Need putting help!

Been getting better this year overall, shooting in the mid to high 80s, but starting to find out that my putting is really holding me back from having some better rounds. I definitely waste 4-5 shots a round on the green and my main miss is short. Not just short... like really short, 4-5 feet short on mid range putts at times. I’ve tried hitting it harder and practicing on the putting greens to no avail. I have no feel for distance with my putter. I wouldn’t say I have a bad stroke and from short range I’m solid but mid and long range can be embarrassingly bad.

Is there any methods out there to help me better judge distance? Sick of being called girl names by my friends!

Try this.. use one hand to putt, your dominate. You will get amazing distance control. Then build your stroke around that

Here's a suggestion, might or might not work for you but it's worth a try. Set up with a slight bend in your right wrist and maintain that bend throughout the stroke. Push the putter head back with your left hand and use your right shoulder blade to push the putter head to the target. This push push stroke keeps the putter head low to the ground for more consistency.

I would suggest the ladder drill. Find an area on the putting green with no holes to get in the way with the largest section you can find.

Putt the ball 3 feet. Next put a few inches past the first ball. Keep increasing the distance till you reach the fringe of the green then reverse it and start hitting putts shorter and shorter. You can add a Punisher by starting over every time you fail to putt shorter or longer than the previous putt.

For me i struggled with putts and the biggest change that I did for myself and suggest for you is the green light/red light method of putting. What I mean by that is the distance will determine whether you have the lag mentality or the drain it mentality. A big problem I noticed for myself when I was dealing with a long putt of say outside 10 feet, was that my distance control suffered greatly because the target being the hole at the time became that much smaller. Now when I have a putt outside of 10 feet, I go into red light lag mentality and I make my target a two foot circle around the hole. This actually makes the goal for my putt much more manageable. To some, that does not make sense. But it actually works. when you decide on a lag putt versus a hole putt, your stroke follows suit. It becomes more strategic and now becomes a feel putt versus and mechanical putt if that makes sense. This in part becomes the second part of the green light/ red light approach and that is to really work on feel when it comes to your longer putts. The best example is shooting a basketball or throwing a wad of paper into a garbage can. You stare at the basket and your body just feels how hard you need to shoot it in to have a chance of reaching the basket. No mechanical approach, that is why you sometimes see Jordan Speith stare at the hole and putt. That will help you greatly. When I have a lag putt situation, I pick a point on my line and take 3 practice strokes while staring at it and get my brain to realize how hard im gonna stroke my putt. Practice it on the practice green and you will see yourself leaving closer putts. When you are in the green light zone, the putt now becomes more mechanical with the distance. Just like a wedge shot from 100 yards and in, you establish your stroke length on the practice green. I start with a full stoke with the putter just going back and through and most of my putts finish right at 10 feet, when my stroke ends right at the back foot it typically with travel 8 feet, and so on and so forth. That will make your stroke more manageable so that the line becomes your main focus. Sorry for the lengthy explanation but give it a try. It has worked wonders on my game. Hope that helps

You wrote: 'I have no feel for distance with my putter. '

Q: how is your feel for distance without a putter?

Are you able to estimate the distance accurately?

To judge well, a certain measure is needed to anchor your stroke. E.g. A number of steps From the hole. Walking up to the hole also creates feel for undulation.

Thanks for the tips. I spent a few hours on the putting green today mostly working on finding my tempo and learning how far putts roll based on the length of my stroke. Did a few drills having to do with that idea that I found on YouTube so I hope it helps.

I noticed about a 3 pace difference between the stroke lengths on backswing. Which were half way to front of back foot, front of back foot, rear of back foot, 5 inches passed rear of back foot and then about 10 inches passed back foot. A little technical but I’ve never done anything like that. Obviously distances will change based on speed of greens but at least I feel like I have some sort of baseline.

Also tried visualizing speed of putt and focusing on target more. We’ll see what happens.

> @FormerBigDaddy said:

> Been getting better this year overall, shooting in the mid to high 80s, but starting to find out that my putting is really holding me back from having some better rounds. I definitely waste 4-5 shots a round on the green and my main miss is short. Not just short... like really short, 4-5 feet short on mid range putts at times. I’ve tried hitting it harder and practicing on the putting greens to no avail. I have no feel for distance with my putter. I wouldn’t say I have a bad stroke and from short range I’m solid but mid and long range can be embarrassingly bad.

>

> Is there any methods out there to help me better judge distance? Sick of being called girl names by my friends!

Well Sally, the only thing I would suggest at the moment is go to the center of your putting green and with ball in hand roll it to several different pins. I'm guessing your sense-awareness is more acute for distance than you might expect. However, the USGA makes you use a stick.

> @FormerBigDaddy said:

> Thanks for the tips. I spent a few hours on the putting green today mostly working on finding my tempo and learning how far putts roll based on the length of my stroke. Did a few drills having to do with that idea that I found on YouTube so I hope it helps.

