Symptom
Putts from off the green come up short or hop offline
Putting from the fringe or the fairway, the ball bounces through the longer grass and dies well short, or you give it plenty to make up for that and it races past.
Fat, thin and topped shots are one problem seen from different sides: the lowest point of the swing arc is not where the ball is. Where it sits instead, and why, is what separates the causes below.
Common ways golfers describe this
Putting from the fringe
Putting from off the green
Putt from the fringe came up short
My fringe putts always come up short
How hard to putt through the fringe?
- Target line
- Your divot
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
- As the ball leaves the putter, what does it do?
- When one of these putts goes wrong, what actually happens?
- Compared with a putt from on the green, where do you play the ball?
- How much grass does the ball have to cross before it reaches the putting surface?
- Where on the putter face is the ball coming off?
- What is the grass between you and the green like?
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.
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
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
Ball too far back in the stance
The ball sits well before the low point, so the club is still descending steeply when it arrives and delivers less loft than the club actually carries. Flight is low and the ball meets the face while the path is still travelling right, which is why a back ball position so often adds a push or a hook.
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
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
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
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 bounce or skid instead of rollingThe ball hops or skids off the putter face before it starts to roll, so it bobbles off line in the first couple of feet and finishes shorter than the stroke deserved.Shares putting low point in the wrong place
- I can't putt on grainy greensOn Bermuda or other grainy greens, putts into the grain pull up short, putts down the grain run past, and the ball bends in ways the slope on its own does not explain.Shares putting low point in the wrong place
- 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 deceleration into impact
- Uphill putts come up short, downhill putts run awayFlat putts finish about the right length, but uphill putts die well short of the hole and downhill putts race past it or bend far more than you played for.Shares deceleration into 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 deceleration into 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 putting low point in the wrong place
What this rests on
- 40+ TrackMan Parameters ExplainedTrackMan, accessed 2026
- The Physics of GolfTheodore P. Jorgensen, University of Nebraska, 1999, second edition; Springer reprint 2013
- 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.
Loading the discussion