You should use a quick tempo in the short game, assuming you use a quick pace with your full swing. While it is a good idea to match up your tempo between the short game and the long game, you do need to watch out for a few possible points of trouble when swinging quickly on short shots. If you are going to work on mastering your short game with a quick pace, keep the following points in mind.
Transitions are still important. Just as was the case with your full swing, you’ll also want to watch your transitions in the short game. Don’t rush to change directions, and don’t rush at the start of each swing or stroke. You need to keep everything smooth if you hope to control the distance of your shots successfully. While practicing, think about being smooth above all else. Go ahead and move quickly in the swing, but avoid rapid changes of direction so you can produce consistent results.
Keep your backswing short. With a quick tempo, you are going to be producing plenty of speed in your short game swings. With that in mind, you’ll need to keep your backswing or backstroke short in order to manage your distance properly. For example, if you are facing a three-foot putt, you can’t afford to make a long backswing with a quick tempo. Such a stroke would certainly hit the ball too hard for the shot at hand. Avoid making long backswings so you can swing through the ball confidently without having to decelerate to manage the speed of the shot.
Slow down from time to time. There are certain short game shots that are simply easier to handle when you use a slow tempo. Not to worry – you can just slow things down when the time is right. A good example of such a situation is when you are facing a downhill chip shot. If you use a quick tempo, it will be hard to control the speed of this shot without racing the ball past the cup. So, by slowing down your swing in this case, you can take some pace off the ball and hopefully bring your chip shot to a halt in time to set up an easy putt. During your short game practice sessions, try hitting at least a few shots with a slower tempo in order to get comfortable with this technique. When out on the course, you can pick between your fast and slow tempo, depending on the demands of the shot.
It is entirely possible to play great golf with a quick swing tempo. Some golf instructors will lead you to believe that you need to play this game with a slow and steady swing, but that doesn’t have to be the case. As long as a fast swing fits your personality, and you are willing to practice such a swing in order to get comfortable with how it works, you can certainly hit good shots by employing fast tempo. We hope the advice in this article will help you play your best golf – good luck!
