How to Judge Putting Distance

Male speaker 1: Welcome to Golf Is Hard TV, the golf show for the rest of us. We're back with some new shows. It has been a while since we recorded, so now we got some all new shows, and we're going to kick off here today with some putting. Male Speaker 2: Yes! Out here at the beautiful Tashua Knolls in Trumbull, Connecticut. You know we're on Twitter, iTunes... Male Speaker 1: ...Golf Is Hard TV, we got website, yeah we're on Zune Marketplace, find us anywhere, all over the place Male Speaker 2: It's growing rapidly. So today we're going to tell about putting. You may remember back in some of the earlier episodes on the basement, we talked about putting rhythm, which has mostly to do with distance. So now we're going to take -- we're going to review that, because now we're outside, we can actually see the ball roll, we can putt some different distances. Now we're also going to work on directions. So, we're going to talk about putting distance, and then we're going to follow it up putting directions, because really, like we talked about with a good rhythm, distance is the main thing that you want to get down first, and you'll be a much better putter. Now what you are shooting an average first score these days. Male Speaker 1: Like 95, 96 now. Male Speaker 2: So 90s. How many putts, if you had to guess -- do you count your putts? Male Speaker 1: I do count my putts. Male Speaker 2: So how many putts are you at? Male Speaker 1: It is like 39 to 44 or something like that. Male Speaker 2: So, I mean the thing is, putting makes up about a third of your total time, it's really important to practice, and that's the thing. If we can practice this a little bit -- you know in proportion to the overall game, if you can spend a third of your time overall putting, then you'll be on track. Male Speaker 1: A third of my time? Male Speaker 2: Yup, a third of your overall practice time. Now we've said that you should be spending around 80% of your time on short-game alone. So probably a good half of that 80% should be right here. Male Speaker 1: Right here on putt, fairly good! Male Speaker 2: There's some 30 strokes, so why not? Male Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, absolutely, good. Alright so -- Male Speaker 2: ...so direction, distance, rhythm! Male Speaker 1: Yup, yup. Male Speaker 2:Okay, great! So what we've is we have 2 holes right here, we're going to putt to, let's take a look over. We have about a 15-footer, and then a little bit further down, we've about a 25-footer, and what we're going to show is how simple it is to repeat putts of those particular distances in this case. Male Speaker 1: Simple! Male Speaker 2: It is like the same rhythm, it is simple, really, with a little practice, but the concept is very simple. So I'll putt the shorter one and then you can putt the longer one. Male Speaker 1: Sounds good! Male Speaker 2: I'll putt a couple of each, and then we'll have -- you guys, are we on camera, can you see us here? Our camera people are sleeping over there in the background. Okay, alright good. So what we're going to do, is I'll putt a couple of short ones and a couple of longer ones, and you'll see that, simply I am just going to lengthen my back stroke, the rhythm will be the same, and then you'll do the same. Our viewers will have a chance to kind of compare how far each of us take it backswing to produce that distance, because it can be different for some folks, but for the most part it's going to be pretty simple. Male Speaker 1: Okay. Male Speaker 2: Alright, so here we go to the - it's got a 15 foot putt right here. So I hit a pretty good shot in. I am pretending I've 15 foot putt for Birdie, and I am stepping in, I already lined it up. I kind of drew the conclusion that's going to be fairly straight. So now I am stepping into my ball. Now it's really all about feeling how much backswing I need to produce that distance. So I am looking at the hole, I am taking a back stroke, in this case I am not measuring, but probably 8-10 inches, and really I am just trying to feel the distance. So I kind of think that that's going to produce the right distance. Let's see what happens. Alright, it was a little bit short. I am going to try that again, right back down here, can you see this? Okay, so I know that was a little bit short. I might have to take it back a little farther, maybe a little bit outside my right foot to reach that hole. Good! That certainly would have been the right distance, and -- one more important point, this comes from Dave Pelz, he is a short-game guru, all the research he has done, somehow he came to the conclusion that the best putt as far as speed goes runs about 17 inches past the hole. Why 17? Male Speaker 1: In random, he did a fancy calculation? Male Speaker 2: Thousands of putts and tons of research. So if it's rolling at that speed where it stops about a foot plus pass the hole, it has a best chance of going in, consistently. So, one more time. Okay, that's a little strike. Male Speaker 1: Let me ask you something on the backswing. I've been experimenting it taking it back very slowly, and not so slowly. What should I be thinking about sort of the speed of my backstroke? Male Speaker 2: Yup! That goes back to our earlier episodes in rhythm. That's what we're working on here, we're working on having that same consistent rhythm which is the feeling of gravity. So this is the ratio of your back stroke to forward stroke. So now we talked about the time it takes from the putter to start to reach the end of the back stroke is twice as long as the fall through, so it's 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. So 3 is impact, and again, you want to eliminate impact from your mind, because you don't want it be stopping hitting at the ball, you want it to flow though, but that is the rhythm. 1, 2, 3 is the impact, and then 4 is the swing. Male Speaker 1: Let me give this a shot here, because since I slowed down my backswing I feel like I've been putting significantly better. And I guess that's all about rhythm. Male Speaker 2: So did you slow it down. and would you say lengthened it or just-- Male Speaker 1: I just slowed it down a little bit. I mean, I definitely was kind of doing one of these deals, and it really has become... Male Speaker 2: You can see that second one there, more mirrors gravity, which is not we want to do. Male Speaker 1: Alright, so here we go. Male Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great rhythm. This is Golf Is Hard TV for you viewers, this is it right here. No pressure, he is going to make this. Male Speaker 1: Go in Baby, go in! Oh! Male Speaker 2: Good shot. Male Speaker 1: That's little revisiting rhythm from Episode 1. Male Speaker 1: Yup! We were judging the distance. Male Speaker 2: Yeah, and if anyone has any questions, send them in, pretty much very simple, that's the way to measure your distance. Distance is more important than direction, but we're going to get into that next, golfishardtv.com Male Speaker 1: Golf show for the rest of us.