Developing a smooth golf tempo

The more I learn about golf, the more I realize tempo is the key to this game. Nick Faldo dedicates and entire chapter of his book to tempo. And in a day and age where people have become so concerned with 300 yard drives or 100MPH club head speeds, I think we are at risk of forgetting the importance of tempo. Just look at Fred Couples swing:

I think everyone in the world would be happy with a swing like that. So how do we get there? By working on our tempo.

I've been using these two drills to improve my tempo.

Michael Breed's The pistol grip drill

This is a great drill I learned from watching The Golf Fix. All you do for this drill is make your regular swing but with a pistol grip on your bottom hand. That means no thumb and no forefinger. Here's Michael Breed explaining it. I started using this drill yesterday, taking five shots with the pistol grip and then a few shots with a regular grip. It really forces you to have a nice tempo. My one suggestion is that you do some half swings with this grip too.

Nick Faldo's Close Stance Drill

I ran into this drill reading Nick's book and it had an immediate impact on my game. In fact it was the first time I started using drills on the range. Up until I tried this drill I had been a 'beat a bucket of balls' kind of guy. Here is Sir Nick himself explaining it:

Make sure to watch the whole video. Nick also talks about counting your swing which has also helped my tempo.

One last thing I should mention. Tempo in golf isn't just about the full swing. In fact it might be even more important in the short game. You can't figure out your distances on half and quarter and in between shots unless you have a consistent tempo.

Same thing goes for putting. If you have a nice consistent tempo its going to be a lot easier to control your pace.