It always seems to start with good technique when it comes to golf. Good posture where you bow from your hips and allow your hands to hang from your shoulders will give you a nice natural path underneath your shoulders for your arms to swing. Having your shoulder and forearms relatively parallel to the target line due to proper ball position will also help to deliver a putter face that is aligned properly at impact.

Stroke size is the most effective way to control distance. As the stroke size changes, so does the speed that the putter collides with the ball, delivering more or less power and distance.

Once you can equate distance with stroke size it is much easier to be more even with grip pressure and to keep your stroke even is size. It is not how hard you hit it! Make your stroke the right size: larger for father and smaller for shorter.

There are two basic ways to get really good at controlling distance. The first is more applicable to golfers who have played for a longer time. Through practice and experience, the ability to control distance is something the golfer owns and can do by instinct as a result of practice time paying off.

For the newer golfer with less experience, there is still great hope. You can calibrate your putting stroke to control distance, in a system that is a basic or as elaborate as you choose. I have seen calibration systems work extremely well and very quickly even for new golfers. Obviously stroke size would need to change based upon the speed of the greens you are playing. Here is an example of calibration I have seen work really well:

If one of your large steps is approximately three feet, you could pace your putt and take one inch of back stroke for each one step. For example, if your putt was six steps (18 feet), your back stroke would need to be six inches long. You would add for uphill and subtract for downhill to allow this calibration system to work. You could also add for slower greens or subtract for faster greens. This is not a perfect system, but it can really make a huge difference to brand new golfers to start to understand the distance controlling concept and develop a system to get that first putt close.

Much like controlling distance, reading greens to understand how the changing tilt will cause your golf ball to curve can take a bit of time if you choose to do it through trial and error.

I think one of the easiest ways to do this is to “look at the area.” In other words, compare the area 5 feet right of the line to 5 feet left of the line. Often looking at the area can make the tilt that much easier to see. If you have a particularly long putt, you may need to divide the putt into sections and read the area for each section.

Another option is to take advantage of new technology. The green maps that pros use is available to many golfers in the new Green Books by Golflogix, which is GOLF’s sister company.