Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
There’s nothing more disheartening on the course than striking a lag putt that’s tracking right toward the hole only to watch it stop a revolution short. To make matters worse, you’re sure to hear some chirping from your playing partners about it.
“Never leave a birdie putt short!”
It’s a situation we’re all familiar with, and we vow to never leave a birdie putt short again. After all, a putt that comes up short never has a chance to go in the hole, right?
Well, technically that’s true. But according to data, hitting every putt past the hole will do more harm than good in the long run. Stats guru and DECADE Golf founder Scott Fawcett explains why in the video below.
Should you always hit putts past the hole?
Hitting putts with enough conviction to always roll the ball a couple feet past the hole is advice that has been passed down for years. In fact, lots of people insist this is the “perfect speed” to hit every putt.
However, advanced analytics are challenging that narrative.
According to research done by Fawcett (and others), the best putters on the PGA Tour get 75 percent of their lag putts (outside 30 feet) within 10 percent of the length of their first putt. So, if they have a 30-foot putt, they will leave the ball within three feet of the hole. That means there is a large circle around the hole with a three-foot radius, and any lag putt that is within that circle is considered a success.
“That’s three feet long, three feet short, three feet left, and three feet right,” Fawcett says. “Just get it in that circle. It’s a huge circle once you understand that you can leave putts short. You have a huge margin for error.”
Once you start aiming to hit every putt past the hole, you are shrinking that circle where you should leave your putts. And when you do that, you are going to need more putts to hole out in the long run than someone who instead uses the entirety of that imaginary circle.
“‘Never up, never in’ is by far the worst advice in golf,” Fawcett says.
Next time you face a lag putt on the course, don’t obsess over getting that ball to the hole. Instead, focus on leaving the putt within that imaginary circle around the cup. Over time, you’ll find that you cut down on your three-putts and save strokes on the greens.
