Best Way to Manage Long Distance Putts Senior Putting Tip (Video) - by Dean Butler
Best Way to Manage Long Distance Putts Senior Putting Tip (Video) - by Dean Butler

Well let’s talk about Long Distance putts, if only every putt was short and every putt was flat, it would be wonderful. Most crucial element on the Long Distance putt is to try and get that feel; it’s just to basically roll the ball up what we call Lag. Lag is basically a putt that will just let’s you rolling out, if I can get the putt say 30 foot away. We’re just trying to leave it 26, 27 feet just lagging the ball up inside -- basically like a big bulls eye lagging up and this time just kind of use this technique. So for example if you’ve got a down hill putts I would be saying, let’s think about what’s the easier putt if you miss the first one? Is it the putt that’s still got the down hill putt or is it the one that’s coming back up the hill? So think about what you are faced with, so if we go to downhill putts we are going to try and just get that ball just rolling just past the hole. And when it goes past the hole look at which way it fell. Did it fall to the left? In which case your putt coming back is left or right, did is fall to the right? Just have a look at it, but if you’ve got to putt that’s uphill then is a perfect example to like where you just pick that length of swing rolling it up, so we are lagging it and we try to leave it maybe two feet just short of the hole.

And then basically from that is a simple sort of tap in, so the crucial element is to control the distance. So what gives us that control? Well essential is the length of your swing. If I was to stand here and then swing and go this sort of length backwards and forwards you can imagine that sort of swing conjures up a good hit a long putt. Its all about feel, so when you are talking about getting that distance control, it’s all about the length of your swing. So again when you go to that ball have a few practice swings. Feel, feel what you have to do. Do a lot of practice without the ball and then go to the ball when you are happy. Line yourself up with the clubface and the feet parallel and your eye are over the top, and then from there feel the actual swing. A good drill will be just to get a hold of the ball and from on the putting grid, get down like a crown green ball and just roll the ball down. And again what will the crown green ball do? When they get hit and go right, swing it right here, swing it through? Of course they wouldn’t. It’s a case of did you get a long swing or did you need a short swing depending on how far that bad putt is. And you may have a 40 foot putt that’s all down hill. So at last what you’re going to do is have a big long swing. So look at the slope is it with you down or is it up? And from there get the feel of it, so for crucial putts in crucial sort of distance that’s what we want you to do, is get over that ball and feel the length of the swing, and really I can’t really say much more than that. You’ve got all the information there now use it to your advantage. But when you talk about control the feel you’ll have to pull that time in. You have to put that practice in and from that you’ll gauge, remember on the putting green you get one chance. So give yourself three or four practice swings. Practicing that swing, and a little extra drill tip would be go into putting green look at the fringe on the other side, putts a clip down maybe two to three foots away from it and try and roll the putts so it just comes up shorter the shaft. And do it say a half a dozen times then maybe move it to a different area, and that’s all about control and distance feel. Hopefully that give you a little bit of insight without confusing you how to improve that distance control. 2014-04-02

Well let’s talk about Long Distance putts, if only every putt was short and every putt was flat, it would be wonderful. Most crucial element on the Long Distance putt is to try and get that feel; it’s just to basically roll the ball up what we call Lag. Lag is basically a putt that will just let’s you rolling out, if I can get the putt say 30 foot away. We’re just trying to leave it 26, 27 feet just lagging the ball up inside — basically like a big bulls eye lagging up and this time just kind of use this technique. So for example if you’ve got a down hill putts I would be saying, let’s think about what’s the easier putt if you miss the first one? Is it the putt that’s still got the down hill putt or is it the one that’s coming back up the hill? So think about what you are faced with, so if we go to downhill putts we are going to try and just get that ball just rolling just past the hole. And when it goes past the hole look at which way it fell. Did it fall to the left? In which case your putt coming back is left or right, did is fall to the right? Just have a look at it, but if you’ve got to putt that’s uphill then is a perfect example to like where you just pick that length of swing rolling it up, so we are lagging it and we try to leave it maybe two feet just short of the hole.

And then basically from that is a simple sort of tap in, so the crucial element is to control the distance. So what gives us that control? Well essential is the length of your swing. If I was to stand here and then swing and go this sort of length backwards and forwards you can imagine that sort of swing conjures up a good hit a long putt. Its all about feel, so when you are talking about getting that distance control, it’s all about the length of your swing. So again when you go to that ball have a few practice swings. Feel, feel what you have to do. Do a lot of practice without the ball and then go to the ball when you are happy. Line yourself up with the clubface and the feet parallel and your eye are over the top, and then from there feel the actual swing.

A good drill will be just to get a hold of the ball and from on the putting grid, get down like a crown green ball and just roll the ball down. And again what will the crown green ball do? When they get hit and go right, swing it right here, swing it through? Of course they wouldn’t. It’s a case of did you get a long swing or did you need a short swing depending on how far that bad putt is. And you may have a 40 foot putt that’s all down hill. So at last what you’re going to do is have a big long swing. So look at the slope is it with you down or is it up? And from there get the feel of it, so for crucial putts in crucial sort of distance that’s what we want you to do, is get over that ball and feel the length of the swing, and really I can’t really say much more than that.

You’ve got all the information there now use it to your advantage. But when you talk about control the feel you’ll have to pull that time in. You have to put that practice in and from that you’ll gauge, remember on the putting green you get one chance. So give yourself three or four practice swings. Practicing that swing, and a little extra drill tip would be go into putting green look at the fringe on the other side, putts a clip down maybe two to three foots away from it and try and roll the putts so it just comes up shorter the shaft. And do it say a half a dozen times then maybe move it to a different area, and that’s all about control and distance feel. Hopefully that give you a little bit of insight without confusing you how to improve that distance control.