The Putting Myth Costing Golfers Strokes on the Green

James Jankowski, a putting instructor who says he has worked with more than 3,000 golfers, argues that a widespread misunderstanding of how the putter moves is quietly costing amateurs strokes on the green.

What is the fault?

At address, the putter shaft sits on an inclined plane, so the club naturally swings on an arc and the face gradually opens through the backstroke. Jankowski says many golfers fight that motion, either trying to keep the face square to the target or simply not letting it open enough. Relative to the putter's natural arc, that leaves the face effectively closed, or shut, at the top of the stroke.

Why does it cause missed putts?

A face that stays shut on the backstroke has to be actively rotated back to square before impact, introducing a timing element to what should be a simple motion. Get that timing wrong in one direction and the putt gets pulled; overcorrect and it gets pushed. Jankowski traces many pulled putts to a short or slow backstroke that forces a player to generate speed too late, making the timing harder to repeat. Some golfers compensate by tilting or rotating through impact, or by stalling the handle and flipping the putter head at the ball, all of which add inconsistency rather than removing it.

What is the fix?

Jankowski's advice is to let the putter face open naturally on the backstroke instead of manipulating it square, trusting the arc rather than fighting it. He also addresses a related myth: golfers are often told to hit up on the ball to create topspin, but he says that is not why an upward strike helps. At address, the ball's equator sits roughly 6 to 8 millimeters above the putter's sweet spot, so a slight upward angle of attack simply returns the center of the face to that equator. A conventional putting grip's natural shoulder tilt at address already encourages that upward strike without any conscious effort.

Golfers who consciously try to manufacture topspin, Jankowski says, tend to manipulate the stroke and introduce the same timing problems that cause pulls and pushes in the first place. The fix, in both cases, is the same: let the putter's built-in mechanics do the work instead of steering it.