The Moneyball

As the MLB playoff race heats up in the final month of the season, I found it a good time to watch one of my all time favorite movies - Moneyball. Even if you don’t watch baseball, it’s a great story of perseverance, daring to defy the status quo, and ultimately defying the traditions of the game.There’s a story in it for all players. Here are some of my favorites that might relate to your putting.

“We're all told at some point in time that we can no longer play the children's game, we just don't... don't know when that's gonna be. Some of us are told at eighteen, some of us are told at forty, but we're all told.” - Scout Barry

To my younger competitive players reading this, and that includes juniors, collegiate, and mini tour players, you have to ask yourself if how you’re currently doing things is getting you the result you are seeking.

Have you seen the improvement required to play at the next level for your game? Do you even know what that is and/or looks like?

Is your current practice structure providing you tangible results? Are you improving mechanics that allow your skill development to reach a higher level?

At some point you’re going to realize you need to find a higher performance level. Just make sure you don’t look back on your career and wonder “what if I had putted just a little better? What if I had worked differently?”

“There is an epidemic failure within the game to understand what is really happening. And this leads people who run Major League Baseball teams to misjudge their players and mismanage their teams.” - Peter Brand

This one is for my college coaches out there. Do you really understand the quality of your team’s putting? Do you have a way to systematically assess their speed, ability to read greens, and performance levels in different distance segments?

If you answered no, keep reading the full swing equivalent to the last line:

You understand the quality of your team’s ball striking. You have a systematic way to assess their dispersion, ability to choose safe enough targets on approaches, and measure performance levels at different yardages.

Just noodle on why you are so comfotable doing that for full swing, but not putting. Then feel free to email prestonsputting@gmail.com if you want to figure out how to draw those parallels for your team’s putting.

A few notables have already taken that step…

“We are card counters at the blackjack table and we're gonna turn the odds on the casino.” - Billy Beane

This. This is for all players. This is what happens when a player or coach starts buying into a strategy and realizing that there is a way to beat the system. But that begs the question.

Is putting beatable?

To beat putting would be hard. There’s a lot of factors beyond our control after the ball comes off the face like the turf and its imperfections, wind, and grain. However, we have every reason to have a strategy that allows us to better adapt to changing conditions and circumstances.

As you travel to different courses, it is so essential to learn what the course is giving you the player (or team) from a performance standpoint.

Do you have a strategy to adapt to the those new courses as they change from week to week?

Do you have a strategy to read greens accurately and reliably in a random environment?

Do you have a strategy to monitor your setup and movement pattern beyond just hitting putts down a ruler?

The Wrap Up

If you want to ask questions about your strategy, join The Putting Plan. There’s a free trial, and this little community is going to turn into monthly webinars for members only where you can interact and ask questions. Try it out HERE and let me know what you think!