Long putts are all about the touch!
A long putt is something you want to 2-putt. With long putts it's all about the "feel" for how long it is which can be kind of hard to learn in Sweden if you play alot of courses. Everybody knows about the great golfer at his homeclub:
The play great golf on every club-tournament but when they get out on other courses they usually don't play as good. Most often it's the greens they complain about. They where way too slow or impossible to read because they where too fast.
 
 
"Feel" for lenght by reading the green:
To learn to putt with a touch and be able to adjust this touch from course to course it takes experience and that's something that takes quite som time to aquire. But by using the basic principles you can figure out how fast a green will be and how it's going to fade. There are the following methods to judge how the ball will roll?

1. How does the grass grow? By rule of thumb the grass always tilts in some direction. It usually in a direction where there's water. If you're putting against the grass you have to putt harder.
 
2. How does it fade? If it's uphill you naturally have to putt harder and downhill softer because of the earths gravity.

 
Excercises:
Repeate the excercises you used for the short putts but at these distances a softer grip is required for a more precise touch.

1. Set up and do the excercises from a distance of 5 yards.
2. Set up and do the excercises from a distance of 10 yards.
3. Set up and do the excercises from a distance of 25 yards.

You can vary the distance and you can also measure the distance of your putts to easier learn the feel of lenght and be able to refere back to your training.
 
 
Direction
To learn how much the ball will fade because of tilts on the green is something you have to learn by trail and error. If you go by the basic principles it'll be easier.


Fade
The ball always fades more closer to the hole or rather when it slows down. That's when gravity takes over the ball more and more and pulls the ball down the tilt. When you read the green and are going to judge how much the putt will fade it's important important to read the green close to the hole and not where the ball is.
On the long putts many amatures make the misstake of setting up for a big fade and holding up the ball way too much since the tilt isn't as great by the hole as it is where the ball is. Sometimes you'll find the ball on a completly flat surface and only tilts close to the hole. I promise that 99% of these putts will fade before the hole if you look at this during a clubtournament.


Speed
A very important factor that most people don't think about is that the slower a ball is rolling the more it fades. Even here gravity plays a part. So on fast greens you don't have to hit the ball as hard for the ball to make it all the way, but it will fade more since it will roll slower and longer. This is caused by the cutting of the green and gravity:
slower greens = less fade; faster greens = more fade.
 
 
Grip and setup
I recommend a grip where both hands are opened and the club is fit inside the hands and not the fingers to make the wrists a little stiffer for more control (this is the opposite of a grip on a regular shot). Hence the club, hands and sholders form a triangle that's free to oscilate in a simple manner. Just like the pendlum on grandad's old clock.


Excercises
1. Put a club under your arms and see how big you swing on 5, 10 and 15 yard putts.
2. Make sure you always keep a good even tempo = as far back as forward.
 
 
Guidelines (that are allowed)
If you need any extra help with your aim it can be useful to take out a partial target. It can be a straw of grass or a mark on the line of the putt that's within 1 yard of the ball, so you can aim the mark on the ball and the face of the club. Many putters come with a guidline painted on to help with the aim. All you do is aim the line on the club over the mark on the ball towards your real partial target. You will definetly aim better if you just take out a correct guideline.