How to Make More Putts in Golf

Nothing sinks a scorecard faster than a three-putt, but the good news is that dropping more putts is one of the quickest ways for any golfer to lower their scores. This guide will walk you through the essential areas of putting - from the fundamental setup and green reading to stroke mechanics and effective practice drills. Let's build the confidence you need to roll the ball in the hole more often.

The Foundation: Grip and Setup for Putting

While the rest of your game relies on a powerful, rotational swing, a successful putting stroke is all about precision and stability. It starts with a solid foundation before you ever take the putter back. A repeatable setup gets rid of extra variables and allows your stroke to work as intended.

Finding a Stable Grip

The goal of a putting grip is to quiet your hands and wrists, preventing them from flipping or manipulating the putter face during the stroke. Unlike the full swing grip, you want your hands to be less active. Here are a few common styles you’ll see players use successfully:

• Reverse Overlap: The most traditional putting grip. You hold the club just like a normal grip, but instead of interlocking or overlapping your pinky, you lift the index finger of your top hand (left hand for righties) and lay it across the fingers of your bottom hand. This helps unify the hands into a single unit.
• Cross-Handed (Left-Hand Low): By placing your lead hand (left hand for righties) lower on the grip, many players find it easier to keep their shoulders level at setup and prevent the dominant right hand from taking over and "hitting" at the ball.
• The Claw: This unique grip separates the bottom hand from the club, having it rest on the side of the handle with the palm facing your body. There are several variations, but they all serve the same purpose: to almost completely remove the bottom hand from the stroking motion and turn putting into a shoulder-driven movement.

Don't worry about which grip is "best." Experiment with all of them and see which one feels the most stable and natural to you. Choose the one that a'llows you to consistently return the putter face squarely to the ball without feeling tense.

Building Your Putting Stance

Your setup influences the path of your putting stroke. The goal is to create a simple, repeatable position that promotes a straight-back, straight-through motion controlled by your shoulders.

Here’s how to build your posture:

1. Start with your feet. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart. This provides a stable base without restricting your ability to rock your shoulders freely.
2. Bend from your hips. Tilt your upper body forward from your hips, not your waist. Your back should remain relatively straight. Let your arms hang down naturally from your shoulders. The putter should rest comfortably on the ground without you needing to reach for it or pull it in.
3. Position your eyes. The classic checkpoint is to have your eyes directly over the golf ball, or just slightly inside the line. You can check this easily: take your stance, then drop a second golf ball from the bridge of your nose. It should land on or very near the ball you're about to putt. If it falls between your feet and the ball, you're leaning too far back. If it falls outside the ball, you're reaching too far.
4. Check your ball position. Position the ball slightly forward of the center of your stance. A spot directly under your left eye (for right-handed golfers) is ideal. This position helps you make contact with the ball on a slight upswing, promoting a better roll instead of a skid.

A consistent setup takes the guesswork out of the stroke. If you start in the same solid position every time, you won’t have to make mid-stroke compensations.

Mastering the Two Keys: Green Reading and Start Line

A perfect stroke does you no good if it’s aimed in the wrong direction. Learning to read greens and commit to a start line is where putting goes from a mechanical exercise to an art form. This is often the biggest separator between average putters and great ones.

How to Read Greens with Confidence

Green reading can feel intimidating, but you can simplify it with a consistent process. Instead of just guessing, you’ll learn to gather information and make an educated read.

• Start with your feet. Before you even line up the putt, walk towards the hole and along the line of your putt. Your feet can detect subtle slopes that your eyes might miss. You can often feel if the ground is tilting left, right, uphill, or downhill. This gives you your first impression of the overall break.
• Look from behind the ball. This is your primary view. Crouch down behind the ball and imagine rolling it gently toward the hole. Try to visualize the path. Where is the highest point of the break (the apex)? This apex is your real target, not the hole itself. On a right-to-left putt, you might look for a spot one, two, or even five feet to the right of the cup.
• Get a second opinion from behind the hole. After you've visualized the line from behind the ball, walk to the other side of the hole and look back. This perspective can often confirm what you thought or reveal a second, subtle break that you didn't see initially.
• Gauge the speed. Is the putt uphill or downhill? A slow, downhill putt will break significantly more than a firm, uphill putt on the same line. Speed and break are inextricably linked, so always factor both into your read.

