How Can I Improve My Distance Control On Long Golf Putts (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
How Can I Improve My Distance Control On Long Golf Putts (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

So you join me now when I'm looking for a long golf putt here. Now the biggest priority I would always find when I'm looking at a long putt, is to try and get accurate distance control. It's not an easy thing to get right this, because a small change in your stroke will make a massive change to the resulting putt. But having good distance control is really the crucial part of not being able to 3-putt this putt but to be able to 2-putt it. So there’s two aspects I can look at here, what is the ground going to do to my ball? And then what do I need to do to my stroke? So this I've read, I've read it the way round, I've walked all the way up this side of it, all way back round the other side and I've had a good read of this putt and I can see that it's up hill all the way. The green is a bit bubbling a little bit slow.

So I'm inputting all the information to my head. Then as I will set myself up to hit this putt, I'm going to just input that data again, have a look at the length, have a look at the line, have a look at the distance I've got a hit, then I kick couple of practice strokes. And you notice my practice strokes when I setup this, I'm going to be looking at the hole and making a stroke. Not really watching how far back and through the putt is going, what I'm doing here is feeling how far back and through. So I align myself up, I'm feeling how far back and through the putt is going. Going to be looking at the hole to give it a good gauge, then as I setup I'm happy that I've got the right length for the stroke. Now my job is just to make good clean contact. If I can make good clean contact with that putt, it has good distant control. I'm going to have to walk, I'm going to just show you how far that one has gone past. So as I walk up the length for the putt here, it's gone that far past the hole, so no more than 18 inches. And 18 inches is really the perfect distance that I wanted to get the ball to go past the hole, because it had a chance of going in. It might not go in very regularly from that sort of distance, but it had a good chance. I gave it an opportunity to go in but from 18 inches I'm going to hold 99.9% of my return putt. So because I was able to read the putt effectively to start with, then make a good coupe of practice strokes looking at the hole top gauge how far I wanted to hit he putt. I was able to walk forwards just execute exactly the same stroke and getting good distance control which will eliminate my 3-putts.
2014-10-15

So you join me now when I'm looking for a long golf putt here. Now the biggest priority I would always find when I'm looking at a long putt, is to try and get accurate distance control. It's not an easy thing to get right this, because a small change in your stroke will make a massive change to the resulting putt. But having good distance control is really the crucial part of not being able to 3-putt this putt but to be able to 2-putt it. So there’s two aspects I can look at here, what is the ground going to do to my ball? And then what do I need to do to my stroke? So this I've read, I've read it the way round, I've walked all the way up this side of it, all way back round the other side and I've had a good read of this putt and I can see that it's up hill all the way. The green is a bit bubbling a little bit slow.

So I'm inputting all the information to my head. Then as I will set myself up to hit this putt, I'm going to just input that data again, have a look at the length, have a look at the line, have a look at the distance I've got a hit, then I kick couple of practice strokes. And you notice my practice strokes when I setup this, I'm going to be looking at the hole and making a stroke. Not really watching how far back and through the putt is going, what I'm doing here is feeling how far back and through. So I align myself up, I'm feeling how far back and through the putt is going. Going to be looking at the hole to give it a good gauge, then as I setup I'm happy that I've got the right length for the stroke. Now my job is just to make good clean contact. If I can make good clean contact with that putt, it has good distant control.

I'm going to have to walk, I'm going to just show you how far that one has gone past. So as I walk up the length for the putt here, it's gone that far past the hole, so no more than 18 inches. And 18 inches is really the perfect distance that I wanted to get the ball to go past the hole, because it had a chance of going in. It might not go in very regularly from that sort of distance, but it had a good chance. I gave it an opportunity to go in but from 18 inches I'm going to hold 99.9% of my return putt. So because I was able to read the putt effectively to start with, then make a good coupe of practice strokes looking at the hole top gauge how far I wanted to hit he putt. I was able to walk forwards just execute exactly the same stroke and getting good distance control which will eliminate my 3-putts.