putting distance

[wilnham]

a buddy told me today (i struggle with consitency on distance)on the backswing, take an inch for every foot, if its uphill 1.5 inches per foot and downhill .5 inches per foot, he said for average greens, but i think this would be inconsitent as well since most greens are never the same as another course

[m11]

a buddy told me today (i struggle with consitency on distance)on the backswing, take an inch for every foot, if its uphill 1.5 inches per foot and downhill .5 inches per foot, he said for average greens, but i think this would be inconsitent as well since most greens are never the same as another course

lol thats basically the strategy youre supposed to use in Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Im not sure how well that applies in reality.

[GaijinGolfer]

Thats a pretty good rule of thumb, but its going to vary based upon exactly how steep the greens are and how fast they are.
You should vary the length of your backswing and follow through based upon the distance of the shot, but Im not sure I agree with the exact guidelines your friend gave you.
Id say just practice, you will develop the feel for distance over time.

[wilnham]

lol thats basically the strategy youre supposed to use in Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Im not sure how well that applies in reality.

thats kind of what i thought!

Thats a pretty good rule of thumb, but its going to vary based upon exactly how steep the greens are and how fast they are.

i read earlier, somebody posted to act as if you are rolling the ball with your hand, im going to play some after work today and see if that helps me any, however, i was hoping you wouldnt say to let it develop

i need game improvement NOW lol

[Dent]

lol thats basically the strategy youre supposed to use in Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Im not sure how well that applies in reality.

exactly, i'm sure your buddy got that tip from a video game..

[m11]

exactly, i'm sure your buddy got that tip from a video game..

yea im playing tiger woods right now on ps3. its definitely how youre supposed to putt in the game. and it got me thinking...you need ridiculously astute kinesthetics in order to be able to control precisely how many inches back you bring your backswing.

[kafka01]

I never really think about how much i take my putter back when putting - of course on long putts its more than on short - but i mostly do this automatically - personally i couldnt imagine putting this way tbh. What i always do is taking practice strokes and looking to the hole (or spot) i want to put it to - that helped me alot

[GaijinGolfer]

i was hoping you wouldnt say to let it develop

Sorry, but there are no shortcuts in this game. It takes years, if not decades to get good at it.

A lot of us dedicate our lives to getting great at this game and most of us never get there.

[m11]

i suggest making sure that you have the proper grip..club in your palms..not in your fingers..and that you dont grip the club too hard. once you tighten your grip, you rob yourself of your natural ability to feel distance.

[Doctorfro]

That sounds crazy to me since greenspeed has everything to do with swing length. Groove a sound stroke and then learn to adjust to the practice green's speed every time you go out. You'll find that you have certain speeds that you read better than others. Good putting simply comes with experience and practice IMO.

[mellojoe]

Set your feet the same, and you can get close just by looking at the backswing in relation to your toes.

Short putt: on the backswing, the putter head can go to your big toe of the back foot.
Medium putt: on the backswing, the putter head can go to your pinky toe.
Long putt: on the backswing, the putter shaft can go to your knee

The follow through is supposed to be the same.

These are tips that I've read, and I'm not a good player by any means. But, this helped my putting go from nothing to at least halfway decent.

[m11]

Set your feet the same, and you can get close just by looking at the backswing in relation to your toes.

certainly a pretty good rule of thumb.

[DGart09]

Set your feet the same, and you can get close just by looking at the backswing in relation to your toes.

I really do something quite similar to this as well. However, since green speed is a huge factor, I usually go to the practice green and putt with backswings to my big toe and see the distance the ball goes. From there, I am able to adjust how far the backswing goes for each putt. The important thing here is that you keep your putter pace the same, otherwise this really does not help at all!!!

[IamJake]

I don't remember where I read about it, but I tried this drill and it helped me immensely from a beginner's standpoint (although it may be too simplistic for some).

Lay out markers at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 yards on the practice green. The idea is to focus only on the distance and forget about the aim for the most part. Then putt several times at each distance, trying to get the set of putts between the 5 and 10 markers, then the 10 and 15 markers and so on. Once you've done that a few times try to putt one shot each stepping up from the 5 to 10 to 15 to 20 to 25. Once you can do that, start to randomize it. Putt to the 25, then the 15, then the 20, then the 5.

Even after doing this only once for about 30 minutes, I was surprised at how much better I could "feel" the distance.