I am relatively new to this site/forum and am just beginning serious study of the contents. This site is very rich in very valuable information. Geoff, thanks for making this available.

I do have a question but some brief background is useful. A bit over a year ago, armed with (for better or worse) Pelz Putting Bible, I tried to change my putting stroke to a straight back/straight through stroke. It was an absolute disaster. For 3 solid months my (mediocre at best) putting was atrocious. I was totally unable to control distance. I finally abandoned it. And I have since kind of wandered aimlessly around "putting land" trying to find a better solution. I finally ended with a relatively normal straight back/straight through, shoulder driven stroke on short putts and a very different (actually almost one-handed) stroke on longer putts.

But based on some additional understanding (mostly due to the info on this site) I have started to try using 'the right stroke' on long, as well as short, putts. And based on a few practice sessions I think that I can see how a strict focus on tempo, where the only variable is stroke-length, might well yield far superior results even on longer putts.

So my question (finally) is how long does it typically take to get reasonably proficient at distance control using a constant tempo, no hit stroke (for someone who has spent most of their golfing life as a 'putting hitter')?

Thanks.

dave

My answer is less than two months, depending on guidance and practice patterns.

Guidance really amounts to a wide array of talking about the tempo pattern, the feel of the tempo, the biomechanics of shoulder-torso action in relation to the hands, the tempo in short strokes and in long strokes, and what other movement patterns a good putting tempo feels like.

Practice amounts to a steady diet of the correct feelings of a good tempo in a variety of stroke sizes during the few weeks after first starting to engrain the nice-tempo stroke.

When I teach, the students often require a second lesson after about 1-2 weeks to get a solid grasp on how the tempo works with gravity and relaxation. There is a pretty deep-seated belief in practically all people that the ball has to be hit to make it move across the ground, and a smooth-tempo stroke that is indifferent to the ball and to hitting the ball is difficult to see as sufficient to roll the ball as far as required. So the faster the golfer-student watches and learns as the smooth stroke rolls the ball the correct distance, instead of clings to preconceived notions, the faster the golfer-student embraces the grace and consistency of the smooth stroke. Some are faster than others.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
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Thanks for the quick response, Geoff.

dave