This simple putting drill will help improve your tempo

If you are looking for a way to improve your performance on the greensfocusing on yours putting is a great place to start saving strokes.

Developing a reliable, repeatable shot can pay dividends, and Heather Angell, director of instruction at Heritage Palms Golf & Country Club in Fort Myers, Fla., has a simple checkpoint drill to help you establish consistency. the kick your game needs.

“There are many Excellent deployment tool out there, but unfortunately, you can’t take them with you when you play the course,” she said. “I want my students to be able to hit the shot without the aid of a piece of equipment, so I I get them to focus on a few checkpoints on the course.”

The placement of your feet can be a useful guide, Angell said, and you can use them at home with a comfortable stroke length.

“Focus on your feet when you’re shooting,” she said. “If you have the putter head in the middle of your stance and the ball just in front of the clubhead, the low point of your swing arc will be where the clubhead is at address. This allows the club to contact the ball as the clubhead is leaving the low point and helps add a little loft to the putter’s face, which will start the ball’s bottom spin. With the putter’s head centered in your stance, your feet can now serve as reference points for your shot.

“Turning the putter on the back foot (right foot for right-handed players), then on the front foot creates an easily repeatable back-through shot that will help with consistency and distance control,” she continued. “You can even determine how far this particular length shot will roll on the practice green.”

At this point, you can start to get familiar with the distance the ball travels when you turn the putter on one foot and the other. Think of that movement as your pace and distance stakes.

“Once you determine that distance, put it in your brain,” Angell said.

The next step is to practice from shorter and longer distances than your personal distance to discern how much more (or less) you need to swing your head relative to your legs.

“Obviously, a stroke length that goes just behind your back foot and just behind your front foot is going to go farther because of the length of the stroke,” Angell said. “This helps keep your swing tempo steady and allows you to adjust your swing length to get different lengths of distance.”

The most important part of this drill is to establish the backswing that feels most comfortable and natural to you, and then simply adjust the length of that stroke to match the length of the putt you’re facing. So the next time you have a few minutes to spare on the practice green, try this tempo drill and enjoy your new and improved distance control.

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Editor of Golf.com

As a four-year member of the inaugural class of varsity golfers at Columbia, Jessica can put away anyone on the tee. She can also drive them in the office, where she is primarily responsible for producing print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Issue, which debuted in February 2018. Her series The original interview, “A Round With,” debuted in November 2015 and appeared in both magazine and video form on GOLF.com.