Within 30 seconds of watching someone putt, I can tell whether they’ve had good instruction. Not from their stroke or putter but from the fundamentals they either have or don’t have. What happens before they even make a stroke.
Tour players obsess over these fundamentals on every putt. Most amateurs skip them or don’t know they exist. Then they wonder why their putting stays inconsistent.
Reading the green properly
Many amateurs don’t actually read greens. They guess. Walk up, glance at the hole, hit it.
Tour players have a process. They start reading as they walk up, looking at the overall slope and how water would run off it. They look from behind the ball and behind the hole, paying careful attention to the area around the cup where the ball moves slowest and breaks most.
What they’re looking for: overall slope, subtle breaks, surface speed and grain. They gather information instead of guessing.
The biggest amateur mistake is only looking from behind the ball. You need at least two angles. Walk around to the low side and look back. Breaks that were invisible suddenly appear.
Picking a specific target
Once you’ve read the putt, pick a specific target. Not “somewhere right of the hole” but an exact spot: a discolored blade of grass, a ball mark, an old hole plug.
Tour players always putt to a spot, never a general area. Aiming at “about six inches right” leaves your brain confused. Aiming at a specific mark gives clear instructions.
Pick your spot, then commit. Trust your read and execute.
The pre-shot routine that matters
Every tour player has a pre-shot routine that is almost identical every time. The same number of practice strokes. They set the putter behind the ball the same way and take the same amount of time.
This consistency quiets your mind. Your brain recognizes the pattern and knows what comes next. Anxiety drops. Execution improves.
Your routine doesn’t need complexity. One look at the target, one practice stroke, set up, one more look, stroke it. But do it the same way every single time. Birdie putt or bogey putt, the routine stays identical.
Ball position and eye position
The ball should sit slightly forward of center, roughly under your left eye if you’re right-handed. This ensures you hit the ball slightly on the upswing, resulting in a smooth roll.
Too far back? You hit down and it bounces, killing distance control. Too far forward? You can’t control the strike.
Most good putters have their eyes somewhere over the ball or slightly inside it. While there’s variation among tour players, finding a consistent eye position that works for you matters more than hitting one exact spot. If your eyes are too far outside the line, you may struggle with alignment.
Check this by holding a ball at your lead eye and dropping it. It should land on or very close to the ball you’re putting.
Pace control over line
Pace control separates good putters from bad. Most amateurs obsess over line and ignore pace. But pace matters more, especially on longer putts.
A putt on the perfect line with the wrong pace will miss. A putt slightly off line with perfect pace will often drop or finish close. The hole is bigger when the ball moves at the right speed. Too fast; it needs to be dead center. With the Right speed, it can catch any part of the hole.
Tour players practice pace constantly, hitting putts from different distances, trying to finish them in a three-foot circle, not trying to make them, trying to control pace. Master pace control and making putts becomes much easier.
The follow-through nobody talks about
Your backswing should be longer than your follow-through. Tour players all share this fundamental, but amateurs often reverse it: a short backswing and a long follow-through cause inconsistent contact and poor distance control.
The best putters maintain consistent putter speed rather than accelerating through impact. The putter naturally slows after contact with the ball. This creates a better feel and a more predictable roll.
A good ratio is about 60/40. Six-inch backswing, four-inch follow-through. This ratio stays roughly the same whether you’re hitting a three-footer or a thirty-footer. Longer putts need a longer stroke overall, but the proportion stays consistent.
Keeping your head still
Your head needs to stay still during the stroke and after the ball leaves the face of the putter. Looking up early is the number one killer of good putting strokes.
Look up early and your shoulders open: your path changes, and you pull the putt. Tour players keep their head down until they hear the ball drop or until it’s well past where the ball was.
Practice by listening for the ball instead of watching it. Stroke a putt and keep your eyes on the ground where the ball was. Listen for it to hit the cup. This drill alone will significantly improve your putting.
The mental side of fundamentals
These fundamentals are physical but, in reality, they’re really mental. They create consistency so your brain can focus on the task rather than worry about mechanics.
Tour players putt well under pressure because their fundamentals are so solid that they don’t think about them. The stroke just happens. Amateurs struggle because they lack that foundation, thinking about ten different things while trying to make a crucial putt.
Build your fundamentals in practice so you can forget about them on the course. That’s what tour players know and amateurs miss.
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