Tee it Up for
Distance Control
To become a great
putter, you must be able to control the distance and pace that you roll
the golf ball. The following drill will help you become better at controlling
your distance and pace of your putts.
You will need five
tees, five golf balls, and a metronome. Place the metronome on the green
and place the first of five tees in the ground 10 feet away, then place
the other four tees every ten feet. This marks off five putts of 10,
20, 30, 40 and 50 feet away from the metronome. Stagger the tees so
they are not directly in line with each other. Turn your metronome to
60 beats per minute (bpm) for the tempo of your stroke. The top of your
backstroke will be the first beep, and impact will occur on the next
beep. Roll one ball to each tee in tempo, trying to get the ball to
roll at least within one club length long or short of each tee. Do this
exercise on uphill, downhill, right-to-left and left-to-right slopes.
Once you hit all five putts within the parameters on one sort of slope,
then move on to the next slope. Your ultimate goal is to get all 20
putts within the parameters.
Make sure on every
putt you do your pre-putt routine, and try and make each putt like it
is to win the Masters. This will make your practice just like real-course
pressure situations.
Benefits of this
drill:
1. Increases pace
and distance control.
2. Putting to tees helps to specify a small target (great putters putt
to small specific targets).
3. After putting to the tee, the hole looks huge.
4. Using pre-putt routine with pressure helps transfer practice conditions
to the course.
5. Using a metronome helps you achieve a consistent tempo and a hitless
stroke to your putting.
Good luck and good
putting.
*****
Tim Sheredy is a graduate
of Ferris State's Professional Golf Management program and is a Class
A PGA Teaching Professional who has been a leader at the David Leadbetter
Golf Academy in Bradenton for over five years now. He can be reached
by email at the DLGA.