>

> I noticed about a 3 pace difference between the stroke lengths on backswing. Which were half way to front of back foot, front of back foot, rear of back foot, 5 inches passed rear of back foot and then about 10 inches passed back foot. A little technical but I’ve never done anything like that. Obviously distances will change based on speed of greens but at least I feel like I have some sort of baseline.

>

> Also tried visualizing speed of putt and focusing on target more. We’ll see what happens.

Trust your feel (proprioception), you don't gauge how far you take your hand back when you toss a ball to someone.

> @N0rs3man said:

> Try this.. use one hand to putt, your dominate. You will get amazing distance control. Then build your stroke around that

yes. this is a great tip.

> @FormerBigDaddy said:

> Been getting better this year overall, shooting in the mid to high 80s, but starting to find out that my putting is really holding me back from having some better rounds. I definitely waste 4-5 shots a round on the green and my main miss is short. Not just short... like really short, 4-5 feet short on mid range putts at times. I’ve tried hitting it harder and practicing on the putting greens to no avail. I have no feel for distance with my putter. I wouldn’t say I have a bad stroke and from short range I’m solid but mid and long range can be embarrassingly bad.

>

> Is there any methods out there to help me better judge distance? Sick of being called girl names by my friends!

Hey OP I have a method if you want to try.

Use your feet as a ruler. If you put the ball in the middle of your stance . Use the depth of stroke to estimate your distance.

take a NATURAL width stance

1) ball in the middle, club head travels to the inside of your toe lines, So right handed? Take the stroke back to the inside of your right foot, and back to the inside of the left foot. Do with with 3 balls on the putting green (pace this off) for me on a normal speed 8-10stimp green is about 2-3 paces or about 4-6ft.

2) Ball in the middle , club head goes Toe distance to toe distance. Putt 3 balls, this is usually about 5-6 paces or about 10-12ft

3) Ball in the middle, club head goes Outside the toe line, Putt 3 balls, pace it, This is usually about 8-9 paces or about 16-18ft

4) Ball in the middle, HANDS got back knee cap to knee cap, putt 3 balls, pace it, this is usually about 15 paces or 30ft

This has developed consistency and also allows me to read the greens at different course for different speeds. So if I play a municipal it should be slower , so when I do a toe to toe walk off it might only got 4 paces

Or if I got to a Private CC and go toe to toe it may go 8 paces... But the stroke is the same and the feet as a ruler is the same, Yet I know how far to take it back and how far to take it forward.

Now when its a live round. I pace of the distance of the ball and the cup. If its a straight forward putt, (no up or down hill) I pace of 5 paces, I know that I need to stroke the ball, from right toe to left toe. When judging up hill or down hill I just add 1 pace or subtract 1 pace, but using the the feet again as the ruler usually gets me pretty darn close.

GL OP!

Going through the same thing. Speed and distance control has been awful this year. I shot 81 with four 3 putts (2 of them on par fives) a few weeks back - hit the ball phenomenally and putted like.... Blurgh. I’ve switched putters and have refocused.

The best drill, IMO, is the one where you put something about 30” behind the hole and then, without really thinking about line, try to hit a putt that goes past the hole but not past the object you put down. I like to have 6 balls for this drill and have two sets of three where one set is about double the length of the other. So for example one sleeve of balls at 5’ and the other at 10’. Going back and forth between the two will really give you a feel for distance and stroke. I recommend working the same distances for awhile - this is a good drill because a 2 foot circle around the hole means that you’re OK leaving putts short and guaranteeing you’ll miss. Sure from 50 feet it’s OK - but I want to make putts inside 20 feet and especially from 5-10 feet. Gotta give them a chance without blowing them by.

I’ve also been working on tempo and not “hitting” the ball (which was what I was doing) but maintaining the same club speed back and then through and letting the length of my backstroke determine the length of the putt. Trying to follow through about twice as far as I took the club back if that makes sense. It’s really hard for me not to accelerate through the ball so this has taken some work but now I really notice when I do it.

Other good drills:

The gate drill - distance is also about good contact so hitting the center of the putter consistently is really important.

Star drill. The goal is to end up with a bunch of putts inside 3’. It’s good to practice making them. This is also a good “pressure” game - can you go all the way around the hole and make all 12 putts?

> @Exactice808 said:

> > @FormerBigDaddy said:

> > Been getting better this year overall, shooting in the mid to high 80s, but starting to find out that my putting is really holding me back from having some better rounds. I definitely waste 4-5 shots a round on the green and my main miss is short. Not just short... like really short, 4-5 feet short on mid range putts at times. I’ve tried hitting it harder and practicing on the putting greens to no avail. I have no feel for distance with my putter. I wouldn’t say I have a bad stroke and from short range I’m solid but mid and long range can be embarrassingly bad.

> >

> > Is there any methods out there to help me better judge distance? Sick of being called girl names by my friends!

>

> Hey OP I have a method if you want to try.

>

> Use your feet as a ruler. If you put the ball in the middle of your stance . Use the depth of stroke to estimate your distance.

