Let's discuss 3 to 5 foot putts

[DShepley]

Feel like you are moving the putter head back with your shoulders and not pulling it away with your hands.  For instance, if you are right handed, your left shoulder moves down which moves the putter off of the ball.  This allows you to keep your hands quieter and you will be less likely to manipulate the face with your hands and wrists. Rock your shoulders and feel like that motion is moving your arms and putter.  Let the putter head come off the ground on the back stroke, this will keep it square to the line.  Learn to hit these short putts with your shoulders and not your hands.

[llewol007]

Figure out if its a speed issue or a read issue. If its speed than find out what stroke length gets your ball to roll a foot past the hole from 3 feet, 4 feet and 5 feet. Mind you that is on a flat straight putt. And write it down somewhere as a point of reference. Has to be the same every single time. The stroke length that you can repeat closing your eyes. That establishes your foundation for speed. Second is read. If you are hitting low every time, you will never make the putt into the hole. Putts other than a straight putt, has some sort of break, if you cant understand that the break is where your ball has to pass in order to even qualify your putt to having a chance of making it in, than you will not improve. It is not where the ball has to get to but the path it needs to take. Good practice that has helped me is picking up a 6 foot jump rope or rope of any kind and challenge yourself to read the break. Place the next to the path you think the ball needs to take to get to the hole. Now roll that putt and see if you are reading breaks correctly. If you master the speed and the read, you can improve your Putting from that distance. It is about repetition but more importantly is repeating the correct thing. 

Edited April 28, 2021 by llewol007

[rollen]

I found that practicing with a metronome helps.  Seems that 60-80 beats/min is the suggested range. I found that 75-76 is my pace.  Having a consistent routine has also made a huge impact. I cannot recall who the pro was, but he did a YouTube video on putting routine/practice using the metronome.  The basis of his routine was to look at the hole, look at the ball, look at the hole, look at the ball, pause, backstroke, stroke all on the beat of the metronome.  You can also count the steps as you go.  His sequence may have been a bit different.  Just find a sequence that is comfortable for you.  This has also helped with longer lag putts as well. Takes the thought of mechanics out of the stroke. 

[Kdaniel72]

21 hours ago, Rory4Pres said:

3 to 5 foot putts seem to make or break my rounds and I'm sure the same goes for a lot of you.  Yes, I know I need to practice them more (and I will) but I find myself thinking about tiny details, like how I hit the ball, keeping my head still, etc... For those of you that don't struggle missing 1 or more of these a round, what are your secrets for success on these "I should make" putts?

Just practice the push drill everyday for a week or so!

Edited April 28, 2021 by Kdaniel72

[Obee]

20 hours ago, Rory4Pres said:

3 to 5 foot putts seem to make or break my rounds and I'm sure the same goes for a lot of you.  Yes, I know I need to practice them more (and I will) but I find myself thinking about tiny details, like how I hit the ball, keeping my head still, etc... For those of you that don't struggle missing 1 or more of these a round, what are your secrets for success on these "I should make" putts?

What is your level of play?

[BURKMI19]

18 hours ago, stingerfade said:

Please nobody follow this advice. You can absolutely learn feel and improve putting through practice. 

See I knew there would be at least one person who would say I was wrong.  However @stingerfade you didn't explain your position.  Please enlighten those reading the thread how you could "learn feel".  I'd love a nice debate here.

[Rory4Pres]

2 hours ago, Obee said:

What is your level of play?

Scratch.  Have been playing on aerated greens the past few weeks, which has probably been the culprit for so many short misses.  Once they get back to form here in the next few weeks I'm going to start spending more time practicing putting.  Thought it would be good to get some different perspectives on how to minimize short misses.

[Kdaniel72]

18 minutes ago, Rory4Pres said:

Scratch.  Have been playing on aerated greens the past few weeks, which has probably been the culprit for so many short misses.  Once they get back to form here in the next few weeks I'm going to start spending more time practicing putting.  Thought it would be good to get some different perspectives on how to minimize short misses.

Your a way better golfer than I! Please disregard any of my posts. Lol

[Rory4Pres]

10 minutes ago, Kdaniel72 said:

Your a way better golfer than I! Please disregard any of my posts. Lol

haha, oh stop it.  This topic was to help anyone and everyone who struggles with 3-5 footers, which I'm guessing is most people on this site from time to time.  A good refresher on mental thoughts and practice routines never hurt anyone.

