A putt is far more than just tapping the golf ball on the green, it’s a delicate blend of artistry and mechanics, a completely different game played on the same course. This article breaks down exactly what a putt is, from the fundamental concepts of speed and line to the repeatable mechanics you can use to roll the ball with confidence. We’ll cover how to read greens, build a simple stroke, and give you drills to make practice count.
In golf, a putt is any stroke made on the putting green (the specially prepared, short-mown area around the hole) or from the area immediately surrounding it (the fringe), with the intention of rolling the ball into the cup. It’s a game of precision, not power. While your driver may launch the ball 250 yards through the air, your putter is designed to do the opposite: keep the ball grounded and rolling smoothly along a chosen path.
This is accomplished with a unique club: the putter. Unlike every other club in your bag, a putter has a very upright lie angle and a face with minimal loft - typically only 2 to 4 degrees. This tiny bit of loft gets the ball skidding slightly at the moment of impact before it settles into a true, end-over-end roll. A wedge, by contrast, might have over 50 degrees of loft to lift the ball high into the air. The putter is a specialist club built for one job and one job alone: getting the ball into the hole.
Every putt you take counts as one stroke, just the same as that massive drive. It’s why you often hear the phrase, "drive for show, putt for dough." A tour professional might hit about 28-30 putts per round. For amateur golfers, that number is often 40 or more. Simply improving your putting is the fastest way to slash strokes from your score and enjoy the game more.
Every single putt you will ever face, from a one-foot tap-in to a 70-foot monster across the green, boils down to two things: speed and line. If you can master these two elements, you will become a fantastic putter. It really is that simple in concept, though challenging in practice.
Speed, also known as pace or distance control, is the single most important part of putting. Think about it: you can read a green perfectly and start the ball on the exact right line, but if you hit it with wildly incorrect speed, it never has a chance of going in. It will either stop well short or blast way past the hole.
Conversely, a putt with excellent speed but a slightly misread line will almost always leave you with a simple, short second putt. Good speed control eliminates three-putts, which are one of the biggest scorecard-wreckers for recreational golfers.
The best way to develop a feel for speed is to stop thinking about mechanics and start thinking about feel. Imagine you're standing ten feet away from a trash can and you want to toss a crumpled piece of paper into it. You don't analyze the tilt of your wrist or the degrees of your arm rotation, you just look at the target and your brain instinctively calculates the force needed. Putting speed is the same.
Actionable Tip: The Distance Ladder Drill
To build your feel for distance, create a "ladder" on the practice green. Place tees at 10, 20, 30, and 40 feet from a hole. Start at the 10-foot marker and hit three balls, focusing only on getting the speed right so the ball finishes just a foot or so past the hole if it doesn't go in. Then move to the 20-footer and repeat, then the 30, and so on. This drill divorces your mind from the line and forces you to tune into how the length of your putting stroke relates to the distance the ball rolls.
The "line" refers to the path your ball needs to travel on to get to the hole. Because very few greens are perfectly flat, you almost always have to account for "break" - the sideways curve the ball will take as it's pulled downhill by gravity. Reading the break correctly means you need to aim somewhere other than the hole itself.
Here’s a simple, step-by-step process for reading any putt:
Once you’ve determined the break, your job is to pick a specific "aim point" or "start line." Don’t just aim vaguely "a little left." Instead, find a discoloration in the grass, an old ball mark, or an imaginary spot a foot in front of your ball on the line you want it to start on. This gives you a clear, manageable target.
Good mechanics aren't about creating power, they're about creating consistency. A simple, repeatable stroke lets you start the ball on your intended line time and time again. This means your success or failure then depends only on your read, not on a faulty motion.
A good putt starts before the club even moves. Your setup puts your body in a position to make a simple, pendulum-like motion.
The ideal putting motion is driven by the bigger muscles, not the twitchy, smaller ones.
Imagine a grandfather clock. The pendulum swings back and forth from a single pivot point at the top. In putting, your shoulders are that pivot. The entire stroke should be a gentle rocking motion of your shoulders, which moves your arms, hands, and the putter all together as one connected unit. There should be very little, if any, independent wrist or hand action.
Actionable Tip: The Underarm Duality Drill
To enforce a shoulder-driven stroke, practice putting with a headcover or a small towel tucked into each of your armpits. To keep them from falling out, you have to keep your upper arms connected to your chest. This forces your shoulders to be the engine of the stroke and instantly reveals if you are becoming "handsy."
The length of your stoke - not how hard you hit it - is what controls the speed. For a short putt, the backswing and follow-through are short and compact. For a long lag putt, they are much longer. But the tempo, or rhythm, should remain constant. Think "tic-toc." The time it takes to go back should be the same as the time it takes to swing through.
Consistent putting is built on the practice green. Here are a couple of classic drills that address the most important skills.
In the end, putting is a simple motion designed for a complex task. By focusing on the two true pillars - speed and line - and building your game on the foundation of a simple, shoulder-driven stroke, you can transform your performance on the greens. Consistent practice of a few targeted drills will build not just skill, but the confidence to stand over any putt knowing you have what it takes to roll it true.
As you work on your feel, sometimes you just need a second opinion on a particularly tricky or confusing putt. With the Caddie AI app, you can snap a photo of your ball's lie, even if it's just off the green on the fringe, and ask for a recommendation on how best to play it. By getting instant, smart advice on whether to putt, chip, or use a hybrid, you can remove the guesswork and commit to your shot with much more confidence.
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