>

> take a NATURAL width stance

> 1) ball in the middle, club head travels to the inside of your toe lines, So right handed? Take the stroke back to the inside of your right foot, and back to the inside of the left foot. Do with with 3 balls on the putting green (pace this off) for me on a normal speed 8-10stimp green is about 2-3 paces or about 4-6ft.

> 2) Ball in the middle , club head goes Toe distance to toe distance. Putt 3 balls, this is usually about 5-6 paces or about 10-12ft

> 3) Ball in the middle, club head goes Outside the toe line, Putt 3 balls, pace it, This is usually about 8-9 paces or about 16-18ft

> 4) Ball in the middle, HANDS got back knee cap to knee cap, putt 3 balls, pace it, this is usually about 15 paces or 30ft

>

> This has developed consistency and also allows me to read the greens at different course for different speeds. So if I play a municipal it should be slower , so when I do a toe to toe walk off it might only got 4 paces

>

> Or if I got to a Private CC and go toe to toe it may go 8 paces... But the stroke is the same and the feet as a ruler is the same, Yet I know how far to take it back and how far to take it forward.

>

>

> Now when its a live round. I pace of the distance of the ball and the cup. If its a straight forward putt, (no up or down hill) I pace of 5 paces, I know that I need to stroke the ball, from right toe to left toe. When judging up hill or down hill I just add 1 pace or subtract 1 pace, but using the the feet again as the ruler usually gets me pretty darn close.

>

>

> GL OP!

This is exactly what I worked on yesterday on the practice green. Our distances are similar. Do you notice that the gaps pretty much stay the same green to green? I noticed about a 3 pace distance between the different length strokes. Obviously speed will change but once that’s gauged and adjusted for I’m hoping gaping stays somewhat consistent.

Distance Control and Pace (tempo) of stroke.

Going with your mid to high 80s scoring, safe to say you're not hitting approach shots to 8-10ft very often. Your greens in Regulation are lag putts more so than Birdie putts. To address this in Practice - - Walk off 10 and 20 paces from the flag, drop 2 balls at each spot and get a feel for the distance. These distances, and even further, are probably where you're putting from all the time on the course.

Pace (tempo) of stroke needs to remain the same on shorts putts and long putts. Think Snedeker, his tempo of stroke remains the same for 5-footers and 30-footers, obviously more force applied to the 30-footers but the tempo of stoke is the same. Get a metronome app for your phone, 72-80bpm is where most folks fall into. Figure out which range applies to you and use that tempo as your guideline.

Somebody above talked about using your feet as a guide for stroke length......I do something similar but with an alignment rod (driveway marker) and colored tape. I find a straight putt on the green and use the stroke length guide to control the distance. It doesn't take long to get a good feel for it and if I play a course with notoriously fast or slow greens I do it on the practice green before the round and kinda adjust on the fly for uphill or downhill putts.

Keep it natural, I just look at the hole let my body pick the line and whack it. I do the same with chip shots and get excellent results.. no thinking just kind of letting my body react. I think it takes alot of pressure off you

> @FormerBigDaddy said:

> This is exactly what I worked on yesterday on the practice green. Our distances are similar. Do you notice that the gaps pretty much stay the same green to green? I noticed about a 3 pace distance between the different length strokes. Obviously speed will change but once that’s gauged and adjusted for I’m hoping gaping stays somewhat consistent.

Generically speaking YES my pacing is pretty constant to the depth of stroke, (inside toe, 3 paces or 6ft), (toe to toe, 5 paces or 10ft) (outside toes, 8 paces or 16ft) (Hands across knee caps is 10 paces or 20ft) most greens I play on this is very consistent.

SO even if I dont have a chance to hit a putting green prior to my round, I usually start with, inside toe line to inside toe line. It's usually 3 paces or a 6ft putt. I take it to the first hole and run with it. After that first putt I pretty much know if I need to adjust my pace count and from there my distance is usually spot on.

If you're consistently short by the same amount then you can work with that.... better then being random. Have the awareness to tell yourself you play short so practice telling yourself to hit it marginally harder then you think... key will be to learn how much marginally is needed so it can become a normal part of your stroke without the reminder... reset your normal

Before you do anything else. Be sure you are not "looking up" as you hit your putt. Look at a blade of grass right behind the ball, not the ball. This will prevent you from looking up and leaving the putt short. Don't look away from that piece of grass until the ball is at least 5 get away.

I'm betting this easy change will have your distance problems solved. When I leave a putt short, it's normally because I look up and watch the ball, instead of staying still as I hit it.

Keep looking down until you hear the ball drop :)

I would start by putting impact tape on your putter and see how consistent you are at hitting the middle. If you're hitting it all over the face, it's nearly impossible to be good at controlling the distance. Then you need to figure out why you're not hitting it on the center.

You could try hitting practice putts with your eyes closed. Then guess based on the feel if the putt is short, long or right there. Don't worry about making the putt. You could putt toward a tee in the ground and it works just as well. It will help you feel the stroke needed instead of focusing on how far back you need to go for a certain length putt.