You're Correct!

One of the most common issues golfers have when trying to deal with a long putt followed by a shorter putt is whats the best way to get the length right. Most of the time, youre trying to control the length by using your hands, making what looks like the same length stroke and just speeding up the hands more on the longer ones. Although this will hit putts different lengths, you will never get the right speed often enough.

The best way to look at long and short putts is that the set up position, including the width of your stance, must remain the same and you control your distance by changing the length of your stroke. Try this drill to help you control the length needed for both short and long putts.

Take eight balls down to the practise green, find a nice big space to putt into and set up four of your balls in the following way. Take your set up and place one ball in front of each foot and the take the other two balls and place them 12 inches either side of the balls that are stance width. Step back a couple of feet and take your set up with the two inside balls in front of your feet. Bring in the first of your other four balls and prepare to hit your putt.

Make the length of your stroke on this putt only as far back as the first ball and then through impact only as far as the first ball. The length of this stroke is toe to toe. This will see you hit a short putt. Hit another putt but this time make the length of your stroke move back to the outer balls in both the backstroke and through stroke. You will see how much further your putt has travelled from the extra length of stroke. It is this method that will give you the most consistency between your short and long putting. The more you practise this drill, the more control you will have over your putting stroke.

If you were to widen your stance every five feet you ball moved away from the hole then you would probably end up doing the splits over a 30 foot putt. You should never change your set up in an attempt to change the distance you hit your putt, just make your backstroke a little longer the further away you get.

If you speed you the tempo of your putting stroke then you will always be very inconsistent. This is because there is no way of measuring how fast you speed up for long putts and how much you slow down on short ones. Think of the pendulum ticking back and through at the same speed as this is the only way you can be a consistent putter.

Some golfers like to open their stance to the left (if youre right hande but this will have no bearing at all on how you control the distance of your putts. You may think you can see your aim line better, though nobody knows for sure if it helps but if you speed up into the ball too much then you will still hit your putt way past the hole.