PRACTICE - ITS ALL ABOUT PUTTING !

Top golf clubs need to play bigger role in helping Scotland's

elite by opening up their top-class practice facilities

FROM THE SCOTSMAN.COM WEBSITE
By Martin Dempster
The excellent practice putting green at Muirfield was in constant use throughout last week's Amateur Championship, yet for most of the year it probably lies empty. It's the same, no doubt, at Royal Troon and some of the country's other championship links.
These venues boast the best putting surfaces in Scotland and it's about time they were put to better use to help our top golfers improve the part of the game which separates the men from the boys at every level.
In fact, why not take this a step further by getting the likes of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers to encourage those players to use their practice facilities and course on a fairly regular basis over the course of a season?
This suggestion was made to me by the father of one of the Scots who qualified for the match-play phase last week and he's got a point. Practising and competing at a venue like Muirfield gives our players a taste of something that, frustratingly, is a world apart from what they are used to.
I'm not saying that we should have dozens of players turning up at these courses every day and queuing to get their chance to use the putting green before heading out for a round. That simply wouldn't be feasible and wouldn't be fair on the clubs I'm referring to.
However, what's to stop the Scottish Golf Union coming to an agreement with the likes of Carnoustie, Muirfield, Royal Troon or Royal Aberdeen whereby the members of its Elite Squad can make regular visits during the course of the year?
Some of these clubs, as well as Loch Lomond, have been providing tee times for the SGU in recent years, with the money raised from these being put towards the development of junior golf.
However, surely it would be more beneficial in the long run if the people getting access to these courses were the players who, one day, could be back there challenging in either an Open Championship or Scottish Open.
They'd benefit enormously if that was the case and the chance to work on their putting strokes on greens that, invariably, are like velvet really speaks for itself.
James Byrne, Scotland's highest-ranked amateur, is a wonderful putter. So, too, is Sally Watson, his equivalent in the women's game. The common thread is that they are based in America, where they are benefiting from world-class facilities and, what's more, are able to use them virtually all year around.
At Stanford University in California, Watson works every day on a short-game range which has six separate areas that re-create famous greens designed by Alister Mackenzie, Robert Trent Jones II, Pete Dye, Tom Fazio, Robert Trent Jones Jr and A W Tillinghast so that players can prepare properly for particular events.
That type of facility costs money, of course, and the former alma mater of Tiger Woods perhaps isn't the best example. However, at a time when we constantly hear Scottish players groaning about how they struggle on the greens, it has always puzzled me that someone hasn't decided to try and establish a world-class short game academy in the heart of the country.
St Andrews Links Trust deserve credit for improving their facility that flanks the 16th hole on the Old Course, while the likes of Kings Acre on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Aspire outside Aberdeen, Kingsfield at Linlithgow and Gailes north of Troon are among the many golf courses and golf centres that are certainly doing their best to provide better practice facilities.
What I'd like to see, though, is a place where the greens are as good as they are at Muirfield just now and also at Carnoustie and St Andrews, as I can testify.
Somewhere that our players currently out on the European Tour and those aspiring to get there can hone putting strokes that are up their with the likes of Ben Crenshaw, Loren Roberts, Rhys Davies and, for that matter, newly-crowned Amateur champion Jin Jeong.
Davies revealed recently that he's raking in a bucketful of cash these days thanks to the hours of practice he put in as youngster and, in the wake of his win at Muirfield, it was interesting to hear Jeong reveal the secret behind his silk touch on the greens.
Every single day, the 20-year-old's practice routine includes the following: half an hour focusing solely on his putting stroke, without caring whether the ball goes in the hole or not; short putting drills and work on distance control.
He couldn't miss for a spell in his final against Byrne, who is pretty deadly with the flat stick himself but would surely jump at the chance to keep testing himself on the best greens in the country between now and his return to Arizona State University at the end of the summer.

+What do you think of Martin Dempster's idea. E-mail your view for publication toColin@scottishgolfview.com