Paging Sidewinder22!
I'm an old fart player so my distance didn't improve so much as my accuracy did when blowing up my RHBH form a few years ago. It was putter standstills, baby, and thousands of them. Get that throwing putter to glide cleanly and accurately to 200' and then you're onto something as a beginning/recreational player. It will tell you something's wrong if it wobbles and doesn't end up in a fairly predictable spot. Progress from there, and the good news is that you're doing this in 2022-2023 instead of the information desert I had 25 and 30 years ago. Have patience. It will take a long time with a lot of reps before you will see palpable results, if you're not a gifted athlete.
While you are getting better at the mechanics of proper throwing, you can separately work on the putting, and that's where you will see the most dramatic improvement to your scores. Get your own basket and a stack of 10 of your favorite putting putter mold if you haven't already. If you can get real good at knocking down those 20-footers, it will mean a world of difference out on the course. Now you don't have to throw a bullseye to get up and down, and those upshots don't have to be perfect.
Putting is idiosyncratic, so you have to figure out what you're most comfortable at doing. I have to be a spin putter personally, never have gotten the knack of a push style. It feels easier to aim for me, plus windy days don't bother as much as others.
When I'm putting, whether it's a straddle stance or the conventional stagger stance (it's very helpful to get good at both), I've got to get energy from my lower body so I can focus on the wrist flick for aim, and I'm flicking my wrist going up the pole from my chest, hand following through until I'm "shaking hands" with that pole, going up it, usually aiming for the band at top and gravity will bring it back down to the middle (especially the further back I go). Bending my knees doesn't work for me on the stagger stance as much as a younger person, so I use a rocking motion.
When I straddle putt, I use an understable Prime Deputy so my more feeble knee-bending doesn't have to be as powerful to get the putter to do what it's supposed to do. I love how the Deputy tends to fall in the basket for me when it doesn't hit dead center perfectly because it seems to be spinning more at a slower incoming velocity. Your mileage may vary, of course, but it's what it does for me.
Something that helped me during my winter hibernation was a basket in the basement and the PP360 app on my phone. It gave me a score to try and beat, and averages to keep, but I'm kind of a nerd in that regard. If that's not your cup of tea, then another method is to give yourself a goal to beat with your stack of putters, starting at like 10 or 15 feet, and say making 7 or more out of 10 before you are allowed to move back 5 feet. If you don't make half your putts, then move closer five feet until you do. The goal should be confidence at 20'. If you get better than that, you will be better than most, and it will allow you to hang in there in any amateur division beneath MA-1 even with less-than-stellar drives. That's what kept me in the hunt in MA-40 against new 40-year-olds who have nothing wrong with them physically yet and can throw past 350'.
Put on some music and do at least 100 putts a day. Every day, all winter (check local listings), and make it fun so you enjoy doing it.
I mentioned Sidewinder22 (aka SeaBass22 on other platforms). Another good source that helped me with putter upshot forehands was Brad Schick on YouTube. Having both backhand and forehand abilities with all angles on upshots will also help you tremendously if you're not a world-beater at throwing drives. Getting good at those 150-footers ending up 20' away, then getting good at knocking down 19 out of 20 twenty-footers will make your scores nosedive when you're still not great at drives. This is the way for beginners who want to start getting better. Best wishes...make this process fun and addicting and you will be on your way!
