putting distance control

[imtomtomim]

I was wondering if anyone uses a pendulum motion to control their putting distance instead of hitting through the ball?  To clarify a bit, I mean controlling your distance by how far you bring it back and kind of just dropping it through the stroke, as opposed to guiding it through the motion.  I noticed that my pitching control is best when I use this kind of technique and for the beginning of last season, it worked pretty well in my putting.  I gave up on it because I ended up jamming a bunch of putts way too long but I've noticed I jam putts too long all the time!  I guess I just need to commit to one style more, but I guess I was looking for confirmation in this kind of technique.

[phillyk]

I use a pendulum stroke on putts within 30ft I'd say, and longer than that, I start to control how hard to putt it.  I'm usually a good putter in the sense that I don't 3 putt very often, and I'd say it comes from 15-20 minutes of putting, before the round, to a tee in the ground instead of the hole.  This way, I'm not focusing on making the putt, but making sure I get distance control down.

[Mattplusness]

I started out that way, eventually started to take my eye off the ball. I don't putt bad, but not good. I hardly 3 putt, but my two putts are something like 20 foot.... 10 foot.

8 foot.... 5 foot...

[Late4ttime]

Originally Posted by phillyk

...to a tee in the ground instead of the hole.  This way, I'm not focusing on making the putt, but making sure I get distance control down.

+1 putting to a tee. In Zen Golf (highly recommended) there is a drill mentioned that has helped me and the HS team that I coach. Practice putting to a tee or the fringe- BUT after you hit your putt, try to determine whether the putt is short, long or just right in relation to the target BEFORE you look up- This helps to ingrain feel, eventually you won't have to "think" about how hard to putt it once you do this drill for 15 minutes on the practice green.

As far as the pendulum stroke- I coach and putt that stroke, but I found for me that if I have a shorter, crisper back swing- the less likely my face can get offline and it helps me maintain acceleration though the ball- for me its about 40% back 60% follow thru vs. a pendulum of 50/50.

Late-

[Stretch]

I try and do this on longer putts instead of "popping" them, as my tendency was too get too quick and end up without enough backswing to get the ball to the hole.

The key is that it is a subconscious method and you have to get out of your own way mentally to allow it to work. Geoff Mangum has some advice in this regard, which I'll summarize as best I can. Check out his Web site if it piques your interest. It's a little chaotic, but there's big seams of putting gold to be mined. http://www.puttingzone.com/

First you have to "define the space". That is, consciously decide on the limits of an acceptable outcome -- say, not short of the hole and not more than four feet past. Then look at that four foot strip behind the hole and fix its limits in your mind. Then make a practice swing or two without thinking about the size of the stroke. Until one feels right. That's your pendulum right there, whatever it was. Just address the ball and do it again. If you can avoid consciously cutting off that backswing or gassing the downstroke -- obviously easier said than done -- you will end up where you want to be ie. "not long, not short."

It sounds like mumbo jumbo, but as Mangum says touch is simply not something you need to think about, or train. You have it. When you reach for a glass of water -- you don't have to concentrate hard to avoid swatting it across the kitchen with the back of your hand. When you go to open a door, you don't come up three feet short of the knob. And when you go to take a holiday picture at some scenic view spot, your brain simply won't allow you to to miss slightly long and walk off the edge of the cliff. Ever! Now in golf, clearly, there's no actual pain, injury or danger involved, which is why we're able to overrule our perfectly good instincts and deliver spastic twitches off the front of the green. You've got to create the disincentive for yourself to allow your subconscious to protect you. "I'm better than that", "I simply refuse to jam it by", "I will be embarrassed again in front of my snickering buddies" -- whatever it takes.

The other big part is tempo, which gets quite involved so I'll just link to an article if you don't mind.

http://puttingzone.com/MyTips/tempo.html

Hope some of this is some help.

[CalBoomer]

If you believe that all golf shots should be hit with some degree of acceleration, then the longer your backstroke, the faster the putter will be moving when it strikes the ball, and the farther the ball will go. A pendulum stroke allows the acceleration to increase more gradually and in a more controlled manner than just "jabbing" at the ball. Trying to control putter speed with various strengths of jabs is an exercise in futility, and you will see very few pros use such a technique. Ultimately, "feel" is just applied physics whether you are aware of it or not.

[saevel25]

I just putt it, my stroke is my stroke. It works..

But my personal preference is an arc swing, its most natural to me.

[iacas]

1. Get a putter with the proper weighting (head, handle, and mid-shaft) and flex.
2. Work on delivering the putter head to the ball on a slight upstroke (after low point).
3. Work on delivering the putter head to the ball at the maximum speed or slightly after the maximum speed (which should be at low point). Do not "accelerate" through the putt.

[Late4ttime]

"Accelerate" or "just after maximum speed"- the point is if you are working towards a smooth putting stroke whether it's short or a longer pendulum stroke- your back swing shouldn't be so long that you feel the need to "de-accelerate"  the club on the down swing.

Late-

[CalBoomer]

Originally Posted by iacas

Get a putter with the proper weighting (head, handle, and mid-shaft) and flex.

Work on delivering the putter head to the ball on a slight upstroke (after low point).

