Your approach on "must make" putts vs "normal" putts

[airjammer]

I try to make everything..the only thing that changes is how I feel about the outcome. For me I can’t recall ever making a putt by altering my speed or my line over my natural tendency. Anytime I have ever ram a putt in it’s never went in that I can remember..seem to never hit my intended line.

[etrichards]

I dont adjust speed or anything like that. The only thing I will do differently is if I NEED to make it - either I've got myself in trouble or need momentum in the round or need to beat my playing partner, is I will take the time to crouch down instead of bending slightly to read it and line the ball marker up on my line. My make percentage goes up tremendously when I do those things.

 

Unfortunately I dont do this every time - I pick my spots because my back gets balky at times and the extra time crouching/lining up takes a toll on the bad days. I save it for "have to haves".

[rawdog]

FWIW, I struggle with leaving putts short often. It seems to happen more from 15+ feet. Sometimes I have to remind myself that the benefit from getting the ball to the hole more often is more made putts (duh). I'd advise against taking a different approach on "must make" putts. Even mentally classifying them as "must make" will undoubtedly lead your body to perform differently. So picking a mental approach that works and applying it to every putt should work best in theory. Again, this has been a struggle for me.

 

We are risk-adverse by nature, but we need to adjust our scatter plots so the target is actually beyond the hole. It's terribly hard to do. Broadie explores this concept in Every Shot Counts, and Luke Donald found success by "crunching the numbers" with his team:

 

When Donald, who was the tour’s best putter in 2011 and 2012, dropped to 59th in strokes gained putting last year, he blamed too many 3-putts. Broadie determined that the actual culprit was a failure to one-putt enough, and Donald was leaving putts short. So Donald and his instructor, the Northwestern University men’s golf coach Pat Goss, added a practice drill that focused on putting more aggressively. As of March 26, Donald ranked ninth in that category.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/autossell/pro-golfers-find-winning-rounds-from-numbers-crunching.html

[mneumann]

From 25 feet I'm not making any adjustment, I'm no more likely to hole the putt by trying to ram it in I feel like.

 

From 10 maybe 12 feet and in, with a putt to halve or a putt to make a better score than my fourball partner who's already in, or for a bogey in a max double game, etc. I'm taking as much break out of it as possible, hopefully playing it inside the hole with enough speed that it's not going to move, even if that means hitting it 6 feet by. I do feel like i am more confident and make more putts in this range when i dont try to die it in with movement

[Justsomeguy]

Hit it hard enough to never be short. Too gentle, and you've got to get it exactly right.

It's like a semi bluff in poker, which gives you two ways to win. Either they fold or your cards line up. If you don't throw the bet out, you can't win that way.

Same with playing for exact speed. A hair too hard might drop. A hair too soft has no chance.

 

[Zitlow]

Don't obsess over your putting stroke. Trust your instincts and proprioceptors, you'll drain putts from everywhere.