An Easy Golf Putting Tip To Control The Distance Of Your Putts

The Best Golf Putting Tip For Lag Putting

This is the Putting Distance Control Lesson.Distance control is the second half of the putting equation. Well...what good is hitting your putt on line if you are 10 feet short on one putt and then 10 feet long the next time.

You will also face putts of different lengths every time you step on a green during a game. You will also see greens of different speeds when you play from day to day and from course to course.

There are several things that can change the speed of the greens:

• Water – could be rain, or they just ran the sprinklers, water makes greens slower
• Length Of Grass – some courses keep the grass longer than others, longer grass equals slower greens
• Type Of Grass – bent vs poa-anna – different grasses lie differently on the greens. Bent bends over and lies flat, while poanna flowers during the day and stands straight up. Poanna gets slower by the end of the day.
• Wind – yes...wind...I have played in Scotland and it certainly affected our putts that day.

With all of these variables that can possibly come into play you are going to want to have a solid, consistent method of adjusting to putts of different lengths and speeds. The better you become at controlling your distance when you are putting the more putts you will make and the less 3 putts you will have. That will lead to lower scores very quickly.

Golf Putting Tip # 1

• 1.Make solid contact. You need a solid stroke and practice in order to make good contact every time.
• 2.The right concept of how to control distance. There are a few misconceptions in golf and distance control in putting is one of them.

A lot of people try to control the different lengths of putts with their hands. They make what looks like the same length stroke for every putt and just try to hit harder or softer depending on the need. This can work but truly is not the most effective way to get the job done.

It has been a long used image for putting that the stroke is a pendulum motion. Think of the arm that hangs down on a grandfather clock. Remember how it swings back and forth? It swings the same distance to the left and right.

This is a great image for your putting stroke and having great distance control. The shorter the putt the shorter the stroke. The longer the putt the longer the stroke you need to make.

• Take 5 golf balls and set them up like the picture you see here.
• The ball in the middle is the one you will putt.
• The others are set up the same distances on either side of that ball.

This is a great visual for making a stroke that has the putter head go the same distance on the back swing and follow through.

Golf Putting Tip #2 : The Shorter Putts

• Think of this as a small grandfather clock where the arm only swings back at forth a short distance.
• Remember that the only the arm swings back and forth and the ball at the bottom does not move. The ball represents your hands and wrists and should remain still throughout the stroke.
• Swing your putter head back to the first ball for your backswing.
• Then with the same smooth pace swing the putter head to the ball on the follow through side.

Golf Putting Tip # 3 : Follow Through

• This will give you a nice even speed stroke that will allow you to hit a solid putt while controlling your distance.
• Hit a few putts to get a feel for the distance, that your stroke is producing.
• A great way to ingrain feel is to hold your finish position until the ball stops moving.
• They should all travel relatively the same distance, so long as you maintained the same rhythm in your strokes.

Golf Putting Tip # 4 : The Longer Putts

Golf Putting Tip # 5 : The Follow Through

• Think of this stroke as a big grandfather clock with a long arm swing.
• The arm of the clock will swing at the same speed but the momentum of the swing will have the ball traveling faster.
• This is the same as making a longer stroke for a longer putt.
• Swing the putter back to the farther ball and then follow through to the far ball on the other side.

• Keep your putter speed constant through the stroke.
• Hit a few putts with the longer stroke.
• See how much farther the ball travels by making the longer stroke?

If you do this drill you should see how with a shorter stroke the ball only went a short distance while the longer stroke sent the ball much farther. This is a great way to practice at the course, in your office, or at home. Getting a strong feel for this concept will certainly make you a better putter.

One more Golf Putting Tip & key to success. In most sports a change of speed is great. Wide receivers get open down field with change of speed. They start slower and then when the defender does not expect it...boom...they are gone with a burst of speed. However, in golf, changing speeds is terrible for your game.

You want to be smooth throughout all your swings. If you change speed with the putter head...either slow to fast, or fast to slow...it is going to be very hard to control your speed or even make solid contact.

Thank you for reading the Putting Distance Control Lesson. If you would like to continue the Putting Lessons in order then please go to the Putting Pre-shot Routine Lesson next.

Click Here To Go To The Putting Pre-shot Routine Lesson

Good luck with your game. May you reach your golf goals sooner with the help of free-golf-lessons.com.

Return to the Home Page From Golf Putting Tip Return to the Main Putting Lessons Page From Golf Putting Tip