Symptom
My head moves or I look up too early on putts
Your head turns or lifts to follow the ball before the stroke is finished, and your shoulders and the putter go with it, which costs both the start line and the strike.
Where a shot starts is governed almost entirely by where the clubface is pointing when it meets the ball. That is the relationship this symptom sits on, so the questions work back from the start line rather than from anything about your swing.
Common ways golfers describe this
Keep head still putting
I look up before I hit the putt
Lifting my head on short putts
I lift my head on putts
My body moves when I putt
- Target line
- Start line
- Your flight
Narrow it to one cause
Each question is here because golfers answer it differently, and that difference is what rules a cause out. Nothing is generated while you answer: every question, cause and fix was written and checked in advance.
A few questions · no account needed
What you will be asked
- On a putt where you caught yourself looking up early, what did the ball do?
- Put a coin on the green just behind where the ball sat. Roll five putts and keep your eyes on the coin until you hear the ball stop. What happens?
- Prop your phone at about knee height a couple of paces in front of you, facing you, and film five putts. What moves before the ball has gone?
- Mark the putter face and roll ten putts of four paces. Where do the marks sit?
- Take your putting address, hold a ball against the bridge of your nose and let it drop. Where does it land?
- When does the head move most?
Where this can come from
These are the causes this symptom resolves to, in the order they turn up most often. That order is not a diagnosis and it is not your answer: two of them can produce a shot that looks identical from behind. Each has a fix you can read now, whether or not you answer anything.
Putter face open or closed at impact
Start direction on a putt is set almost entirely by where the face points when it meets the ball. The shorter the putt, the less room there is for anything to hide a small face error, which is why short putts miss for reasons that feel invisible.
Read the fix
Off-centre strike on the putter face
Contact away from the centre transfers less energy, so strokes that felt identical finish different distances. It also twists the face slightly at impact, which moves the start line as well as the pace.
Read the fix
Deceleration into impact
The club slows down before it reaches the ball, almost always after a backswing longer than the shot required. Speed disappears at the only moment it matters, and the bottom of the arc becomes unpredictable, which is why decelerating produces both the chunk and the blade.
Read the fix
Putting low point in the wrong place
The stroke bottoms out behind the ball and drives it down into the turf, or catches it above centre on the way up. Either way the ball hops and skids before it begins rolling, which costs distance and sends it offline on the bounce.
Read the fix
Swaying off the ball
The body slides away from the target in the backswing instead of turning around a stable centre, carrying the middle of the arc with it. Unless exactly that much slide comes back at exactly the right moment, the low point arrives in the wrong place.
Read the fix
Related symptoms
These are not here because they sound similar. Each one can come from a cause on the list above, which is why fixing one sometimes quietly fixes another. The closest matches are first.
- Missing short puttsPutts from three to six feet, the ones you expect to hole without a second thought, keep sliding past the edge or lipping out.Shares putter face open or closed at impact
- My wrists break down in the putting strokeYour hands and wrists hinge or flick during the stroke rather than moving with your arms and shoulders, so the start line and the roll change from putt to putt.Shares putter face open or closed at impact
- The putting yipsA sudden jerk, flinch or freeze takes over the stroke, mostly on short putts, and the ball leaves the face on a line or at a pace you never chose.Shares putter face open or closed at impact
- Putts don't start on the line I pickedThe ball leaves the putter left or right of the line you chose, so a putt you read correctly still misses.Shares putter face open or closed at impact
- Three-putting too oftenToo many greens take three putts or more, usually because the first putt leaves a second that is longer or harder than it should be.Shares off-centre strike on the putter face
- No distance control on the greensLong putts finish well short or well past the hole, so the first putt seldom leaves you a tap-in.Shares off-centre strike on the putter face
What this rests on
- 40+ TrackMan Parameters ExplainedTrackMan, accessed 2026
- The Influence of Face Angle and Club Path on the Resultant Launch Angle of a Golf BallPaul Wood, Erik Henrikson, Chris Broadie, 2018
- Search for the Perfect Swing: The Proven Scientific Approach to Fundamentally Improving Your GameAlastair Cochran and John Stobbs, for the Golf Society of Great Britain, 2005 reissue, originally 1968
- The Physics of GolfTheodore P. Jorgensen, University of Nebraska, 1999, second edition; Springer reprint 2013
- Experimental study of the gear effect in ball collisionsRod Cross, University of Sydney, and Alan M. Nathan, University of Illinois, 2007
If something here contradicts what a launch monitor tells you, say so. Corrections change the page.
Discussion
Golfers who have had this shot, on what it turned out to be and what sorted it. Read it as experience rather than diagnosis: the questions above are what narrow it to a cause.
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