Tour Coach Stephen Sweeney's Drill Diagnoses Missed Putts

Stephen Sweeney, a GOLF Top 100 Teacher who coaches PGA Tour players Ludvig Aberg and Collin Morikawa, has his students run a simple drill on the practice green that pinpoints exactly why a putt missed, rather than leaving them to guess.

Why golfers misdiagnose missed putts

Sweeney starts by asking a basic question: when a putt misses, do you actually know why? Most recreational golfers don't, he says, and they tend to blame the wrong part of the stroke. Four variables decide whether a putt drops: the read, the speed, the face angle at the start line, and the strike location. If any one of them is off, the putt misses, but without a way to isolate which one, golfers end up guessing.

How the four-gate drill works

Set up by pushing a tee into the green to mark the ball's starting spot, then read the putt as usual. Place four ball markers or tees to form two gates, each roughly the width of the hole, spaced to break the putt into thirds between the ball and the cup. The goal is to roll the putt through both gates and into the hole.

How to read the results

Missing the first gate means the start line was off. Rolling through the first gate but missing the second points to a speed problem. Getting through both gates but still missing the hole usually means the read itself was wrong. "What we want to do is make sure we are blaming the right things," Sweeney says. Run the drill from different spots on the green, and the pattern of misses shows which of the four variables actually needs the work.