Wait, that doesn’t sound right. Even if you’re a casual golf fan, you’re likely aware of Scottie Scheffler’s struggles on the greens this year and wondering if we have a typo in the headline. During a season in which he leads the PGA Tour in numerous ball-striking categories, the World No. 1 has been dreadful with the putter, ranking outside the top 145 in strokes gained/putting.

With two wins and 13 top-five finishes, Scheffler has had a fantastic season, but it’s hard not to consider how historic his season would have been with just average putting stats (we recently crunched the numbers, and you can find that here). But even with Scheffler’s troubles on the greens (he ranks outside the top 150 in numerous other putting categories), there is one statistic he leads: approach putt performance.

Normally a helpful stat to judge distance control on the greens, approach putt performance measures how close a player leaves his first putt from the hole on average. This season, no one is better than Scheffler and Ryan Armour, who both average 1ft 11ins for their second putts. As you’d imagine, there is correlation between leaving your first putt close to the hole and avoiding three-putts. It’s little surprise then, that Scheffler is ranked 11th in three-putt avoidance.

How can Scheffler have some of the best speed control on tour and be avoiding three-putts but still be near the bottom in numerous major putting categories? What this disparity does and doesn’t reveal is insight for all of us into how we should examine our own games.

What it does reveal

Scheffler leading the tour in approach putt performance says more about his excellent ball-striking than his touch on the greens. This statistic, like many others, cannot be viewed in a vacuum. Scheffler leaves his first putts closer to the hole than any player, but of course not everyone is hitting their first putts from the same distance from the hole.

In addition to leading in strokes gained/approach and greens in regulation, Scheffler is among the best on tour in proximity to the hole. From the fairway, he ranks a solid 21st in proximity, and from the rough he is 13th on tour. Within 30 yards of the green, only three players average closer to the hole. Taken together, Scheffler is hitting his first putts from significantly closer to the hole than most players.

Scottie Scheffler. Jared C Tilton

What it doesn’t reveal

Unfortunately for Scheffler, his high ranks in approach putt performance and three-putt avoidance don’t say much about his overall putting. His make percentages from 20-25ft (150th), 10-15ft (166th), and 4-8ft (169th) are near the bottom of the tour. Yes, he is leaving his second putts close to the hole, but 1) he is hitting his first putts from closer on average and 2) he is holing far less short- and mid-range putts than most players.

The takeaway

The takeaway for the rest of our games is to be careful in placing too much emphasis on certain stats without thinking about what other factors could be influencing the numbers. A couple good examples are total putts per round and scrambling percentage. As much as it may seem diligent to track these stats at the bottom of your scorecard, they reveal very little on their own.

Let’s say two players have 30 putts in a round — a seemingly decent number. Suppose one player struck it very well and hit 16 of 18 greens, leaving an average first putt of 35 feet. The other player hit just four greens, but on the 14 times they were chipping from around the green, they left themselves with an average putt of 15 feet. Both players had 30 putts, but the player who hit 16 greens had a much better putting day considering their proximity was much farther. If you’re going to track your total putts per round, be sure to consider your greens in regulation and how close you were putting from.

There’s a similar idea with measuring how many times you get up-and-down in a round. A high scrambling percentage on a given day suggests you were chipping and putting well. But which one was it? Sure, you could have done both well, but if you were chipping it to three feet all day, that says far less about your putting than it does your touch around the greens. Or maybe you were knocking in 20-foot par-savers all day. You were getting up-and-down, but you weren’t necessarily chipping well.

Remember, many statistics cannot be viewed in a vacuum. Tracking them is key to understanding your game so you know where you need to improve, but be sure to consider what other factors could be affecting a given stat.

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Short putting is where pros make their money, and the rest of us shave strokes off our handicaps.

There truly are few areas of golf more important that your putting performance between five and 10 feet. Hit a couple of iron shots six feet closer during your round and there’s a good chance your scores won’t show it. Start holing a couple of extra six footers during your round, and the payoff will be instant.

Simply put, there’s a direct correlation between how good you are from inside 10 feet, and how low your handicap is. The more the better.

But knowing they’re important is important. How do you actually get better at it?

That’s what I asked Denny McCarthy, on the ground at the FedEx St Jude Championship this week. McCarthy currently ranks 27th in the FedEx Cup standings. Long regarded as one of the best putters on tour, he currently ranks third in SG: Putting this season, and leads the tour in putting inside of 10 feet.

Good short-range putting, McCarthy says, ultimately comes down to good speed control. Whereas on longer putts you can get away with less-than-perfect green reading if your speed control is good, on shorter putts, your goal is to match the right line with the right speed. You need both to make those shorter ones consistency.

