Swing tempo is something all golfers talk about. But do you often think about the significance tempo plays in your putting stroke?
There is no successful coordination of movements that is possible without an orchestrating mechanism. In our putting stroke, this orchestra is where our individual parts (limbs, joints and putter) all work together to achieve the same result over and over.
3 Most Important Movements for Putting
So how do we achieve that successful tempo? We need to check in with three important points in your putting mechanism: shoulders, forearms and wrists.
- Shoulders – do your shoulders rock back and forth while your lower half stays strong and quiet?
- Forearms – are your forearms set up to stay the same distance apart through every stage of your backstroke, through impact and finish stroke?
- Wrists – are your wrists strong, allowing you to hit the centre of the putter and maintain the same speed through impact?
Learn to Putt with a Tick Tock Tempo
Finding tempo in your putting stroke and doesn’t have to be difficult. For me, it’s as simple as enjoying the sound of a pendulum tick tock. Tick is your back stroke; tock is your through stoke. Tick tock back and through.
Grab your phone and download a pendulum app now so that next time you get to putt you hear this sound over and over. Play it in your pocket as you practice these putting tempo drills.
Tempo Drill with Coin
All you need is your putter, a golf ball, golf hole and a coin.
- Place tees at 1m intervals away from the hole until you have a ladder 1-5m.
- Place a small coin in the centre of your putter head.
- Start working at the 1m mark, moving back and through without the coin moving or falling off the putter head. This is only possible with a smooth transition from backstroke to forward stroke and a constant rate of acceleration.
- Move back through the distances without losing the coin. If the coin falls off, start again and review your tempo.
‘Trust It’ Putting Tempo Drill for Aim and Distance Control
This is a long distance (15-30 feet) putting drill that is perfect for bringing all the ingredients of the perfect putt together.
This drill requires you to commitment to all areas of putting to inject confidence and become the feel player we all have inside us and just ‘trust it’. You’ll see what I mean!
All you need is your putter, 3 golf balls and a hole.
- Set up 15 feet away from hole.
- First putt: complete looking at the hole
- Second putt: complete with your eyes closed
- Third putt: complete as normal
- Increase the putt length by 3 feet, now putting from 18 feet away from the hole.
- Repeat above steps and continue to move back in 3 feet increments until you reach 30 feet putt length as your final putt.
It takes time to build putting confidence and master your putting tempo. It is a check point that many golfers miss.
By applying these processes and practicing these drills you can the perfect putting stroke. Soon it will be time to say goodbye to inconsistent distance control and hello to holing more putts (or just two feet past)!
Next up, let’s dive into the power of your mindset and a completely new technique on how to approach your putting that will see you holing more putts than ever before.