30-FOOT PUTTS CREATE BETTER SYMMETRY IN YOUR STROKE
• Thirty feet is where most amateurs typically start three- putting. Their big mistake is not so much with the read, but with speed control. They take the putter back short and slow, then accelerate quickly through the ball with a lengthy follow-through. As a result, the ball comes off with too much speed. I tell my students to be like a minivan coming through impact – not a Ferrari – and to use the length of their backswing to dictate the speed and distance the ball travels. The putter should accelerate naturally
into the ball because of its weight and gravity, like a wrecking ball. You don’t need to add any speed to it. Studies on tempo show that the best putting strokes have a 2-to-1 ratio – or two beats going back, one beat going forward into impact. The stroke length also is symmetrical, which helps prevent too much acceleration. For a drill, place a ball 30 feet from a hole and stick two tees in the ground equidistant from the ball. Swing the putterhead to the back tee and then to the forward tee ( below ). As you do this, choose an easy-to-remember
name that has a ratio of two syllables to one, such as “In-bee Park” or “Ti- ger Woods,” and mouth the words “In-bee” or “Ti-ger” on the backswing and “Park” or “Woods” into the ball. Get the rhythm and length of your stroke down pat, and soon your long putts will routinely cosy up to the hole, and your three-putts will be a thing of the past. CHERYL ANDERSON , one of Golf Digest's 50 Best Teachers in America, is the director of instruction at the Mike Bender Golf Academy in Florida
28 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JULY/AUGUST 2024
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