Senior Golf Drill for Putting Speed Control (Video) - by Dean Butler
Senior Golf Drill for Putting Speed Control (Video) - by Dean Butler

Okay I want to show you a simple drill for getting you to the speed control for your putting. Speed control what is it? It’s about getting that pace, judging that length. How many times have you putted on the green, you’ve worked so hard from the tee to the green, you’ve got 6/8 foot putt, you just missed that hole but it’s gone 8-4 +. I know all of a sudden those two shots of that 440 yard par 4 have been blown out the window for us. We’ve just missed one from here. And it was all down to not how accurate you were because you’ve just missed the hole, but it’s about the speed control. So here is a very, very simple exercise in here. You can do this better on a putting green, where you can go into a hole and put tee pegs in around the hole so you create a circle and leave yourself a little bit of a sort of gateway. And what you want to do is you want to try and feel the length of your swing and how crucial that is to get it within that ‘bull’s eye’. That’s what you are trying to create.

Here we’ve basically put some rulers down, some sticks down, to just demonstrate how important the control actually is. When we set up to it you can imagine what equals distance, what equals that sort of speed control. Well apart from the obvious how fast you swing the putter; it’s the length of your swing. So if I were to go from here, and set up and just pull the trigger about quite short all of a sudden that ball has no control whatsoever. Because my swing was too long for the putt I was faced with. So from here, imagine you’ve got that big circle it makes a lot easier on a putting green out there to get it with inside that ‘bull’s eye.’ And you can start with just a very short putt and once you’ve done so many putts going around the circle move yourself away all the time. From here focus on getting over the top of ball and remember its all about the length of the swing here. If I wanted to throw a ball to someone standing here, in front of me, I wouldn’t be going -- throwing it like that I’d be just very sure and the pace of my swing would be the same as if somebody was standing a little bit further back. So the length of the swing here is crucial. So you can imagine this is very, very fast indeed. So I need a very, very short swing. So from here back to the putter back short and hit it. You can see how fast this putt actually is. Now the second one is going to be a little bit more difficult because the pressure is now on me. So we are going to just do the same thing again. I’m just going to lengthen my swing just a little bit more. I’m not going to do anything different than what I just did; I try and end up in the second zone. Remember this is just a putting drill. And with drills sometimes they go wrong -- just covering myself -- but here we go again, lets try from here. Just a slightly longer putter swing, just slightly, back -- that has just rolled outside but you can see here a good demonstration. But that’s what a drill is all about. I’ve had two golf balls. You are going to go out there with a dozen golf balls in a circle, and you are going to practice out field. And if at first you don’t succeed we try and try again. So I’ve got one more chance just to get it into that end zone. So no real pressure honestly. So from here I swing nice and short -- and through -- and this time, I’ve just managed to do it. So if I can do that with a little bit of practice by having two balls, what are you going to do when you putt say, a dozen balls around that ‘bulls eye’? And start close and move your way back out further and further. This is all about speed control. Remember, it’s no good just missing the hole by a whisker and like oh and then see it go ten foot past is a great exercise. You can see it’s all about the length of the swing gripping nice and light very good drill. Go ahead and put this into practice because this is going to improve that speed control very, very quickly. 2014-04-01

Okay I want to show you a simple drill for getting you to the speed control for your putting. Speed control what is it? It’s about getting that pace, judging that length. How many times have you putted on the green, you’ve worked so hard from the tee to the green, you’ve got 6/8 foot putt, you just missed that hole but it’s gone 8-4 +. I know all of a sudden those two shots of that 440 yard par 4 have been blown out the window for us. We’ve just missed one from here. And it was all down to not how accurate you were because you’ve just missed the hole, but it’s about the speed control. So here is a very, very simple exercise in here. You can do this better on a putting green, where you can go into a hole and put tee pegs in around the hole so you create a circle and leave yourself a little bit of a sort of gateway. And what you want to do is you want to try and feel the length of your swing and how crucial that is to get it within that ‘bull’s eye’. That’s what you are trying to create.

Here we’ve basically put some rulers down, some sticks down, to just demonstrate how important the control actually is. When we set up to it you can imagine what equals distance, what equals that sort of speed control. Well apart from the obvious how fast you swing the putter; it’s the length of your swing. So if I were to go from here, and set up and just pull the trigger about quite short all of a sudden that ball has no control whatsoever. Because my swing was too long for the putt I was faced with. So from here, imagine you’ve got that big circle it makes a lot easier on a putting green out there to get it with inside that ‘bull’s eye.’ And you can start with just a very short putt and once you’ve done so many putts going around the circle move yourself away all the time. From here focus on getting over the top of ball and remember its all about the length of the swing here. If I wanted to throw a ball to someone standing here, in front of me, I wouldn’t be going — throwing it like that I’d be just very sure and the pace of my swing would be the same as if somebody was standing a little bit further back.

So the length of the swing here is crucial. So you can imagine this is very, very fast indeed. So I need a very, very short swing. So from here back to the putter back short and hit it. You can see how fast this putt actually is. Now the second one is going to be a little bit more difficult because the pressure is now on me. So we are going to just do the same thing again. I’m just going to lengthen my swing just a little bit more. I’m not going to do anything different than what I just did; I try and end up in the second zone. Remember this is just a putting drill. And with drills sometimes they go wrong — just covering myself — but here we go again, lets try from here. Just a slightly longer putter swing, just slightly, back — that has just rolled outside but you can see here a good demonstration. But that’s what a drill is all about. I’ve had two golf balls. You are going to go out there with a dozen golf balls in a circle, and you are going to practice out field. And if at first you don’t succeed we try and try again.

So I’ve got one more chance just to get it into that end zone. So no real pressure honestly. So from here I swing nice and short — and through — and this time, I’ve just managed to do it. So if I can do that with a little bit of practice by having two balls, what are you going to do when you putt say, a dozen balls around that ‘bulls eye’? And start close and move your way back out further and further. This is all about speed control. Remember, it’s no good just missing the hole by a whisker and like oh and then see it go ten foot past is a great exercise. You can see it’s all about the length of the swing gripping nice and light very good drill. Go ahead and put this into practice because this is going to improve that speed control very, very quickly.