News

Do you really putt worse than your husband? If so, why?

September 14, 2010

When a story by my esteemed colleague Matt Rudy named "Why women putt worse than men" came across my desk in page proof as we were closing the October issue of Golf Digest a few weeks ago, I immediately recoiled. What the heck was this? As the editor in charge of women's coverage for this magazine, my job is to fight for as much women's content as possible, and to make sure we don't run anything that's offensive to the fairer sex. This, surely, would drive our female readers away.

But then I started reading, and thinking. I had to admit to myself that I've always had theories about this topic myself, many of which were confirmed in the article. Even if we begin playing as kids, women golfers grow up focusing on the long game because that's where we have an obvious disadvantage. Distance is our main concern. And when we finally get around to concentrating on our short games, it's usually too late for us to excel in that area. We also tend to find putting a boring and ineffective part of the game to practice, so we don't spend nearly as much time on it as we do the long game. Pounding balls at the range is where we can see a difference, and if we're decent players, that's where people will notice us.

I'm curious to know what you think about this topic. Read Matt's article and submit your comments below this blog post. Do you agree with the assessments of the experts he talked to? How much time do you spend on putting practice versus working on your long game? Do you putt better or worse than the men you play golf with?

I know one thing: Technically, men shouldn't have an advantage on the greens. But the proof is in the numbers. On average, they're simply better than us. And that's a shame.

--Stina Sternberg