Tips On How To Improve Your Distance Control On The Putting Green

Hi, I'm Katie Dawkins. I am an advanced PGA professional and I'm here today at

West Hill Golf Club on the beautiful greens that they have here to help you work out how to better

judge distance on the green. So how do I get this ball close to that hole? If you could guarantee that

you never took any more than two puts on every single green, my goodness how many shots would you save

every round. I would say a lot of golfers are creeping into that double figures mark. So if

putting's going to save you lots of shots and especially getting that first pup close

then why is it that people turn up for lessons and want to go on the range? Everyone needs to put a

little bit more time into working on their putting game. Here are a couple of tips just to help you

with that judging of distance on the greens. So how do I get a ball from about here on the edge of the

green to there? One of the easiest ways to get feel for how much stroke to give it would be

to roll it there. So if I am going to roll a ball to that flag, say it was for a million pounds

prize money, I'm not going to stand here and give it a sum like this with my arm. I'm not going to

give it quite a jerky sort of shot. Yet this is how some people putt. Some people will stand

here and smack the ball to get it close to the hole. It's very hard to know how much hit

to give it. You're better off taking the hit out and working on different length strokes for

different length putts. A really great way. especially if you have a demon hole on the course that really bugs you, perhaps you three or four potted, heaven forbid, the last time you played it

But a really good way is to stand on that green out on the course when no one else is around roll a few balls to that hole from different spots on the green

What you'll find from that is you start to get a bit of an idea of how much swing with

the arm to give it, then drop a ball down there and have a pup from that same spot

What that's going to do is it's going to start to give you a nice amount of feel for how much stroke you need

for that particular length part. It'll also give you a feel for how the up slopes and the down slopes and how the conditions are going to affect you that day

If you are going to play a different course and you're on the putting green for example, a really good drill will be to stand there and have in your head almost like a metronome, a rhythm, a one, two, a tick-tock

So if you're standing over the shot, it's tick-tock, tick, tick. If it's a little putt, it's little tick-tock, it's little tick-tock

and if it's a big putt, it's a bigger tick, tock. But the rhythm stays the same

That way you're working on length of stroke to determine the distance your ball goes

As with when I roll a ball with my arm, there's always a little bit more follow-through than there is back swing

So bear that in mind, it's a smooth acceleration, and give it a go

So this is a part of the game that players just don't practice enough. So all you need to do is go out and work out how you control distance

There's no textbook way of doing this. It's just down to practice and putting some time in

You put some working on the greens and your game will thank you for it