[mgoblue83]

Look your playing partner in the eye and ask "do you need to see that?"

[Obee]

33 minutes ago, mgoblue83 said:

Look your playing partner in the eye and ask "do you need to see that?"

 

Well your partner sure doesn't, but your fellow competitor or opponent might want to .... 😉

[nitram]

I was taught at the beginning of my golf journey that 6 ft. putts were like free throws and developed my putting stroke and routine accordingly. So the following two drills and putting on a yard stick were used to teach me a dependable stroke.

 

Can you hit a tee (stuck in the ground) from 2 ft.? If so, does the ball stop dead straight or recoil to one side more-often? If you can't, you need to find a flat spot and work on it 'til you can stop the ball directly in front of the tee or have it bounce straight back towards you.. It sounds too simple, I know, but starting your putt on line with a true roll is the crux of being able to putt.

 

Second drill is set up for a flat, straight, 3 ft. putt. Take 2 tees and make you a gate 12-18 inches from your ball. The gate is the exact width of the ball plus the width of the vertical tee stem (normally 1-16th"). Now roll your 3 footers through the gate and make the putt. It's also preferable to use a line to see exactly how your ball is rolling. This is not an easy thing to do and requires patience and determination on your part. Once you can make 5 in a row you can begin to examine your green reading because your stroke isn't the problem.

 

 

[Obee]

2 hours ago, Rory4Pres said:

Scratch.  Have been playing on aerated greens the past few weeks, which has probably been the culprit for so many short misses.  Once they get back to form here in the next few weeks I'm going to start spending more time practicing putting.  Thought it would be good to get some different perspectives on how to minimize short misses.

 

Okay, here we go then. 🙂 

 

I try not to use platitudes when it comes to golf. Getting better at any facet of this game is both complicated and simple. Easy and hard. Silly, but true. I try to only relate what I know, with certainty, to be true. So below is my journey. Don't know if this will help you, but it literally dropped two strokes a round off my scores. Sent this to someone in a PM a while back. Figured I'd post it here:

 

*************************

 

So I became disenchanted with my putting about 3 to 4 years ago. I got steadily worse to the point where I was missing lots of putts from 2 1/2 to 4 1/2 feet. In the beginning, I did not feel anxiety or stress over these putts, I just missed them. But as time wore on I started missing more of them, and next thing you know anxiety was becoming part of the equation. 

 

To backtrack, I was never a good straight-putt putter. I was always looking for an edge to aim at -- even on a 3-footer. I could go several rounds in a row without ever reading a putt "back of the cup," "left-center" or "right-center" for instance. I desperately wanted to see break in everything. That's ... not good. And even if I did, occasionally, read a putt as perfectly straight, I'll be damned if I could ever get a putt in the center of the hole. I was always pushing or pulling it to one side of the cup or the other. Like 100% of the time. And very rarely with any real speed. Usually kind of "tickled" in.

 

As you can imagine, that is a recipe for disaster in tournament golf. And pretty soon, my short putting woes started to creep into my mid-length putting, where I was always a good to very good putter, meaning: I made plenty of birdie and par putts from 8 to 15 feet. And the more break, the better (never liked the straight ones! LOL) 

 

So now back to the recent present: After hitting rock bottom with bad putting in money matches and tournaments alike, I decided to do something: I began watching and, finally, paying attention to(!), some of the very best putters In California, if not the world. 

 

I started really paying attention to the PGA Tour pros and top ams at my club bang 2.5 - 4-foot putts into the center of the cup over and over and over. And with pace! How could they do that? Why could I not do that??? My short putts were too frequently barely making it to the hole or going in with only moderate speed, and never, ever hitting the back of the cup. I convinced myself that before I did anything else, I had to learn to hit a straight 3-foot putt to the back of the hole without fear. 

 

And if you were to ask me the single most important thing regarding my putting improvement, I would unequivocally tell you that that decision/commitment was the most important thing of them all. Two decisions, really.

 

• I was completely and totally fed-up with being a mediocre/bad short putter (especially under pressure), and decided/committed to do something about it.
• I decided/committed that the very first thing I needed to learn to do in order to improve was to be able to repeatedly hit a 3-footer in the back-center of the cup in practice before I could take it on the course.

