The Importance of Distance Control
One thing that stood out in Tiger Woods’ victory earlier this year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was his outstanding distance control on the putting greens. It seemed as if every putt went into the hole with the same speed, and if it missed, would finish about a foot past the cup.
If you watch any professional golf tournament, you will see that those with outstanding distance control on the greens are usually the ones who score the best. Why is this? Woods has often said that in order to get the line of the putt correct, you must first get the speed correct. Many people think it’s the other way around, that you first select the line and then select the speed – but this is incorrect.
We all know that the more speed with which you hit a putt, the less it will break. We also know that the more a putt breaks, the more important speed becomes. Failure to dial in proper distance control leads to great difficulty in making putts of any length.
Distance control isn’t only important in putting. Any time the hole is within reach, distance control becomes crucial. In chipping, it is relatively easy to get the line correct, so distance control becomes the main factor here. Often, our students’ techniques aren’t fundamentally sound, so they can’t even count on making consistent contact. Better players are usually fundamentally sound, so their only concern is how hard to hit the chip. This is a skill that takes many hours of practice to hone. Pitch shots also require good distance control, as again, it is not too difficult to pick the correct line.
The approach shot has been shown to be statistically the most important shot in the game. Many people think putting, chipping, or driving is the most important, but statistical analysis of both pros and amateurs does not bear this out. Much of the trouble on many greens is in front, so it’s important to have good distance control in order to avoid it. For full shots, teaching professionals are very familiar with how students struggle with their iron distance control, as they often are planning their club selection based on their career-best shot, or at the very least, perfect contact. Professional golfers do not have such issues, mainly because they make pure contact time after time. However, we should get our amateur students to take careful note of how far their average, and not their best, iron shots go for each club. The only time this may come back to haunt a student is if the trouble is behind the green, but this is rarely the case at most courses.
Okay, so now that we have identified how important distance control is, how can we go about improving it? If you observe golfers practicing putting at a typical course, they often pay little attention to distance control. A good putt, to them, goes in the hole and a bad one doesn’t. And, you almost never see anyone practicing distance control with specific drills. Here are a couple that have been shown to be effective:
1. Take three golf balls, and place them at various intervals from the hole – for example, 10, 15, and 20 feet.
The idea is to either make the putt or get the ball to finish within one clublength past the hole, as anything short won’t go in. The mindset should be to make putts under 20 feet. When putting from farther away, say 30, 40, and 50 feet, a reasonable goal is to get two out of three to finish within one clublength of the hole, either short or long. The mindset here is to get the ball close in order to avoid three-putts.
2. Select two holes and take two balls, putting back and forth.
The idea is, for putts under 20 feet, to get four balls in a row to stop within one clublength past the hole. For putts over 20 feet, get three balls out of four to stop within one clublength, either short or long. For chipping, have your students take four balls and chip them to the same hole. A good goal is to get three within a clublength of the hole. Once they do this, have them repeat this to another hole. For average players practicing pitch shots, have them use four balls and employ the “10% rule.” In other words, if they are pitching from 30 yards, the goal is to get three out of four balls within 3 yards of the hole. Better players can adjust the percentage downward accordingly.
Distance control often gets overlooked in favor of accuracy. Make sure your students understand the importance of distance control, and they should see a quick improvement in their on-course performance.
