Symptom
Missing short putts
Putts from three to six feet, the ones you expect to hole without a second thought, keep sliding past the edge or lipping out.
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
Why do I miss so many short putts?
Keep missing 5 foot putts
Short putt misses
I miss every putt inside 5 feet
Can't make anything inside 6 feet?
- 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
- When a short putt misses, what does the ball do?
- Set up to a straight four-footer and aim at the middle of the hole. Where is the putter face actually pointing?
- Mark the putter face and roll ten four-footers. Where do the marks sit?
- When a short putt misses, where does the ball finish?
- On a short putt, how does the follow-through compare with the backstroke?
- Set up to a short putt three times, walking away in between, and each time drop a ball from the bridge of your nose. Where does it land?
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
Putter aimed off at address
The face is aimed somewhere other than the intended line before the stroke starts, usually because the eyes sit inside or outside the ball and distort how the line looks from above. A stroke that returns the face perfectly still misses.
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
Break not matched to the pace
Slope acts on a ball for as long as it keeps rolling, so the same putt takes more break when it is rolled softly and less when it is firm. Reading a line without deciding a pace, or hitting a different pace than the read assumed, misses on either side.
Read the fix
No repeatable setup or routine
Aim, ball position, stance width and grip get rebuilt slightly differently on every shot, so face angle, low point and strike location all vary with them. Address is the reference the whole swing is measured from, and a reference that moves explains misses that seem to have no pattern.
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.
- 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
- My head moves or I look up too early on puttsYour 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.Shares putter face open or closed at impact
- Misreading the breakPutts you struck the way you meant take more or less break than you allowed for, and miss, often below the hole on the low side.Shares putter aimed off at address
- 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
- I've lost my putting strokePutting that used to be the best part of your game has fallen apart over a few weeks or rounds, and nothing you have tried has brought it back.Shares putter aimed off at address
- 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
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
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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