LETTER FROM THE TEACHING PROFESSIONAL
The 3rd Ingredient for “ Making the Putt Pie ”: Distance We almost have all the ingredients together for Make the putt pie . In September we focused on the first ingredient , setting up to the putt . In October we focused on the second ingredient direction . And now we must add our final ingredient , and arguably most important Distance . When we add distance into our recipe , the only thing left to is stroke the putt , and pick it out of the hole !
As we take a closer look into distance and being able to control it there are two major factors that determine distance . The most obvious of these is backswing length , and the second is tempo . Both are extremely important and when the backswing length and tempo matchup that is when we can control the distance of the putt .
As we look at distance control , we will sometimes substitute distance for speed . The calculation to figure out speed would be speed = Distance over time . So , with that said , if we can control the time then we can control the speed . We have all heard that “ hitting it harder takes the breakout .” The reason the putt breaks less when we hit the putt “ harder ” is because the roll time is shorter , not because the velocity of the ball changes the rate of the break . I know that sounds super scientific , but essentially if we can control time , we can control distance and how the break or direction will affect it .
So now let us control time as we putt , that sounds strange , doesn ’ t it ? But let ’ s think about time in a different way , tempo is a measurement of time . If we have a slower tempo say , 40 beats per minute , and we ’ re rolling a 10 ft . putt with 10 in . of break to the right . We would aim our putter to the left side of the hole , stroke our putt , and if we have the correct time , the ball will break into the hole . If we increase our tempo to say 65 beats per minute and we take the same putt with same backswing and same aim , we will miss the putt on the high side of the hole .
When we boil it down , when we want to control the time or speed of the putt we need to control the tempo . But everyone ’ s personal tempo is going to be different how do would we find our own personal tempo ? A famous putting instructor and developer of the AimPoint system named Mike Sweeney did just that . He measured tempos of amateurs and tour players and found a relationship . He would measure the persons tempo and then have use a stopwatch and have the student count the number of steps they would take as they walked around the green for 45 seconds . That number of steps was almost identical to that person ’ s tempo . If we know our own personal tempo , now we only need to figure out how far the putter must swing back for different length putts . But as swing length increases the tempo of the stroke will remail constant .
If we know our tempo , and how to control the time of the putt the best way to see the relationship with backswing and tempo is use a few strings . If you were to set a marker to show were the ball starts , if you put a string at 8 in . behind the ball , 12 in . behind the ball , and 16 inches behind the ball . These strings will act as backswing references .
A roughly 8 in . backswing , blended with your personal tempo , will roll the ball 10 ft , and as we increase backswing length by 4 in . with the same tempo the ball will roll 10 more feet , therefore rolling the ball 20 ft . A 16 in . backswing with the same tempo will roll the ball 30 feet . Mike Sweeny measured backswing lengths of tour pros and amateurs and noticed a data correlation as it related to backswing length . Tour Players were almost spot on the 8 in . backswing length , and amateurs were often ½ in
DECEMBER eaglebrooke newsletter 5