Lag putting: how to stop three-putting for good

Three-putts are not a stroke problem. They are a speed problem. A golfer who leaves every long putt within three feet will shoot better scores than one with a prettier stroke who runs the first one eight feet by, and speed is far easier to train than line.

Line matters less than you think from long range

From 40 feet, the hole is effectively four feet wide as far as your second putt is concerned. Miss the line by a foot and you still have a tap-in if the speed is right. Miss the speed by six feet and the line was irrelevant. Spend your practice time accordingly.

Train speed with a target you can hit

Put a tee three feet behind the hole and try to leave every long putt between the hole and the tee. That corridor, rather than the cup itself, is the target. It gives you something achievable to aim at and it stops the habit of dying every putt short, which removes any chance of the ball dropping.

A ball that finishes a foot past the hole took the best line available to it. A ball that stops short took none.

The ladder drill, ten minutes before you play

Drop balls at 20, 30, and 40 feet from the same hole and putt them in order, 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 on a long putt.

Do this on the practice green of the course you are about to play, because the speed of the greens today is the only speed your hands need to know.

Read the slope with your feet

Walk from the ball to the hole along the line of the putt. Your feet will tell you whether the putt is uphill or downhill long before your eyes do, and uphill or downhill changes the pace far more than any borrow you can see. On a green with real slope, the same 30-footer can need double the stroke length one way and half of it back.

Stop looking at the ball on long putts

Try five putts from 40 feet looking at the hole instead of the ball. Almost everyone gets closer. The stroke is a distance-judging task, and the brain judges distance better when it can see the target, the same way you would throw a ball underhand.

You do not need to putt this way on the course. You need the feedback it gives you about how much your hands have been trying to steer.

Green speed changes everything, and it changes daily

Morning greens with dew on them are slower than the same greens at two in the afternoon. Greens in the first week after hollow-tining are slower again. If you have not putted on the practice green, your first three long putts are guesses, and guesses on a golf course cost strokes.

Three things to try in your next round

• Count your three-putts. That number, not your putts per round, tells you whether speed is your problem.
• Aim to finish every putt over 25 feet past the hole rather than short of it.
• Spend ten minutes on the practice green before every round, all of it on putts over 20 feet.

Nobody holes long putts on purpose. Getting them close on purpose is a skill, and it is the cheapest three shots a round available to most golfers.