Guide
Common Putting Mistakes and How to Fix Them
Most putting advice tells you to practice more without saying what to actually check. Here are the five mistakes that show up most often, and how to tell which ones are yours.
Why putting mistakes are hard to self-diagnose
Putting looks simple, which makes it tempting to assume a bad putting round is just bad luck rather than a specific, fixable pattern. But most persistent putting problems trace back to one of a small number of common mistakes — and because a putting stroke is short and quiet, it's genuinely harder to feel these mistakes happening than it is with a full swing. Here are the five that show up most often, with a way to check each one rather than just guessing.
Mistake 1: Misaligned at address
You can have a technically good stroke and still miss consistently if you're aimed slightly left or right before you ever start the putter back — and misalignment is notoriously hard to feel, because from inside your own setup, aimed-wrong often feels exactly like square.
How to check: Lay an alignment stick along your target line and a second one across your toes or shoulders to see if they're actually parallel. Most golfers who check this for the first time are surprised by what they find.
The fix: The Putting Alignment Drill is built specifically around this check and a practical way to carry it onto the course.
Mistake 2: Inconsistent start line
Even with good alignment, the putter face or path at impact can send the ball off your intended line — this is a different problem from alignment, and it's worth ruling out alignment first (Mistake 1) before assuming this is your issue, since a shaky start line can come from either cause.
How to check: Putt a few balls through a "gate" — two tees spaced just wider than your putter head — a few feet in front of the ball. Consistently clipping one side of the gate tells you which direction your face or path tends to miss.
The fix: The Gate Drill isolates this specifically and gives you a way to narrow the tolerance as you improve.
Mistake 3: Guessing distance instead of controlling it
Three-putts are rarely about missing the line badly — they're usually about misjudging how hard to hit the ball. Golfers who control distance by "feel" or effort find that feel is inconsistent under pressure, especially on putts they don't see often (very long or very short ones).
How to check: Putt to targets at several different distances and track how many finish within a couple of feet, not just whether they went in. A wide miss pattern on distance, even with good start lines, points here.
The fix: The Putting Drill for Distance Control trains distance using stroke length instead of effort, which is far more repeatable.
Mistake 4: Peeking before the strike
Looking up to watch the ball's result before the putter has actually finished the stroke is one of the most common — and least self-noticed — putting mistakes. It often causes the putter head to move off-line in the final moment of the stroke, since your body naturally follows where your eyes go.
How to check: On a few practice putts, keep your eyes on the spot where the ball was after you've hit it — don't look up until you hear the ball drop or stop. If that feels noticeably different from how you normally putt, peeking early is likely part of your pattern.
The fix: There's no dedicated drill for this on the site yet — the check above, repeated deliberately over a few sessions, is usually enough to retrain it. It's a habit more than a technique, and habits change with repetition, not a single insight.
Mistake 5: Decelerating through the stroke
A putting stroke that slows down right before impact — often from steering the putt too carefully on a shot that feels important — tends to produce inconsistent contact and distance, even when the setup and alignment are otherwise fine.
How to check: Compare the length of your backstroke to your through-stroke on a few putts. A through-stroke that's noticeably shorter than the backstroke is a strong sign of deceleration.
The fix: This shows up across every putting drill on this site, not just one — when running the Gate Drill or the Distance Control Drill, deliberately check that your through-stroke matches or slightly exceeds your backstroke length on every rep, not just the ones that feel important.
FAQ
Which mistake should I check first? Start with alignment (Mistake 1) — it's the easiest to check objectively with a stick on the ground, and a bad start line caused by misalignment can look identical to a bad start line caused by stroke path, wasting time if you fix the wrong one first.
Can I have more than one of these at once? Yes, and it's common — misalignment and deceleration in particular often show up together. Check them one at a time rather than trying to fix everything in a single session; the 4-Week Putting Improvement Plan is built around exactly this kind of sequenced approach.
I checked all five and my putting still isn't improving. What now? That's a reasonable point to get a second opinion from a coach — self-diagnosis with the checks above catches most common issues, but not everything shows up clearly without someone else watching. It's also worth confirming you're actually practicing consistently before concluding the diagnosis was wrong; see our guide to structuring golf practice if that's in question.
Want the next guide as soon as it's published? The newsletter covers exactly that.