For the most part, you are going to use your standard putting stroke when you need to putt all the way across the green. However, there are a few basic adjustments you should make to allow your stroke to work as effectively as possible from long range. The requirements of putting from sixty feet, for example, are different than the requirements of putting from five feet. By making some minor tweaks, you can make the physical side of your long putts a little bit easier.

• Stand taller. To start with, you should be standing taller over the ball. This doesn’t have to be a big change, just move your feet in a little closer together, and maintain a slightly more upright posture. This will be helpful because the club will be able to swing more freely back and through. Many golfers are more comfortable putting from a bent over position, and that’s fine on shorter putts, but it is hard to get the necessary speed on the ball from long range without standing taller. During practice, work on hitting some long putts from a taller stance. Most likely, you’ll find that this comes pretty naturally, and is actually an easy adjustment to make.
• Use the whole putter. This is a change that comes along with the first point. If you normally choke down on the putter just slightly at address, which is a common habit for many players, try moving your hands up to the top of the grip for these longer putts. Again, this is about making it easier to generate the speed necessary to send the ball all the way across the green. By keeping your hands at the top of the grip, you can swing the entire length of the putter, giving you a longer arc and more potential speed. It’s not that you couldn’t hit the ball far enough when choked down – you probably could – but it would require more effort, and your speed control may suffer. The stroke should be smoother this way, helping you dial up the right distance more often than not.
• Play the ball slightly forward in your stance. If there is one mistake you want to avoid on these kinds of long putts, it is causing the ball to bounce early in the putt. When the ball starts bouncing early on, it is almost always going to come up short. By playing the ball forward in your stance, you can reduce the chances that you’ll wind up with a bouncing putt. If the ball were to be placed too far back, you may hit down slightly at impact – causing the ball to go down into the turf, bounce back up, and hop along for several feet before it settles down. You want to roll the ball as smoothly as possible along the top of the grass, and that is going to be easier when the ball is near the front of your stance.

As you can see, there is nothing dramatic that needs to be done here. By making slight adjustments to the technique that you already know and trust, you can come away with impressive results. Now that you know how to modify your putting technique from long range, it’s up to you to get out and work on it. Spend time during each practice session rolling some long putts to get comfortable with these changes. Before long, you’ll feel more confident than ever before when forced to handle a long putt.