Shorten Your Putt’s Backswing
March 3, 2008 – 2:30 pm | by Golfdirt
“Quitting” on your putting stroke? That’s fairly common, and definitely undesirable. To fix it, make sure you’re accelerating through your putting stroke. And the way to ensure that is simple: shorten your putt’s backswing.
Don’t take my word for it: watch the pros. The best putters in particular, from about 6 feet out (any closer on many of today’s really fast greens, you’ll barely see a backswing). Notice that more often than not, regardless of their putting style, their putt backswings are short.
Accelerate doesn’t necessarily mean fast or quick, by the way; that messes me up sometimes too. So I try to keep the word “gradual” in my head, as in a gradual increase of speed throughout the stroke. That’s acceleration. And a short backswing will help make it happen without working too hard.
