How To Perfect Your Distance Control With Your Backswing And Follow Through
In this video, PGA Professional Nick Drane talks about how to approach the length of your putting stroke for more consistency on the greens.
Transcript
00:00Hi, my name is Nick Drane, PGA professional and master fitting specialist here at the
00:09Titleist Performance Center at Woburn.
00:11In this video, we're going to talk about backswing and follow through length in putting.
00:16A lot of common mistakes I see golfers make is the misconception that the putter head
00:21has to be accelerating into the golf ball.
00:24This can lead to a few problems, primarily distance control.
00:28Primary can be that face alignment at impact.
00:30Are you able to start that golf ball on your intended target line?
00:33To give an example of what I see in a short backswing and a long follow through to try
00:38and propel the ball towards the target can also make it difficult to maintain a square
00:42club face towards your intended target line like so.
00:50So not only was I struggling for distance control in that putt, I actually also pulled
00:54it to the left as I tried to increase that club head speed into that putt.
01:02A couple of key fundamentals to help you improve your distance control and your putting would
01:06be to get a good sound set up where you hold the putter nicely in the palms of your hands,
01:11a nice wide base.
01:14You want to eliminate any unnecessary wrist movement that's going to give acceleration
01:18to that putter head.
01:19I'm then going to use my feet as a bit of a reference for a length of stroke.
01:23So if you watch, my backswing and my follow through are going to be very similar in length.
01:32I'm able to maintain that control of that club face and also better control my distance.
01:37Obviously, during a game of golf, we're going to be faced with putts of different lengths.
01:41The key to being successful with the putting from distance is maintaining a very similar
01:46length backswing and follow through through keeping a good tempo.
01:50So each of us have our own rhythm or tempo built in, finding what's right for you, but
01:55just focusing on keeping that backswing and follow through very similar in length is going
02:00to mean that you're going to hit those longer putts closer and causing more two putts rather
02:04than three putts.
02:05A really good drill to help you practice your distance control would be to place a tee peg
02:10at 10, 20 and 30 feet.
02:12Then take a couple of golf balls, practice putting to each tee peg, see how close you
02:16can maintain that grouping.
02:18This will really enhance your distance control and also give you a feel for where your club
02:22face is aiming at impact.
02:24A really good visual to help you focus on that club face control is to think of a three
02:28ball window.
02:29So we like that club face to be nice and square through the three ball window with the middle
02:34ball being the ball that you're going to impact.
02:36That is going to help you start that ball on your intended target line.
02:40The middle ball being my impact ball.
02:42I'm just looking to keep that putter face nice and square for those three golf balls.
02:47A lot of key things to remember then, focus on your distance control through having a
02:51nice even backswing and follow through length and you should see your distance control and
02:55speed be a lot more consistent and lower your scores.