How can you control your speed with your golf putts? Now it’s a pretty good question this one because it’s a very important question. We know that when we’re putting speed is going to be the reason, or lack of control of speed is going to be the reason why we would three putt majority of the time. So it’s really important we can understand how to control the speed. And there’s probably two different variations of how to control speed when you’re putting; one I like, and one I’m not so keen on.
Some people when they’re taking their putts would just consider they’re going to hit the putt harder or softer to hit longer and shorter shots. Now yes we’re going to hit some putts hard, some putts soft, but it isn’t really the right thought process, I don’t feel. I wouldn’t want to step to a putt and just think “Well, I’m just going to tap it” and I’m going to stand to the next one and I’m just going to go “Well, I’m going to whack it.” That doesn’t really give me a great deal of control or a sense of control when I’m taking putts; whacking one and tapping one.
What I would rather think about is that changing the length of my backswing changes the length of the putt that I’m going to hit. So if I have a short putt I have a short backswing, and I have a longer putt I have a longer backswing. By having a longer backswing I would inherently have a longer follow through. So similar to a pendulum, if I rock this pendulum backwards and forwards on a short arc, it travels quite slowly. But if I rock it backwards and forwards on a longer arc, it travels far faster; and therefore, that therefore controls the distance of my putts. So if I had a very short putt, shorter than this hole, I would have a tiny little backswing and a tiny little follow through and it would roll just a couple of feet. And if I have a longer backswing and a longer follow through, the ball rolls out there a bit more evenly and if this ball finish just short of the hole and I want to hit it a little bit further past the hole, I have a longer backswing back, a longer backswing through, and I now have more speed to go past the hole.
So at no point now have I thought to myself I’ve got to hit this harder or hit this softer, there’s no hit reflex in the putt; that doesn’t do us any real favors. But I’ve been able to hit three distinctly different putts, not without hitting it hard or hitting it softer but simply by swinging it back further, and swinging it through further, or swinging it back shorter, swinging it through shorter. So that pendulum rocking action is really I feel the best way that you can control the length of your putts. Get yourself a nice area of flat carpet at home or flat putting green out on the golf course, a couple of golf balls in your pocket, and practice hitting three different putts three different distances like this. If you can put some tee pegs down putt to some markers, but consider how the length of your backswing and the length of your follow through that’s the best way to change the distance that you’re hitting your putts.
