1 easy pro placement adjustment that transformed my distance control

I remember the first time I learned about setting a metronome.

It was the fall of 2021 and my golf game was still in its infancy. I was slowly getting better, but my energy was focused on bigger problems, such as an unfair movement and a very omnipresent audience with mushrooms. Still, my ears perked up when I found myself at the end of a speaking lesson from Danielle Kang.

Kang, owner of a slender hammer thrower and one of the most consistent kicks I’ve ever seen, was telling me about her lifelong relationship with a metronome—and the ways the tool has helped her create an effortless sense of consistency. throughout the stroke. The tool, she said afterward, wasn’t meant to help with stroke mechanics, just his timing, helping him make sure he wasn’t speeding up or slowing down on the stroke, two easy killers of consistency around the greens. .

For those who don’t know, a metronome is a device that produces a steady beat — or the number of touches — per minute. The device is mainly used by musicians to keep time, but it serves many benefits in the world of golf, where players have relied on its benefits to maintain their sense of rhythm.

Fast forward, now, to the summer of 2024, with your trusty editor game in a rare moment of power. After a few more years of matches and starts, my swing had completely rounded out, turning my competitive pursuits in a different direction. Suddenly I was able to easily find pots, tire the center of the greens with my irons and generally find myself in position to make a lot of easy pars. I was at the point with my golf game that I had always dreamed of finding – well, except for one thing: I had forgotten how to putt.

The matter, as I remember it now, was disturbing. During one round, I left somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 10 feet from the hole. During another, I blasted so many long shots that I briefly wondered if I was suffering from a health episode.

One day I got lucky in a round at the old courseand my swing left me. I was struggling to keep my game straight during a round I desperately wanted to do well. Then, finally, disaster struck on the 13th green – but it wasn’t about a foul putt. I threw five feet out of about 100 feet and knew I had had enough. It was time to address my problems once and for all, and I was going to start with Kang’s old trick: the metronome.

I hit the practice green at home on Long Island a few weeks later with headphones in both ears and no music. Following Kang’s advice, I fired up a metronome app and started practicing my kick.

Almost immediately, I noticed a major problem: my pace changed with each distance. On long shots, it would take me forever to pull the putter head back, then slam it through the ball with a powerful pull. On shorter shots, I’d try a slightly unstable backhand that forced either a violent pass (that sent the ball well past the hole) or a defensive decel (hello: short misses!).

I stopped looking at my head and focused on the ringing in my ears. With each putt, I tried to make sure the backstroke stopped on one beat and followed through on the next. Then, as I went to longer shots, I tried to focus on keeping the same pace back and forth, just with a longer backswing.

Within an hour, my distance control problems improved dramatically. The threshold for improvement was definitely unclear – now I could actually see on a target and hit a putt within the general vicinity – but the effect on my game was considerable. Three and four putts were reduced to relatively consistent two-putt scores. My results were improving and my mindset around placement had evolved into a real and actionable strategy.

It’s not a perfect fix — it doesn’t help bad reads or bad contacts, two placement issues that face many mid-handicap players — but TheIt’s something that takes very little time and energy to correct.

When it comes to managing life around the greens, this is good enough for me.