16 Green
Putt speed
A decent line with the wrong pace is still a three-putt. The picture of the roll comes before the stroke.
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The situation
The ball starts where you wanted and still races past, or it gives up halfway. You are hitting at the hole instead of sending the ball through a small window past it. The stroke itself, if it is a different invention every time, belongs on the first putt.
A check you can do
From about ten feet, stroke a putt you expect to miss on purpose, just to the side of the hole. A useful pace finishes about the length of your putter past the hole. If your good miss stops short, you are leaving everything short. If it runs many feet by, you are hitting at the hole.
The fix
- 01Picture the ball dying a putter-length past Stand behind the ball and see that finish, not a drop into the hole. The hole is allowed to get in the way. It is not the target of the pace.
- 02Practice one stroke while looking at the hole Make that stroke the length of the picture. Then look back at the ball and repeat the same length. Do not add a hit at the last moment.
- 03Uphill is a longer picture, downhill is a shorter one The finish past the hole gets smaller when the ground is running toward you. You are changing the picture, not the grip.
- 04On a long putt, leave a second putt you like Inside a step or so is the win. Do not try to hole a putt when you cannot see the pace of it. From off the green, a rolling chip uses the same picture. See the chip.
- 05Stop leaving it short on purpose If you quit on the putt so it cannot go past, you are practicing three-putts. The side-of-the-hole check is the correction. Then go back to a repeatable stroke so the length you pictured is the length you make.