Putting distance

[keb]

Left alot of putts short today. Does anyone have tip and or instruction video to recommend? Some instructors recommend a mechanical approach, guaging length of back stroke to determine distance. I have also read articles saying this is more of a feel issue. How do you guage distance?

[verse214]

Left alot of putts short today. Does anyone have tip and or instruction video to recommend? Some instructors recommend a mechanical approach, guaging length of back stroke to determine distance. I have also read articles saying this is more of a feel issue. How do you guage distance?

On a stimpmeter of 10:

1" back and 1" through will give you enough to comfortably hole a 3 foot put (if the hole is three feet away). 2" back and 2" through will give you enough to comfortably hole a 6 foot put. So on and so on, essentially 1" - 3' I got this from a caddy when I went out to play at the Wynn course in Vegas. Worked very well and has worked well for me since.

[Danattherock]

Practice man, that is what you (we all) need. When was the last time you spent an hour on the practice green working on distance control? Me neither. Dave Pelz has a book, "The Putting Bible", order it from Amazon. I am about halfway through his "Short Game Bible" and my eyes are opening a good bit on what a sound wedge game really means. I recently got Phil Mickelson's "Secrets of the Shortgame" two dvd set and it is wonderful. Tons of good info and a great section on putting.

[groovezilla79]

One piece of advice. When you are practicing on the putting green, don't try to get the ball exactly in the hole or exactly to the hole. Try to hit it hard enough that your misses go 12-16" past the cup. I see a lot of guys on the practice green with a group of missed putts that are either right at the hole or 1-2" short. They think they're in for a good day on the greens but don't realize those 1-2" short putts never even had a chance to go in.

[goblue107501]

It is just about feel and practice. It is the same as shooting a basketball or throwing a baseball. After you do it so many times, you just know how hard to do it. No one can tell you, how hard you need to hit a putt, you just have to know. My only real advise would be if you are playing a round and you notice that everything is short, hit the ball harder.

[ks8829]

Keeping the same tempo on your putting stroke you can judge the distance by the length of your backswing and the same distance on your follow through.

Place seven golf balls a few inches equally apart on a straight line, place your golf ball parallal with the line of balls in the middle. Take your putting stance and use the seven balls as a guage of distance to determine how far the ball will travel.

This is just to give you a visual ruler to help you see what equal back and forward putting stroke will give you a certain distance. I use my shoe as a guage for my distance.

Make sure that you keep the same tempo and consistent putting stroke. practice distance of 3, 5, 10 and 20 feet so that you can putt 3 or 4 ball consistently within two feet from your intended target and then putt to different distance with several balls.

use a pre-putt routine for every putt to keep the consistency and consider each putt important as if you were playing a round.

practice, practice and more practice each day and see your scores lower.

[deronsizemore]

I have the same problem when I'm putting bad. For me it's a matter of trying to not necessarily accelerate through the forward stroke, but just not decelerating and keeping a consistent stroke back and through. Majority of the time when you leave it short, you're decelerating; usually because of a too long backstroke. You take too long of a backstroke and subconsciously your mind says "oh no! I'm going to hit this WAY to hard with this length of backstroke" so on the forward stroke, you slow down and end up leaving it short.

That's my problem anyway and I think a lot of other amateurs have the same problem.

[ControlJunkie]

I dont know if this is the best way to put it, but it works well for me on pitching, chipping and putting. I think of the amount of speed it would take if I was going to roll a baseball to the hole (underhanded), but not past it. I think that just ended up being the best correlation for me because I played baseball most of my life, though it's not very technical. The thing about it is, I like the fact that it's not technical at all because to me, it makes it easier to adapt to the different speeds of the various greens at the courses I play.

With that said, I think the 2 posts above mine are spot on - accelerate through the ball, and practice, practice, practice.

[WUTiger]

Check out the swingweight on your putter.

I won a putter fitting this spring, and found that I only had a swingweight of C7. Most people do better around D6. I used lead tape to get mine to D4, which feels right for me.

You have a much more modern putter than I do (my old Ping Pal), so your swingweight may be OK. Might give it a check to see.

Also, be aware of what happens to the grass on greens. If it gets cut at 6 a.m., and the day is warm, it will start to get a little shaggy in late afternoon. This is one reason - besides nerves - that players in the final groups of pro tournaments suddenly leave putts short on the closing holes.
If you tee off after noon a lot, this might be a problem.

[MiniMoe]

Take a ball, and toss it underhand to someone. I bet the distance is spot on. So, you do have feel. Distance is judged with your eyes, and some days your eyes get off a little. If I notice I'm leaving putts a little short, I start looking at the back of the hole or a little past when lining up my putt. If I have a very fast downhill putt, I look short of the hole. This helps my eyes adjust to the speed of the greens.

