Seve Ballesteros' cut-putt trick for judging break and speed

Three-putts usually come down to speed, not line: hit a breaking putt too firm and it runs through the break, hit it too soft and it never reaches the high side. Five-time major champion Seve Ballesteros taught a way around that problem, described in a 1986 issue of GOLF Magazine, built around deliberately mishitting the ball off the toe of the putter.

What was the fault Ballesteros was fixing?

On sharp breaking putts, most club golfers make one of two mistakes. They either fear coming up short and hit the ball too hard, running it well past the hole, or they get too delicate and leave it low, well off the target line. Both require judging speed almost perfectly to work, which Ballesteros considered an unreliable ask under pressure.

What was Ballesteros' fix?

Ballesteros played his breaking putts on an out-to-in path, catching the ball on the toe of the putter rather than the center of the face. Because the toe is lighter than the putter's center, the strike is deadened, which let him swing more aggressively without blowing the putt past the hole. The cut also puts a touch of rightward spin on the ball.

Mishitting the putt on purpose took the pressure off hitting the perfect speed.

How did he aim it?

Ballesteros set up open to the target line and aimed his putter face at a point just inside the highest part of the break, rather than at the hole itself. On a right-to-left putt, that meant playing well outside the standard line, using the ball's speed and sidespin to carry it to the crest before letting it fall back down toward the cup. He used the same open setup and inside-the-break aim for left-to-right putts, letting the ball drift back to the hole rather than trying to die it in from the high side.

Why does it help with three-putts?

Because the technique is more forgiving of a slightly firm or soft strike, a putt that comes off a touch hot or slow still has a chance to find one of the side doors into the cup, instead of running well past or pulling up short. Ballesteros described it as a percentage play he leaned on especially on fast greens.

The Loop take

The appeal of Ballesteros' method is that it trades precision for margin: a slightly wrong speed still leaves a makable putt instead of a blown-past three-putt. It is worth a bucket of balls on the practice green before trying it on the course.