 

So instead of just jumping in and "fixing it," I decided to really analyze what was going on before I moved forward. I decided to take some quick video of myself both at set-up, and then during the whole stroke. What an eye-opener! My putter was considerably shut to my intended line at address, and my stroke was horrible -- and it had to be to compensate for my shut face. Bottom line: My putter face was aimed at the left edge or outside the left edge on a 3-foot straight putt! 

 

My stroke then had to be a series of compensations to try (valiantly, but futilely) to roll the ball along my intended line. I won't even get into what those compensations were, because they are not important. All I knew at the time was that I had to retrain my stroke to roll the ball consistently on the line I had chosen. But in order to do that, I needed to get comfortable with the putter aiming straight at my intended line. 

 

In the beginning, when my putter was aimed straight at the center of the whole, it felt like I was aimed a ball or two outside right of the hole on a 3-foot putt. Wow. Suffice to say, that does not engender confidence in one's ability to calmly and freely stroke the ball into the hole -- especially under betting or tournament pressure. And I knew this. I knew that I had to become comfortable, and fast. There were tournaments to play. Matches to schedule. Money to be won! LOL 

 

That was the point at which I knew I needed to use the line on the ball to help me re-train my eye(s). I would align the line to the center of the whole on a 3-foot putt and then I would set my putter down and verify that it was perfectly in line with the line on the ball (which was lined up to the center of the hole).* I had now completely removed a variable: My face alignment. I now knew with certainty that my putter was aimed where I wanted the ball to start.

 

So once I did that, a new stroke quickly emerged. Simply knowing that the line on my ball was properly aimed made putting much, much easier immediately, but I still was not completely comfortable and I still felt like I had to manipulate the putter a bit to get the ball on my intended line.

 

I had to do one other thing: I always putted from an open stance which set my shoulders and, even worse, my forearms,  left of my intended line (I'm right handed). That was part of why I had to make so many compensations in my stroke. The best putters I know are very "neutral" with their forearms relative to the line. Meaning, if you laid a shaft along their forearms, the line that the shaft makes would be very, very close to parallel with the intended starting line of the putt. 

 

I tinkered with my set-up/stance/ball position, and nothing felt right. No matter how perfectly "square" I set up with my feet, I would always be open with my forearms and shoulders a bit. So in a complete and total grown-up moment, I decided I would literally try anything to get comfortable with the ball and putter aimed directly at the center of the hole and be able to have my forearms and shoulders parallel to my starting line. I didn't care what I looked like. So I decided that maybe it was a good idea if I putted with a closed stance, meaning my left foot forward, and my right foot pulled off of the line of putt. Think Briny Baird, but not as extreme. 

 

Bottom line: That set-up change combined with the line on the ball made an immediate improvement in my ability to hit a straight putt. Like immediately. Night and day with one simple change. Closed stance, ball just off my left instep, and it was like a miracle.

 

The next step was drawing a line around (or half way around) the ball and practicing rolling the ball perfectly end-over-end with little to no "wobble" in the line. I got to the point where I could do it 10 times in a row on a 10 foot putt on the putting green. I can't tell you just how much that will help you become a better putter. 

 

One caveat, though: if your previous stroke used compensations were you were cutting across the ball, then that means, by definition, you are hitting the ball with a glancing blow. Once you start rolling the ball consistently and efficiently end-over-end, you will need less of a strike to roll the ball the same distance as before (because you are not "glancing" the ball). Therefore, your speed control will suffer initially, and you will run some putts well by the hole as you learn to control distance. But fret not!! You will quickly figure this out. 😉

 

So now, with these two things figured out, I can stand on the putting green and make 100 four-foot putts in a row (on the same line, to the same hole). Heck, it used to be difficult for me to make five in a row! LOL 

 

The final piece of the puzzle for me was "The Claw," which I started using on and off about two years ago. I never committed to it, though. Because I have struggled with the yips over the years, I decided to completely commit to the claw on all putts of all lengths. The combination of those items listed above along with the claw have completely and totally transformed my putting. 

 

And keep in mind, I used to be one of those people who felt that putting was overwhelmingly an "art." I now feel like putting is 80% science and 20% art. To putt well and consistently, you need to have an efficient, repeatable stroke. Repeatable being the most important, obviously. The "art" of putting is in green reading and in one's state of mind before, during, and after putting the ball. 

