You're Correct!

One of the biggest things that will influence you when youre looking at your putt is the speed at which your playing partners ball travels towards the hole. Not only do you watch it very carefully but you also try to analyze how hard the ball was hit and in what direction it moved.

When it comes to your turn, you have made a calculation as to how hard and where to start your putt that has no connection to the way you tried to read it. The next thing that happens is you hit your putt too hard and the ball sails past the hole leaving you with a five footer coming back. You set up over your comeback putt and leave it a few inches short of the hole.

The reason you have missed the comeback putt short is because you have become scared of hitting another putt past the hole, so you over adjust your speed and dont hit it. The one thing you must avoid if you dont want to end up three putting in this situation is to only think about holing the comeback putt instead of not hitting past the hole.

A great practise drill for this is to find yourself a five foot putt on the practise green that is slightly uphill, then place a tee 14 to 18 inches past the hole. Set up to the putt and focus on hitting your ball to the tee rather than the hole. This way your thoughts are not on the outcome of the putt i.e. dont hit it past or drop it in over the front lip, but on a point that is beyond the hole. You will have more control over the speed of the putt and will be less likely to leave the putt short. Take this mind set out on to the course and you will start to hole a lot more comeback putts.

If you make a putting stroke with a short backstroke and accelerate into impact then you will not leave your comeback putt short of the hole, but you will hit it past the hole again. Not only will you hit it past the hole but you will have no control over the speed of the ball and it could end up the same distance past or even further.

It is vital when your putt is running toward the hole to watch its every move, even more so when it goes past the hole a few feet the other side. This is because you have the opportunity to get a real time read of the line of your comeback putt. If you know the line then you only need to check to see if the putt is uphill, downhill or side hill and make sure you allow for it in your speed.

If your focus is on the front lip of the hole when you putt, you are lowering your chances of holing putts because your ball will not carry the amount of speed needed to maintain its line. You really want to look at hitting your putts within two feet of the back lip of the hole and then the putts you now hit that stop frustratingly on the edge of the hole will have the speed to fall in over the front lip instead.