Symptom
Three-putting too often
Too many greens take three putts or more, usually because the first putt leaves a second that is longer or harder than it should be.
Where the ball meets the face changes both how it launches and how it curves, so two shots that look alike from behind can come from different strikes. The questions work back from what the face and the flight show you.
Common ways golfers describe this
3 putting too much
3 putt every hole
Why do I three putt so much?
Three putting from 20 feet
Too many three putts
- Your strike
- Face centre
- Offset from centre
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 your last few three-putts. What happened to the first putt?
- Mark the putter face and roll ten long putts. Where do the marks sit?
- On a long putt, how does the follow-through compare with the backstroke?
- Set up to three putts in a row, walking away between each. Does the ball sit in the same place every time?
- Which first putts turn into three-putts most often?
- When the first putt leaves you a few feet, how do you play the next one?
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
- 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
- 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 off-centre strike on the putter face
- 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 off-centre strike on the putter face
- 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 off-centre strike on the putter face
- 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 break not matched to the pace
What this rests on
- 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
- 40+ TrackMan Parameters ExplainedTrackMan, accessed 2026
- 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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