[golfdad]

a lot of great advices above. i will add 2 more cents make it a dollar

1. wristy strokes tend to cause distance control issues. larger muscles are more reliable. the triangle formed by the 2 arms and chest ideally should remain intact throughout the swing.

2. to break a habit (some say takes 21 days:) takes effort. one primitive point to start is: any short putt is bad bad bad. any longer one, even insanely 10ft long, for now, is better than one inch short putt. think and plan the putt beyond the hole. work on getting to the hole backward from, 6 ft, to 3 to 2.

3. try to read the putt from the side to get a better sense of the slope, esp the last 6 feet.

4. one exercise i do almost evey time with my kids is: get a whole bucket of ball and putt something like 15 ft. flat one first: record the ratio of short vs long. then uphill 15 ft. then downhill 15 ft. if time is an issue, do it once a week. and compare week after week. short of hard work, one just have to be talented and talent is not very reliable and not abundant

[Danattherock]

I will give you some advice you likely won't take. Get the book "Instinct Putting" by Eric Alpenfels (head instructor at Pinehurst) and Bob Christina. Go to the reading room forum here and read the review of the book I put there. Also, it is on sale at Amazon for $7 now. Basically, you look at the hole, not the ball when putting. Sounds crazy, but it works. It was first used as a way to teach distance control, but many (including me) are using it all the time. It is surprising how well it works. The book has a series of 14 short focused practice sessions with drills to teach you the technique. An example in the book, imagine shooting basketball looking at the ball, rather than the rim. Looking at the ball in golf while putting really goes against our natural "instincts". For the price of a magazine, what do you have to lose?

[FHopper]

I play different courses with different levels of greens keeping, I putt strong to take the variations in grass and grain out of the picture. When I miss I am usually 2-3 feet past. When I make it I hit the back of the hole.

[allin]

I have the same problem when I'm putting bad. For me it's a matter of trying to not necessarily accelerate through the forward stroke, but just not decelerating and keeping a consistent stroke back and through. Majority of the time when you leave it short, you're decelerating; usually because of a too long backstroke. You take too long of a backstroke and subconsciously your mind says "oh no! I'm going to hit this WAY to hard with this length of backstroke" so on the forward stroke, you slow down and end up leaving it short.

All other golf shots, in fact any sport I can think of, where controlling distance is the object the the best athletes rely on rythym to control distance. Lesser athletes rely on mechanical cues.

[mtsalmela80]

I just created a practice setup where I have a small thing, like a quarter to aim at and a back stop about a foot past that.

If I come up short, its a bad putt since it never had a chance, and if it hits the back stop its a bad putt cuz its too long. It was fun to practice for a bit last night. Its not quite as fun as watching and hearing a ball fall into a cup though.

[noefi13b]

My coach gave me a neat drill that has improved my distance control quite a bit...

Stand about 4 meters on to a green (or however far is causing you issues) , face the edge and drop 3 balls..

The aim of the drill is to hit the first one to within 1m of the edge... 2nd ball between the first and the edge and 3rd between the 2nd and the edge...

Once you can do it consistently move back a meter... rinse and repeat..

The other peice of advice (which is more for squaing the putter head) but seems to help is 25-75 swing... 25% distance back and 75% forward.... Just remember to keep smooth

[luckyluke699]

Left alot of putts short today. Does anyone have tip and or instruction video to recommend? Some instructors recommend a mechanical approach, guaging length of back stroke to determine distance. I have also read articles saying this is more of a feel issue. How do you guage distance?

I've been looking at videos from Videojug, and the ones by "Rickard Strongert" are excellent. They are not aimed at 'advanced' players, and keep things nice and simple, but are still very effective...

I performed the one where you stick clubs around the holes and putt from various distances, and found that useful! Putting Drills vid: http://www.videojug.com/film/golf-ho...ractice-drills Driving Vid (as an example for another one of his): http://www.videojug.com/film/golf-ho...ractice-drills Hopefully that helps?

[Bart]

A couple others have mentioned similar drills, but this makes it into more of a game, which is what I like about it.

The following is from Rotella's book, The Golf of Your Dreams. It's an anecdote about a teaching pro named Bill Davis.

"Once he gets a player into his program, Bill is not quick to teach putting mechanics. He believes that touch, a feel for distance, is what most average players need to learn first on the greens. To help them develop it, he has a number of practice drills. In one of them, he has players stroke putts to a hole with a club shaft set down on the grass an inch or so behind it, perpendicular to the line of the putt. They win an imaginary dollar for every putt that goes in the hole or winds up resting against the shaft. But they lose three dollars for every ball that runs over the shaft. They lose fifty dollars for every shot that doesn't either touch the shaft or go in the hole. Bill tells them that after they've won a few hundred imaginary dollars in this touch drill, they can have a lesson in putting mechanics if they still want it....Of course, not many players do."