Lag putting: how to stop three-putting

Three-putts are a pace problem rather than a stroke problem. On the large, exposed greens common on British courses, the golfer who leaves every long putt inside a yard will beat the one with the prettier action who runs it eight feet past.

From distance, line matters less than you think

From forty feet the hole is effectively four feet wide as far as your second putt is concerned. Miss the line by a foot and you have a tap-in. Miss the pace by six feet and the line was irrelevant. Divide your practice time accordingly.

Aim at a corridor, not at the cup

Push a tee three feet behind the hole and try to leave every long putt between the hole and the tee. That corridor is achievable, and it ends the habit of dying every putt short, which removes any chance of one dropping.

The ladder, ten minutes before you tee off

Drop balls at twenty, thirty and forty feet from the same hole, putt them in order and then reverse. You are not trying to hole anything. You are calibrating how far back the putter goes for a given distance, which is the only variable that matters from long range.

Do it on the practice green of the course you are about to play. On a windy day, greens run faster in the afternoon than they did at nine in the morning, and last week’s pace tells you nothing.

Read the slope with your feet

Walk from ball to hole along the line. Your feet register uphill and downhill long before your eyes do, and that changes the pace far more than any borrow you can see. On the tiered greens of an inland parkland course, the same thirty-footer can want double the stroke one way and half of it back.

Look at the hole, not the ball

Try five putts from forty feet while looking at the hole. Almost everybody finishes closer. Judging distance is what the long putt asks of you, and the brain judges better when it can see the target, exactly as when rolling a ball underarm.

Winter greens change the maths entirely

From November many clubs move to temporary greens or run the main surfaces slow and wet. A stroke calibrated in August leaves everything short. Ten minutes on the practice surface before the round is worth more in winter than at any other time of year.

Three things for your next round

• Count your three-putts rather than your total putts.
• Try to finish every putt over twenty-five feet past the hole rather than short.
• Ten minutes on the practice green before every round, all of it from long range.

Nobody holes long putts on purpose. Leaving them close on purpose is a skill, and it is the cheapest three shots a round most golfers will ever find.