Marius Filmalter: How to improve your tempo and make more putts
I’ve been very busy this year and I apologize since it’s been a while since I’ve attended to my blog. Today I would like to talk about Kevin Na. Check out Kevin's incredible 2011 season putting stats:
9th - strokes gained-putting
8th - total putting
4th - putting average
2nd - 1 putt percentage
1st - putts per round
Na only hit 61.04 percent of greens in regulation (180th on the PGA Tour), which tells me he made a lot of par-saving putts. What does he contribute a big part of this putting success to? Something I’m a huge advocate of: tempo. As Kevin puts it in an interview with the "Inside the PGA Tour": “I just try to feel the speed. For me to feel the speed is all about tempo. I feel like I putt my best when I have a good tempo and it’s the same tempo every time over and over.”
Kevin says that his putting pre-shot routine is always the same, within a few seconds. Unfortunately for him, some changes in his full swing caused his already slow routine to become even slower and inconsistent with a few back-offs thrown in, too. These problems clearly leaked into his putting stroke, and Kevin missed a three-footer at the Players for the first time in more than 1,000 attempts. Let’s hope Kevin can get rid of the demons.
The tip to take home? Hit putts of different lengths with the same tempo, changing only the size of your swing. To calibrate that tempo, check out my previous video blog in which I explain how hitting putts with the same length stroke and same tempo will go the same distance: WATCH DRILL HERE.
[Associated Press photo of Kevin Na at 2012 Players Championship]
