How to Work on Distance Control for Long Putts

Ted Norby demonstrates an effective way to work on distance control while putting.

Practicing Putts

Sheri Hayes of Sheri Hayes Golf, Carlsbad, shows you how to set up practice stations to improve the consistency of your putts. To discuss this golf tip with other golfers and share your own, leave a comment below. We look forward to your feedback.

Golf Swing Transition Creating the Feel for a Proper Transition

I'm Ted Norby, Director of Golf Instruction for the National University Golf Academy. What I want to talk about today is the transition and that's this change of direction from backswing to forward swing. Too often people get hung up on the backswing, making these perfect motions, turns, set the club to the top of the swing. Then we start talking about shifting forward, turning, releasing the club but we're breaking it up into a backswing and then a forward swing. Most of the good players are actually going in two different directions at the same time as I'm completing this turn of my shoulders and the arms kind of finishing, my lower body is already started shifting back the other way.

Just like throwing a baseball, tennis, anything else. This dynamic stretch is built by one thing going back as the other is already going forward and I've got to create that feel for myself and I need to practice that overall motion. So, what I'd like you to do is start thinking of it more as a backswing and your backswing is, yeah, the turning of the shoulders, the club setting on plane, whatever it is you're working on, get to about two thirds of the way back, then the transition which is this completing of the backswing and starting the forward swing.

So, now that I've created the feel of that transition where I'm completing the backswing and starting forward now I can just let it go forward from there. The momentum of the lower body should pull and get the club to go all the way to finish, so from two thirds, now I'm going to complete and let it go ahead to finish. So, two thirds of the way back, complete and again as I'm completing my shoulder turn, I'm letting my lower body kind of start the other way.

Go ahead and hit some shots like that where you stop at two thirds of the way back, still set up, still getting to that position two thirds that we want, but now just feel like your shoulders turn as you're kind of squeezing this lower body forward and then let it go to target and you'll start feeling the lower body start forward first and the arms and upper body trail. Obviously, then I got to build that so I can do it from the takeaway all the way to the top and create the transition but think of the swing more in three parts instead of two parts.

The backswing about two thirds of the way back, the transition which is completing the backswing with the rotation as you're shifting, then the forward motion to the target. You'll feel a little more dynamic where there's not a stopping and starting to the golf swing. That'll create a little better rhythm, get you to the target a little more often.

Golf Swing Hip Rotation in the Backswing

I'm Ted Norby, Director of Golf Instruction for the National University Golf Academy. What I want to talk about today is the hips in the backswing and how there does have to be some rotation to allow the shoulder to rotate and to get myself to shift back to the target correctly. For a long time people talked about ex factor, Jim McLean putting that out. It's a great thing. I do want my shoulders to turn more than my lower body. That creates a dynamic stretch. If everything turns all over here I haven't created any of that coil that I want. However, as a lot of players get older and we're not all 6' 3", 185 like the tour guys are now a days and we're not that flexible.

I need some hip turn to be able to turn the shoulders, so I don't want to stand here and make a backswing where my legs and my hips don't turn at all and my shoulders don't get back there because then I'm going to have to lift or slide, but what I do want to have happen is my hips have got to rotate and anything that's turning that rotates. Whatever say if this is round or whatever is on this right side has to work back toward the target a little bit.

If you look at old pictures Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, John Cook, some of the better ball strikers ever. At the top of their swing you can see their left butt cheek kind of pointing out moving toward the target a little bit. A lot of players if you put a line right here on their right hip, at the top of their swing there's a gap between that line and that right hip. That tells me that their butt cheeks and their hips are rotating toward the target a little bit as their upper body is kind of moving over, turning the shoulders, getting the arms in the backswing right there.

A great way to feel this is to imagine that you have a swivel chair right behind and you can back up, you can even do this in your office or in the house. Make some turning turns with your shoulders but let your right butt cheek push the chair and swivel the chair toward the target, so you can see how that chair kind of pivots back out toward the target a little bit. Now, not so much that I'm putting weight on my left side obviously but as my shoulders turn, this right hip has to turn back, and that allows me to create this pressure on the inside of my thigh that's going to get me to shift back the other way, so what I'm looking for is the upper body turning and clearly I don't want my hips to get sliding or twisting around too much, but as my shoulders turn, I'm going to allow my butt cheeks to go toward the target and push that chair toward the target right there. That's going to give me room to turn my shoulders fully on the backswing and put me in a position where I can use the inside of my right thigh to shift back out toward the target.

If I do this correctly, my hips will rotate in place instead of sliding and my weight still going to get to my right foot. Now I'm in this position where my lower body can shift forward. So, make a few practice swings, just kind of feeling like your butt works back toward the target and if you happen to have a chair out on the range, go ahead and push that chair toward the target. That allows you enough room to get those shoulders fully turned.