Why you keep missing short putts

The uncomfortable maths of short putts

From three feet, the hole gives you very little margin. A putter face that is two degrees open at impact is enough to miss on the right edge. Nothing about your read, your ball or your luck matters at that range as much as two things: where the face points at impact, and whether you set up the same way every time. Fix those and short putts stop being an event.

Fault one: the face, not the path

On a short putt the ball starts almost exactly where the face points — the face accounts for the large majority of start direction, with the path a distant second. Most golfers who miss short putts are aiming reasonably well and then twisting the face a degree or two through impact, usually by adding hand action under pressure.

The test is simple. Build a gate: two tees, coins or ball markers placed just wider than a ball, about 30 centimetres ahead of your start line. Roll ten putts through it. If the ball clips the gate on the same side repeatedly, you have found your miss — and it lives in the face, not in your head. A printed line, like the centre line on an alignment putting mat, makes the drill honest because you can see the ball leave the line immediately rather than judging by where it finishes.

Fault two: a setup that changes daily

The second fault happens before the stroke starts. If your eye line, shoulder alignment or ball position drifts from day to day, your aim drifts with it — and then your hands make corrections you are not aware of. That is why a stroke can feel fine on Tuesday and broken on Saturday.

Checking this by feel is impossible, which is why a putting alignment mirror earns its place in a home setup: it shows your eye line and shoulder line against fixed reference marks in one glance. Thirty seconds of checking before each session builds a setup you can repeat without thinking — which is the entire point.

The ten-minute fix, three times a week

Keep it boring and keep score. Two minutes setting up with the mirror: eyes over the ball, shoulders matching the line. Then eight minutes of gated three-to-six-footers, counting clean starts out of ten. When you reach eight or more clean starts consistently, move the gate closer to the ball to tighten the tolerance.

Do not chase holed putts as your measure — on carpet or mat the surface decides some of those. Clean starts through the gate are the number that transfers to the course, because start line plus a repeatable setup is what a pressure putt actually requires.