PUTTING: CHANGE SPEED WITH YOUR STROKE SIZE
putts get longer. That way, the concept of your stroke can stay the same, and that leads to reliability. It can help to practice with a measuring stick. Make progressively bigger backswings, checking the length with the stick ( above ). Then let the putter coast through the ball, using only its mass and momentum to make it roll. How far does the ball travel? Keep practising like this, and you’ll start hitting putts that finish their roll as they near the cup. What you want is to maximise the “capture speed.” Hit a putt too fast, and it might drop only if you clank it off the flagstick. Hit it at the right speed, and any portion of the 10.8-centimetre wide hole (top photo) might be able to capture the ball.
Even if you’re a poor green-reader and don’t do a great job of starting the ball on line, you still can improve if your putts have good speed. Your results will never be that far from the hole – which reduces second-putt drama. PGA Tour players make 99 percent of their three-footers and 92 percent from four feet. If you reduce your leave distance by at least a foot, imagine how it could impact your scores. The best way to improve speed is to create a repeatable framework. If you normally make the same swing size for most putts but change how much you accelerate with your hands and wrists to adjust for distance, you’ll be a lot more consistent if you instead increase the size of your stroke as
17 - 27 NOVEMBER
GOLF DIGEST TEACHING PROFESSIONAL MARK BLACKBURN IS ONE OF THE 50 BEST TEACHERS IN AMERICA
96 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
NOVEMBER 2023
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