Work on delivering the putter head to the ball at the maximum speed or slightly after the maximum speed (which should be at low point). Do not "accelerate" through the putt.

Hard to understand exactly what you mean here. If one hits the ball at a "maximum speed," the putter must have been accelerating to get to the maximum speed. And indeed the physics of a pendulum are such that the head of the pendulum accelerates as it is swinging down (due to the force of gravity) and reaches maximum speed at the nadir. Are you trying to say that one shouldn't use extra force to further accelerate the putter head beyond that of the basic pendulum motion?

[Zeph]

Originally Posted by CalBoomer

Hard to understand exactly what you mean here. If one hits the ball at a "maximum speed," the putter must have been accelerating to get to the maximum speed. And indeed the physics of a pendulum are such that the head of the pendulum accelerates as it is swinging down (due to the force of gravity) and reaches maximum speed at the nadir. Are you trying to say that one shouldn't use extra force to further accelerate the putter head beyond that of the basic pendulum motion?

I believe he is. By reaching maximum speed at impact, the clubhead will de-accelerate after impact. The point is to avoid accelerating so much that the maximum speed is long after the ball.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by CalBoomer

Hard to understand exactly what you mean here. If one hits the ball at a "maximum speed," the putter must have been accelerating to get to the maximum speed. And indeed the physics of a pendulum are such that the head of the pendulum accelerates as it is swinging down (due to the force of gravity) and reaches maximum speed at the nadir. Are you trying to say that one shouldn't use extra force to further accelerate the putter head beyond that of the basic pendulum motion?

What Zeph said.

People who try to "accelerate through the ball" reach maximum speed after the ball when the best putters in the world reach maximum speed BEFORE the ball and are actually starting to decelerate at impact.

You need to apply force more than a pendulum or else, except with incredibly heavy putters, the stroke would be obscenely long for even medium length putts. But you should stop applying that force well before impact.

[CalBoomer]

Let me try to re-phrase all of this once more, since I think we are all describing the same thing somewhat differently. In physics, a true pendulum swinging from a point accelerates (from the force of gravity) until it reaches its lowest point and then begins to decelerate (again from the force of gravity) as it rises from the low point. So as Zeph said, there is no acceleration after impact--if the ball is right at the low point. If the ball is ever so slightly beyond the low point, the putter would be decelerating (although minusculely so) before impact, as Eric has stated. The problem is that the putting stroke--involving the putter, arms, and shoulders--is not a true pendulum because there is always some real muscle input, not just the force of gravity. What the very best putters likely do is to have the muscle effort go "dead" at just the right time so that the motion simulates a pendulum even though it is really not.

[Late4ttime]

Cal-  I think you hit the nail on the head, I too think we are all talking about the same thing.

My ball position for putts is just ahead of my low point as mentioned by Eric, and my club head, does not increase in speed after contact. I attempted to use the word "accelerate" as the opposite of "de-accelerate" in an effort to help the OP to not take such a large back swing so he has to slow down the club head before impact for fear of blowing the ball 20ft past-  I should have said "accelerate TO the ball" not "through" the ball.

It would be really nice to just worry about how far back to take the putter and then let "gravity" handle everything else- since it would be the only constant in the putting stroke!

Late-

[dsc123]

I wouldn't think of it as dropping it through the zone, but rather swinging it at a constant tempo, i.e., the same amount of time for a short stroke and a long one.  Then the only variable is the length.

[imtomtomim]

well, the issue is not the length of my backswing or getting through the ball or face angle.  It is minimizing those ticks where I have the distance set out, yet I still go and spank the ball.  With the pendulum control, there is so much room for me to just muscle through it accidentally and was wondering if anyone actually relies on that.  When I'm using more muscle control, I can still feel out the distance pretty well, but again, there are those couple of times a round when I'll just smack it hard without intending it.  It seems several rely on gravity letting the club do it's work so I may go back to that.

[CalBoomer]

Originally Posted by imtomtomim

well, the issue is not the length of my backswing or getting through the ball or face angle.  It is minimizing those ticks where I have the distance set out, yet I still go and spank the ball.  With the pendulum control, there is so much room for me to just muscle through it accidentally and was wondering if anyone actually relies on that.  When I'm using more muscle control, I can still feel out the distance pretty well, but again, there are those couple of times a round when I'll just smack it hard without intending it.  It seems several rely on gravity letting the club do it's work so I may go back to that.

The simple fact is that putting is hard, and good distance control is the hardest part of the physical act (as opposed to reading the line). Using the length of the backswing to control distance is only reliable if the forward stroke accelerates at a uniform rate and then decelerates just before or after the ball is struck (like a pendulum would). And all of these things become more critical the longer the putt is. These criteria are not easy to achieve. When I practice before a round, I spend almost all of my putting time working purely on distance control and the tempo or rhythm that it requires. Trying to gauge distance by jabbing the ball has simply never worked for me.

[Kieran123]

I picture rolling the ball towards the hole with my hand. I was on the practice green on Saturday and was doing this, then I actually rolled the ball with my hand 3 times and all of them ended up close to the holes I was aiming at.

Don't know how it works, but it works.