Causes and Cures: Chronically Leaving Putts Short (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Causes and Cures: Chronically Leaving Putts Short (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

One of the frustrating parts of people short game is often when they’re putting and they’re leaving the ball consistently short of the hole. Next time you go out in the golf course and you’re playing, if you don’t feel like you have a particularly good round with putter just consider how many times did you actually give the ball a chance to go in. If you’re not holding your fair share of mid to long putts, how many of them you’re actually giving a chance to get to the hole. If you hit the ball short of the hole it hasn’t got a chance it doesn’t matter how good you are at lining it up and reading the break and having a lovely smooth stroke. If it finishes a foot or six inches short of the hole it’s got no chance of going in. Your putts must roll past the hole if you want to hold them. So if people are trying to get the ball past the hole and you know that you should hit them beyond the hole, but you simply can’t do it you can’t convince yourself to hit hard enough how and why is that a problem.

If I show you now setting up to the golf nicely with a decent smooth stroke that should roll the ball far enough to get it past the hole, but if I then strangle a putter and really grip too tightly as I set up to the ball my stroke can get a bit short and a bit jerky and a bit jabby. So the tension in your grip pressure is often one of the reasons why you’ll be leaving the ball short of the hole, even though you’re trying to force yourself to hit it hard enough. Don’t hold the golf club too tightly and squeeze it too much otherwise it will always come up short of the hole. I’ve got a complete memory bank and I can’t remember the next looking.

Another major cause of leaving balls short of the hole is the fact that when you are taking your putt, you just have a tendency to look up a little bit too early. So you are down over the putt here but as you make your stroke you give it a little bit of a watch to see whether it’s going in. And that in turn actually shortens your stroke ‘cause rather than letting the club head move past and overtake through the impact area, you move your body in front, it effectively slows the club down and can often result in some weak on the head putts. Little putts that look like they got no confidence to them. So when you are taking your putt make sure you are looking down, good rocking stroke, two seconds and then look. So you take your putt two seconds and then turn with your head rather than watching the ball come straight off the club face.

That results in a lot of putts landing up short of the hole as well. One last thing is just don’t be scared of hitting the ball past the hole. I think there’s almost a psychological issue that, as the ball is moving towards the hole a lot of golfers are increasingly getting happy with what they are seeing because the ball is getting nearer therefore my emotional state is getting better, it’s going nearer and nearer. And as soon as it slips past, the emotional state worsens because now it’s getting further away and I don’t want it to go further past the hole. So people end up almost on a down and they are almost scared of hitting the ball past the hole. But remember it can’t go in unless it’s gone to and beyond the hole so make sure it has a really nice roll at the hole and as long as you are not whacking it more than three foot past the hole, you’re generally going to be pretty good at returning the three foots.. So if you got a descent length putt, try and hit at least a foot to 18 inches beyond the hole.

Keep it within three feet, we’ll still class it as a good putt and then you can knock in the three foots coming back. So don’t be too scared of having a ball that runs past the hole and as it roles past the hole, if it hasn’t gone in and it rolls past the hole, just have a little watch of the line it takes and see if it curves or breaks ‘cause don’t forget you got a similar putt coming back the opposite direction. So if it rolls straight, misses the hole and then dies away, allow for a little bit about a similar curve coming back in the opposite direction. So try and get on the golf course next time. Get all of your balls to finish past the hole, give them all a chance. Don’t be gripping the club too tightly, and don’t be peeking to see whether they have gone in and hopefully you won’t leave any more putts short of the hole.

 2013-03-28

One of the frustrating parts of people short game is often when they’re putting and they’re leaving the ball consistently short of the hole. Next time you go out in the golf course and you’re playing, if you don’t feel like you have a particularly good round with putter just consider how many times did you actually give the ball a chance to go in. If you’re not holding your fair share of mid to long putts, how many of them you’re actually giving a chance to get to the hole. If you hit the ball short of the hole it hasn’t got a chance it doesn’t matter how good you are at lining it up and reading the break and having a lovely smooth stroke. If it finishes a foot or six inches short of the hole it’s got no chance of going in. Your putts must roll past the hole if you want to hold them. So if people are trying to get the ball past the hole and you know that you should hit them beyond the hole, but you simply can’t do it you can’t convince yourself to hit hard enough how and why is that a problem.

If I show you now setting up to the golf nicely with a decent smooth stroke that should roll the ball far enough to get it past the hole, but if I then strangle a putter and really grip too tightly as I set up to the ball my stroke can get a bit short and a bit jerky and a bit jabby. So the tension in your grip pressure is often one of the reasons why you’ll be leaving the ball short of the hole, even though you’re trying to force yourself to hit it hard enough. Don’t hold the golf club too tightly and squeeze it too much otherwise it will always come up short of the hole. I’ve got a complete memory bank and I can’t remember the next looking.

Another major cause of leaving balls short of the hole is the fact that when you are taking your putt, you just have a tendency to look up a little bit too early. So you are down over the putt here but as you make your stroke you give it a little bit of a watch to see whether it’s going in. And that in turn actually shortens your stroke ‘cause rather than letting the club head move past and overtake through the impact area, you move your body in front, it effectively slows the club down and can often result in some weak on the head putts. Little putts that look like they got no confidence to them. So when you are taking your putt make sure you are looking down, good rocking stroke, two seconds and then look. So you take your putt two seconds and then turn with your head rather than watching the ball come straight off the club face.

That results in a lot of putts landing up short of the hole as well. One last thing is just don’t be scared of hitting the ball past the hole. I think there’s almost a psychological issue that, as the ball is moving towards the hole a lot of golfers are increasingly getting happy with what they are seeing because the ball is getting nearer therefore my emotional state is getting better, it’s going nearer and nearer. And as soon as it slips past, the emotional state worsens because now it’s getting further away and I don’t want it to go further past the hole. So people end up almost on a down and they are almost scared of hitting the ball past the hole. But remember it can’t go in unless it’s gone to and beyond the hole so make sure it has a really nice roll at the hole and as long as you are not whacking it more than three foot past the hole, you’re generally going to be pretty good at returning the three foots.. So if you got a descent length putt, try and hit at least a foot to 18 inches beyond the hole.

Keep it within three feet, we’ll still class it as a good putt and then you can knock in the three foots coming back. So don’t be too scared of having a ball that runs past the hole and as it roles past the hole, if it hasn’t gone in and it rolls past the hole, just have a little watch of the line it takes and see if it curves or breaks ‘cause don’t forget you got a similar putt coming back the opposite direction. So if it rolls straight, misses the hole and then dies away, allow for a little bit about a similar curve coming back in the opposite direction. So try and get on the golf course next time. Get all of your balls to finish past the hole, give them all a chance. Don’t be gripping the club too tightly, and don’t be peeking to see whether they have gone in and hopefully you won’t leave any more putts short of the hole.