How good are you with your speed control on the greens? Are you somebody who always leaves themselves a 6 footer coming back? Or do you always try to leave it dead weight and it ends up coming short? Sometimes we overlook this aspect and become too focussed on the line and the read, just maybe you are missing the art of putting?
Strike
It seems simple but how is your centredness of strike with your putter? Or is this something you didn’t even consider? Variation in strike location is going to have an impact on your quality of roll but also your ball speed. Change in strike location from a vertical aspect is going to affect the roll due to the change in backspin but also the change in ball speed. Variation in strike location from heel to toe is going to have an impact on the ball speed but also, we can experience a small amount of gears (twist of the putter head) from off centre strikes which can also have a small affect on start line. Ensure you have a more centred strike with your putts before you investigate other contributing factors to speed control.
Never up Never in
A common theme of advice from your playing partners when you leave it short but is it actually a bad thing leaving it short? At Pebble beach in the AT&T the average percentage made between 15-20 feet was 18.48%. So, for the majority of club level golfers, I would firstly recommend to realign your expectations, secondly 2 putting is good and whether you tap it in from 2 foot before the hole or 2-foot past, it doesn’t really matter.
Reading the Greens
Speed control is also going to have a huge impact of how you read the greens. The ability to match the speed with the line you choose is so important to giving your putt a chance or not leaving yourself too much work to do for the putt coming back. Becoming better at controlling your speed will allow you to choose your line more efficiently, whether you are somebody that plays them firmer with less break or dead weight taking more break.
Drills
Putting to the fringe – start from 10 feet away and see how many balls you can get past the previous putt before you run out of room and hit the fringe.
Putter length – play 9 holes on the putting green from varied distances, every putt you hit before holed out must be moved a putter length away from the hole. Every hole is a par 3 – see what you can score.
Improve your strike – either place some blue tac or elastic bands on or around the face to help improve awareness of the centre and help improve.
Tiger Drill- Put two 2 tee pegs down with 5mm gap either end of the putter and practice delivering your putter through the gap..this will encourage great strike.
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