Why You Are Leaving Putts Short Senior Putting Tip (Video) - by Dean Butler
Why You Are Leaving Putts Short Senior Putting Tip (Video) - by Dean Butler

You leaving your putt short? Well most probably you are because that’s why you’re looking at this swing set right now. It’s all about getting that ball to the hole. We’ve heard everybody say never up, never in; never a truer statement in the game of golf. Putting is essential. The hole won’t move to us, we’ve got to get the ball to the hole.

What’s the biggest cause of leaving that ball short? It’s deceleration. Deceleration is when you set up to the putt, you swing that putter back and then all of a sudden we decelerate. We slow down to the ball. You can just imagine it as though you’re hitting the breaks of a car. You’re slowing down. Acceleration is very, very important. How do we go about getting that acceleration or knowing we’re doing it right? Well the first thing to do is to set yourself up and say right the first thing I need to do is try and get a consistency in the swing, is make the swing full length. Remember, if you go back and you decelerate, your backswing might have gone here. If you decelerate, the chances are you’ll stop here. Let’s make the swing equal length so that’s first of all. That’s the easiest thing. To get the feel, you could always separate your feet and put the ball in the middle and then go to your right foot and to your left foot. Very, very simple and just go backwards and forwards or even easier, get yourself setup as you normally do – would and put a ball left and right and just swing between those two points of going backwards and forward and making sure that putter is reaching both balls just inside. Keeps the tempo going, guarantees that you’re not going to decelerate and you should get some very, very good results from that. A good drill would be to go on the practice putting green and to basically get this acceleration is to get yourself over the ball. Use one hand and try and push the putter through; so back and push. We’re trying to push that ball into the hole. Once you’ve done that quite a few times and got the feel of pushing it through, then you can basically put both hands on; with two hands on, you can imagine the job is a lot easier. With one hand, to get that putter through, you’re going to have to push and extend that follow through so you get that feel of going through; in other words, acceleration. It might not feel very fast but the point will be you’re not decelerating on it. It’s a very, very good idea to set yourself up and push the putter through from say two foot, three foot away; see how that feels. Again don’t do over three or four balls. Try a dozen golf balls and then set yourself back on the same putt. Put both hands back up and do the same thing. I guarantee that if you’ve done the first preparation right, you’ll find yourself getting that putter going through a lot longer, which means more acceleration and not deceleration. 2014-03-31

You leaving your putt short? Well most probably you are because that’s why you’re looking at this swing set right now. It’s all about getting that ball to the hole. We’ve heard everybody say never up, never in; never a truer statement in the game of golf. Putting is essential. The hole won’t move to us, we’ve got to get the ball to the hole.

What’s the biggest cause of leaving that ball short? It’s deceleration. Deceleration is when you set up to the putt, you swing that putter back and then all of a sudden we decelerate. We slow down to the ball. You can just imagine it as though you’re hitting the breaks of a car. You’re slowing down. Acceleration is very, very important.

How do we go about getting that acceleration or knowing we’re doing it right? Well the first thing to do is to set yourself up and say right the first thing I need to do is try and get a consistency in the swing, is make the swing full length. Remember, if you go back and you decelerate, your backswing might have gone here. If you decelerate, the chances are you’ll stop here. Let’s make the swing equal length so that’s first of all. That’s the easiest thing. To get the feel, you could always separate your feet and put the ball in the middle and then go to your right foot and to your left foot. Very, very simple and just go backwards and forwards or even easier, get yourself setup as you normally do – would and put a ball left and right and just swing between those two points of going backwards and forward and making sure that putter is reaching both balls just inside. Keeps the tempo going, guarantees that you’re not going to decelerate and you should get some very, very good results from that.

A good drill would be to go on the practice putting green and to basically get this acceleration is to get yourself over the ball. Use one hand and try and push the putter through; so back and push. We’re trying to push that ball into the hole. Once you’ve done that quite a few times and got the feel of pushing it through, then you can basically put both hands on; with two hands on, you can imagine the job is a lot easier. With one hand, to get that putter through, you’re going to have to push and extend that follow through so you get that feel of going through; in other words, acceleration. It might not feel very fast but the point will be you’re not decelerating on it.

It’s a very, very good idea to set yourself up and push the putter through from say two foot, three foot away; see how that feels. Again don’t do over three or four balls. Try a dozen golf balls and then set yourself back on the same putt. Put both hands back up and do the same thing. I guarantee that if you’ve done the first preparation right, you’ll find yourself getting that putter going through a lot longer, which means more acceleration and not deceleration.