Here’s his advice to help you find both.

1. Don’t lock into one speed

What’s the perfect speed to hit your putts? Some players will tell you they prefer to die their ball slowly into the hole. Others prefer to roll it in firmly, with pace. To each their own. But McCarthy says for him, the best speed depends on the putt itself.
“I don’t have a formula,” he says. “I used to struggle with speed as a junior. But as a professional, I learned to hone and trust my instructs. I stuck to my own process. The more I did that, the better my putting got.”

Denny McCarthy. Andy Lyons

Part of that process, he says, was learning to work backwards from the putt itself. What’s the ideal way of hitting the specific putt in front of him?
“If I have a downhill putt or am putting on slippery greens, I’m not going to risk running it seven feet past because I want to make it,” he says. “I never go into a putt thinking about how hard I want to hit the putt. I’m letting the slopes dictate the speed to me.”
Sometimes he’ll opt for a firm roll. Other times, a softer roll. It all comes down to the slopes, which hold the key to speed.

2. Let slopes dictate speed

Letting the slopes dictate the speed is, ultimately, the key tenet of McCarthy’s process when it comes to speed control. McCarthy says that once he sizes up the break, he’ll pick a spot to aim for. Then, he’ll set up to his ball aiming at that spot, and ask himself: Does this feel comfortable?
That’s when he starts mentally moving that aiming spot around.

Denny McCarthy. Stacy Revere

“If I pick a spot, and it feels low, I know that means I’d have to hit that with too much pace in order for it to go in. If it pick a spot way up on a slope, I’ll know I have to hit that pretty soft in order for that to go in,” he says. “I’m basically looking for a spot that feels just right.”
It’s the spot that dictates the pace, he says. And it could be different each day. Some days he may prefer the lower routes. On certain putts, he may opt for higher spots. It’s all about comfort and confidence. And once he’s found his most comfortable one for that spot, he’s found the speed. There’s only one thing left to do…

3. Never think about the consequences of a missed putt

At some point, you’ve done all your thinking and planning. It’s time to commit. For that, McCarthy has a simple approach.
“Never think about the consequences of leaving it short or rolling it past,” he says. “When I’m over the putt, I’m just solely focused on the putt itself. I trust in what I’m doing, and that gives me the belief that I’ll hole the putt.”

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Putting, ultimately, is an art. Science is woven within it, of course. But more than any other aspect of the game, putting relies on touch and feel. Judging the effect of the slopes. Sending the ball rolling up, down and along those slopes with just the right amount of touch required. It’s an art form, and an often perplexing one.

On the greens, a golfer’s feel stitches the science together. It breeds confidence. It is the key ingredient which, ultimately, helps you make putts.

But how do you improve your feel?

Answer that question and you have, in many ways, answered the essential question in and putting. For help with that, we’re looking back at an article from one of the best putters of all time, Brad Faxon.

Faxon wrote the article in 1999 alongside his mental coach Dr Bob Rotella. In it, Faxon explained his feel-first putting method — and a few games he plays to help him do it.

“One of the keys to my success is my ability to throw away doubt and fear. I become looser and more confident as the round goes on,” he says. “Look at your target and let go. The following games will help you putt free of pressure and make your shortest stroke the easiest.”

Game #1: ‘Look and shoot’

Find two holes about 10 to 15 feet apart, one for your and one for your buddy. One ball each, no practice strokes. It’s a race: Your goal is to make five putts before your playing partner.

“I like this game because it gets you to react to the target,” Faxon writes.

Brad Faxon. Hunter Martin

Game #2: ‘Many-club’

Play a nine-hole course around your local putting green, putting with four different clubs: Your driver, your 5-iron, a wedge and your putter. Swap them out at random, and routinely.

“Many players are too wrapped up in the mechanics,” Faxon writes. “This game illustrates that not everything has to be perfect.”

Game #3: ‘9-ball’

Drop nine golf balls about eight feet away from a hole. Hit one putt as your normally would, then hit the next putt with even less effort. Try with even less effort on the next one, and the one after that until you’re out of golf balls.

“This game will help you get more relaxed, more trusting and freer after every putt,” Faxon writes.

Game #4: ‘Instincts’

Drop three golf balls somewhere between three and six feet. Hit the same putt three different times, at three different speeds: Hard, soft, and medium.

“You have to trust your instincts,” Faxon writes. “It proves you can pick any line you want as long as you have a speed in mind.”

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During the first-round action, while warming up for his opening match, cameras panned over to Matsuyama and watched in awe as he completed an elaborate putting drill.

