2 common left-right putting mistakes — and how to troubleshoot both

Putting. Maybe you’re really good at it, but if you’ve found your way onto this blog post, you’re probably one of the countless golfers out there trying to get a little better at the elusive skill.

As we’ve written about before, one of the single most important ingredients to making putts is ensuring that your ball is starting on the line you’re intending it to. That won’t solve all your problems, of course. You still need to read the greens correctly, after all. But if you can at least start your ball where you’re trying to, you’ll stand a better chance overall.

And to help with that, GOLFTEC’s GOLF Top 100 Teacher Nick Clearwater paired with his fellow GOLF Top 100 Teacher Kevin Weeks to break down some of the common issues that pop up when golfers start missing left, or right. Let’s break them down.

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Missing putts right

Though there are plenty of reasons why a right-handed golfer may miss to the right — or push putts, one of the most common is golfers aiming too far to the right. Part of this is because our eyes, which are built to look at things straight ahead of us, are turned and tilted when we get into posture. One way to combat this, Clearwater says, is to stand slightly closer to the golf ball, and shift your weight more towards your lead foot.

Missing putts left

As for missing on the opposing side, this could be because your weight is too stacked onto your front side, which is causing you to pull the putterhead across the ball. A good checkpoint here, Weeks says, is to set up ensuring that your trail elbow is lower than your lead. That’ll give your shoulders some tilt, and move your putter path more in-to-out.

Luke Kerr-Dineen

Golf.com Contributor

Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Game Improvement Editor at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role he oversees the brand’s game improvement content spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness, across all of GOLF’s multimedia platforms.

An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to pursue his Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University. His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.