll need to hit the ball with more power than I think it needs. This will usually be in the +5% range, but sometimes it’s more. It really depends on how much break I want to “take out” of the putt, and how far past the hole I will end up if I miss. One reason I don’t use this strategy very often is because it can lead to a three-putt if I miss. If the break is really severe, I won’t take my chances and I’ll go with the conservative approach to make par and move on. I’ll only use the aggressive strategy if it gives me a realistic shot at making an extra birdie. Another great scenario is when you’re going for eagle. If you miss, you’ll still have a pretty good shot at birdie.

I hope this article was helpful for you sim players out there. As always, I invite comments below, and if enough of you pipe up, I’ll make a video demonstrating these techniques if it will help get the concepts across. Using these strategies really relies on your ability to accurately judge putt distance and break. If you need help with this, I suggest you take a look at my video tutorial on the basics of approach and putting.

Tags: consistency, No Putt Meter, Putting '10, TW11