 

But there's more! 😉 The mechanical and-set up changes I made allowed me to completely change my mental outlook on putting. I am now able to watch the ball leave my putter and observe its path with, as one wonderful poster on this site has said before: "a detached meta-awareness." 

 

I no longer care very much whether the ball goes in the hole or not. I do not control that. I only control my green reading, and whether I start the ball on my line at my intended speed. That. Is. It.! And once the ball leaves the putter face, I simply watch the ball as it travels on its way to the hole, trying to learn whatever I can from its journey. Sounds kind of zen, and in my best moments, it actually feels that way. 

 

That is the best way to determine, after you missed a putt, what caused it to miss. Was it a bad read? Was it a bad stroke/face angle that started the ball off line? Or was it bad speed? But I don't even stress over that because, most of the time now, I roll the ball on my line at my speed. That is all I control. 

 

Anxiety around putting is now a thing of the past for me. The coolest thing? Even though I am playing less golf than I have in 20 years, my putting is better than it has ever been, by far. My body hurts, I only drive the ball 240 yards and I sit for work 12 to 14 hours a day five days a week, either in a car on my commute, or at my desk. I literally never practice. And I am putting better than I ever have. Crazy.

 

Finally, I will say that being willing to feel uncomfortable and look "weird" or "different" initially was the best thing that I did that led me to where I am now. I didn't care what I looked like, and I didn't care how initially uncomfortable it was to aim the putter properly. I used to tell well meaning, excellent putters who would try to help me that I couldn't change my putting set-up or grip, or whatever because it "just doesn't feel right," and putting is about "feel" and "art." Well, I finally realized that feel and art can only take you so far without a repeatable, efficient putting stroke to go along with it.

 

That's my journey so far. Hope you enjoyed it and get something out of it.... 

 

*Regarding the line: I use a technique to verify that the line is aimed properly to my intended line that is different than most. I do not use the side of the putter shaft, I actually use both eyes and look through the putter shaft and at the ball simultaneously. If you do that and move the shaft up and down a bit, you will start to see a "line" emerge on the putter that is usually a reflection of some sort from the sun or ambient light. Once you find that little line, it's easy to just take the putter shaft and lay it over the ball to where the line on the shaft lays perfectly over the line on the ball, and the shaft extends all the way out in front of you and you can see the exact line the ball is aimed on. Easy peasy.

 

And this is where I landed. This is probably a 3-footer, so on the short end, for sure. But it's amazing how those are now automatic for me, when in the past I would MISS some of those!

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by Obee
added video

[Abh159]

I tend to be pretty solid from inside 6 feet and I've found that when I do miss short ones it's because I get a little to "handsy" with my stroke. Someone mentioned this thought process earlier, but once I know I have the putter head lined up on the correct line I focus on making the stroke with my shoulders. Basically just a gentle rocking back and forth motion with my shoulders and that takes the hands/wrists out of it.

 

Also, I think it's best to maintain the same sort of speed pattern with all putts long and short. My personal preference with speed is to let the ball sort of fall into the hole. I'm not trying to slam 20 footers into the back of the cup so doing so on a 5 footer doesn't make sense to me either. Keeping the same speed pattern lets you be more consistent with the line and reading break. 

[huskydawg]

TC is a way better player than me, but what helped me through a rough stretch recently was to do all the prep and lining up, and then just pretend the ball is already in the hole. 

 

You know that feeling of relief and relaxation you feel when you made a putt?  Try to feel that feeling before you stroke the putt.  I started to make many more putts, and even if I miss, the misses are much closer, like an inch off rather than 3-4 inches for a 6 footer.  It removes technical thoughts and frees up your mind.

 

Hope it helps someone. I didn't see it online or anything, it's just something I came up with that helped.

[Hawkeye77]

After yesterday I don't want to talk about them!

 

But I did read a couple of the thoughts above and taking them to heart - maybe even to the putting green. 😉

[GLF4EVR]

Just want to say "THANKS!", to @Obee for sharing his journey.  My putting stance was the same.  I would have the closed stance with the right foot back just like yours in the picture.  That always "allowed" for me to take a pendulum swing.  A square stance then would quite often result in a puled putt for me.  Dropping that right foot back seemed to "give" my shoulders the room to make the straight-thru swing path.   I switched to center shaft putter several years ago & now have a stance that is parallel to the intended putting line.  The adaptation to the square stance was about a 2 year journey.