The ball must be struck at a speed that gets it up to the hole, if not just past it, if it is going to have any chance of going in and getting your scores lower. If a putt is left short, it is never going to fall in to the hole.

The main reason for leaving putts short is because the ball is not being struck at the speed required for the distance it needs to travel. This occurs whenever the putter is decelerating through impact with the golf ball. To become a better putter, the putter must be swung more like a pendulum would swing. Considering the movement and the speed of movement of a pendulum, the pendulum moves to the right until its momentum allows it to stop. It then swings back to the left and the speed of the movement builds until it is at a maximum at the lowest point of its movement. As the pendulum swings through this point, it is accelerating and the speed it is moving at is increasing until the pendulum beings to swing upwards, when it then begins to slow.

As you swing your putter head, you make your back swing and then the putter head needs to travel back towards the ball as the pendulum would, so that it is accelerating through the lowest point of its swing, where the putter head will connect with the golf ball. The putter head will then continue to travel under the momentum of the swing and gradually slow from this maximum speed that it reached.

Allowing the putter head to connect with the golf ball as it is still accelerating, means that the golf ball will be struck further than it would if the putter head was decelerating and it will therefore make it easier to hit the ball the distance it needs to travel to reach the hole, rather than leave it short.

The main reason for decelerating when putting is that the putter is not following through correctly. In terms of the pendulum, it is not being allowed to swing through under its own momentum and it is being stopped prematurely. This is quite easy to see in your putting stroke as if you are decelerating through impact, the putter head will not reach a finish position that is a mirror image for distance away from the ball, that the putter head reached on the back swing. The putter head will have stopped short of this as it is being slowed down and does not have the momentum to swing through the golf ball the same distance, as it swung away from the ball during your back swing. If you hold your follow through position and notice how far back you draw the putter head on your back swing, then you will be able to see if you are decelerating or not.

To improve the speed of your putting stroke and stop you from decelerating as you strike the putt, work on the following drill. Set up ready to play a putt from three feet away from the hole. Instead of making your usual back swing, just push the ball forward into the hole with no back swing. Now move to four feet away and again push the ball into the hole. Keep moving back away from the hole and you will find that you can get to about eight feet away from the hole by just pushing the putter through the ball with no back swing. Pushing the ball into the hole is illegal when you play so do not do this on the course, but it will demonstrate to you that you only need a small back swing to get the ball into the hole if you follow through with the putter head and this drill will give you the feeling of following through.

Go to three feet from the hole again and still follow through as you did the first time, this time though have a back swing. If you can get the ball into the hole with only your follow through, you will now only have a small back swing so that you can still follow through as you did before. This will stop you having a longer back swing and then shorter follow through, which results in you decelerating. Your back swing and follow through need to be the same length and then you will be able to get the ball up to the hole rather than leaving it short.