Simplify Your Aim by Picking a Start Line

Once you’ve read the green and seen the break, it’s time to aim. But aiming at a spot five feet to the side of the cup can feel abstract. A much more effective method is to pick an intermediate target.

Find a specific spot on the green - a differently colored blade of grass, an old ball mark, anything - that is on your intended putting line just a foot or two in front of your ball. Instead of worrying about the hole 15 feet away, your only goal is to roll the ball directly over that tiny spot. If you start the ball on this line with the right speed, the slope will take over and do the rest of the work. This makes your focus much more precise and takes the pressure off making the "whole putt," boiling it down to just starting the ball on the right line.

The Stroke: Building a Consistent, Pendulum Motion

With a good setup and a clear line, all that's left is to make the stroke. The ideal putting motion is a simple rocking of the shoulders that creates a pendulum effect with your arms and putter, keeping the clubface square throughout.

Rock the Shoulders, Not the Wrists

Your power source in putting comes from your larger muscles. Think of your arms and shoulders forming a triangle. During the stroke, that triangle should move back and forth as a single unit, rocking from your sternum.

There should be very little motion in your hands or wrists. Any wristy "flicking" will change the loft of the putter and send the ball skidding off-line. You want to feel like the handle of the putter moves at the same speed as the putter head. This creates a feeling of the putter head swinging freely, accelerated by gravity and the gentle momentum from your shoulders, not from a forceful "hit."

Find Your Natural Tempo

The pace of your stroke - your tempo - is incredibly important for consistent distance control. Most poor putts are a result of a jerky, inconsistent tempo rather than a major mechanical flaw. Your backswing and forward stroke should take roughly the same amount of time. Think of a grandfather clock’s rhythmic "tick-tock."

Find a rhythm that feels smooth and unhurried to you. Rushing the stroke leads to extra tension and poor strikes. To ingrain this, try counting to yourself: "one-two" or "back-through," making sure the timing is equal on both sides. A longer putt doesn't require a faster tempo, it simply needs a longer stroke. The rhythm stays the same.

Becoming a Great Putter: Drills for Feel and Precision

You can understand all these concepts, but they only become ingrained with purposeful practice. Instead of aimlessly rolling putts on the practice green, use targeted drills to improve your distance control and start line accuracy.

For Distance Control: The Ladder Drill

This is a fantastic drill for developing feel. Place three golf balls on the green. Putt the first one about 10 feet. Hit your second putt about 20 feet, and the third one to 30 feet. The goal isn’t to make them, but to get them to stop at those exact distances. Then, work your way back down the ladder: 30 feet, 20 feet, 10 feet. This drill teaches your brain to associate the length of your stroke with the distance the ball travels, which is the heart of speed control.

For Start Line Accuracy: The Gate Drill

This is the classic drill for immediate feedback on your ability to hit your line. Find a straight, 5 to 7-foot putt on the practice green. Place two tees in the ground about halfway to the hole, just slightly wider than your putter head, creating a "gate." Now, simply try to roll your ball through the gate and into the hole. If you miss the gate, you know immediately that you started the ball off-line. You'll quickly see if your tendency is to push or pull your putts.

For Building Confidence: Around the World

Missing short putts is frustrating. This drill will make you clutch from close range. Place 4-5 balls in a circle around the hole, each about three feet away. Work your way "around the world" by making all the putts in a row. It sounds easy, but the pressure builds as you get to the last couple of balls. Once you can make them all consistently, move the circle back to four or five feet. This trains you to expect to make every short putt you stand over.

Final Thoughts

Making more putts comes down to building a solid, repeatable stroke on a great foundation - but it’s just as much about learning to see the line and trust it. By practicing your green reading and grooving your mechanics with purposeful drills, you'll stop simply hoping the ball goes in and start expecting it to. Nothing will drop your handicap faster.

For those moments of doubt on the course, especially on a tricky, breaking putt, a second opinion can be a game-changer. We created Caddie AI to be that on-demand golf expert in your pocket. You get instant, smart advice on everything from reading greens to overall strategy, removing the uncertainty so you can stand over the ball with full commitment, confident you have a plan to get the ball in the hole.