Symptom
Putts bounce or skid instead of rolling
The 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.
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
Putts bounce then roll
Getting bad roll on putts
Topping my putts
Hitting putts thin
Chunking a putt
- Swing arc
- Lowest point
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
- Think of a putt that bounced. Which of these is closest to what happened?
- Take your putting address. Which is closest to your setup?
- Roll a putt of five or six paces and hold your finish. What does the stroke look like?
- Mark the putter face and roll five putts. Where do the marks sit?
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
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
Ball too far forward in the stance
The ball sits ahead of where the swing arc reaches its lowest point. With an iron off turf this means the club is already climbing at contact. It also encourages the shoulders to aim left at address, which pulls the path further left and adds curve to the miss.
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
Handle pressed too far forward at impact
Driving the grip end well ahead of the clubhead strips loft off the club and pushes the low point forward, presenting the leading edge to the ball. It is the opposite error to flipping and it is what turns a delicate chip into a skulled one.
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
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 from off the green come up short or hop offlinePutting 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.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 off-centre strike on the putter face
- 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
- 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 off-centre strike on the putter face
- 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 off-centre strike on the putter face
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.
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