So, what’s the point of this torture device? It’s effectively a combination of lots of different drills that coaches use for various things…

Hideki’s drill, explained

The black training aid you see on the ground, with the silver marbles at the end, is called a Dave Pelz Putting Tutor. It’s one of the most famous putting training aids ever invented. In order to roll the ball between the marbles the putter face needs to be square at impact. If it’s not, then you won’t be able to.

The two tees between the putter head form a classic gate putting drill. If you swing your putter between them, you’ll hit the ball on the sweet spot.

The tee behind the ball is slightly unusual, but it’s probably there to prevent Matsuyama’s putter from staying too low to the ground on the backswing. It may be that Matsuyama is hitting too far up on his putts and clipping the top of the ball. The tee behind the ball could be preventing that from happening.

As for the coin on the putter head, putting coaches will often do this to smooth out the tempo and transition of a player’s stroke.

If the coin stays on the putter head as you stroke the putt, it isn’t getting jerked around. Matsuyama puts the coin on the toe of the putter (again, slightly unusual), which both makes the drill more difficult and slows down the movement of the toe of the putter. If Hideki twists the toe shut or open, the coin is more likely to fall off.

In some roundabout way, this gives Matsuyama both the feedback he needs, and the challenge to keep him focused. Both of those things are the hallmark of smart, good practice — even if it looks a little strange along the way.

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Whereas from tee-to-green I know the general things I’m working on, and my equipment changes are less frequent — I’m hardly swapping out new iron sets each week — I’m more of a freewheeler on the greens. When things go wrong on the greens, I’m quick to try a new putter. And rather than work on the same thing with any consistency, I’m more on a constant search for Band-Aids.

But I’m working on changing that, and one of the ways is by following the lead of PGA Tour players and using a putting station. A set of basic drills I can do every day or so in shorter, 10-minute long practice sessions that will get my putting stroke in good shape — and keep it there.

One of the most enjoyable ways I’ve been doing this is using a Visio practice mat, a training aid developed by renowned putting coach Phil Kenyon and used by countless PGA Tour players.

There are different templates based on your stroke type, but the way it works is simple: You place your ball on the mad, and you use the lines (which represent face angle) as a reference point to hit your putt, as Kenyon explains.

“A lot of amateur golfers struggle with their start line,” Kenyon says. “Start line is 90 per cent face angle. Using the template helps you appreciate how the face works during the stroke. It also helps you train it. It helps you build a feel. Golfers play with feels.”

One of the popular ways Kenyon says he uses the template with his players is to stand over the putter head and film directly down. It’ll allow you to see if your putter face is more open or closed than it should be.

I’ve been pairing this template with some PuttDots, which force me to hit the sweet spot, and a putting mirror to make sure my eyes are over the ball, but what you choose to use is all a matter of preference. What matters most is that you find something that works for you, and that you can actually do consistent.

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Where it becomes an issue is when you’re suddenly in a position where you have to putt everything out.

Maybe it’s a club championship or a qualifier, but all of a sudden those unmissable short putts you haven’t attempted all season start to become missable. The scariest part: once you see one miss, there’s a tendency to start missing more of them. To help you avoid this disastrous fate, we talked to one of our Best Young Teachers, Tasha Browner of El Caballero Country Club in Tarzania, Calif.

“When finishing out those crucial putts, we want to address a common problem that begins as a mental mistake and leads to a physical one,” says Browner. “When we have those short putts, the desire to make the putt outweighs the process of making a good stroke. Golfers tend to stop rocking their shoulders, and they steer the ball in the hole with just hands. This directly leads to problems with clubface direction and speed.”

To remedy these issues, Browner has three drills and tips that will help.

1. The Push Drill
This drill is exactly what it sounds like. Set up to the ball with your putter, and your thought should be to just push the ball toward the hole. Don’t take any backswing. “This drill forces the golfer to move their body as a unit to finish the stroke and not just with your hands,” says Browner.

2. Tip: Use Visual Aids
Set up in front of a mirror (you can do this in your house). Or set up on the putting green in a spot where you can see your shadow, and start making strokes. Browner says to focus on making sure they’re complete strokes. “Watch how your shoulders and arms move together into the finish,” says Browner. “Sense what body parts are engaged, and tap into that when you play. This rehearsal can help eradicate that handsy stroke.”

3. Tip: Practice Pressure
Aimlessly putting around the practice green isn’t going to help you when you’re in a match, grinding over a four-footer for bogey to halve the hole. Instead, Browner says to simulate pressure-filled scenarios when you practice. “For example, don’t let yourself leave the green until you’ve made five consecutive four-footers in a row,” says Browner. “Any form of pressure that you can add will help you feel more at ease in those situations on the course.”

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