Why most golfer don't understand distance control in putting. (Never up never in, not the best strategy)

This week when coaching at the DP world tour event here in Belgium it struck me that not every professional player I coach understands what a good strategy around distance control on the greens is. If some of those guys don't get it, what does the average amateur trying to improve their games do?

First we have to realise that when we are between 6 - 12m (or further) the absolute goal is to make a 2 putt with as little stress as possible. When we understand this it means we are able to make our target area a little bit bigger. A general rule would be to think about 10% of the total distance of the putt being an acceptable distance for out ball to finish from the hole ( long or short of the hole ) With this in mind we can start to look at dispersion in distance putting much like we look at dispersion in our long game. When I'm coaching a player in block practice (practice where we repeat the same shot to the same target for a certain amount of balls) we see a dispersion pattern where the balls will generally be dispersed long, short, right and left creating a pattern with the target somewhere in the middle (see photo 1 target 160 m )

However when we look at the dispersion pattern for say a 6m putt golfers would generally be unhappy if not all the balls were past the hole but in reality we should see a similar dispersion pattern with hopefully all the balls inside our 10% rule (6m putt - 60cm)

This way of thinking about it would also result in the player holing more putts as their ball speeds around the hole would improve immensely.

We know this anecdotally as how often in 4 ball match play games do we see a player who thinks they have a free putt to win the hole as their partner is already in the hole for half, smash his putt 2m past the hole, where in reality that putt never really had a chance.

To better understand how to control your putting speed both technically and tactically why not book a session and get assessed using the most modern measuring tools as well as my experience to guide you.