Get These Two Things Right and Putting Gets a Lot Easier

Most golfers chase consistency by trying to fix the wrong things. Tempo, arc, release. All of that matters, but the stroke can only repeat if the conditions around it stay stable. When setup is consistent and the path through the ball is predictable, putting gets noticeably simpler.

Setup is the first piece. Eye position, face alignment, and posture influence how you see the line and how the putter wants to move. If those elements shift even slightly from putt to putt, the body has to compensate during the stroke just to return the face to square. Those compensations are small, but they’re enough to cause problems.

Path is the second piece, and it shows up during the motion itself. If the putter travels differently from one stroke to the next, the face has to be managed more actively through impact. That’s when hands get involved and timing becomes critical. Some putts come off clean, others don’t, and confidence starts to suffer. What feels like a touch issue is often just variability in how the putter moved through the ball.

Better players narrow their focus to these two elements. They want to start from the same setup and move the putter on a repeatable path. When those stay consistent, the stroke doesn’t need as much correction. The face returns to square at impact more predictably, the ball starts on line more often, and pace becomes easier to control.

Consistency in putting rarely comes from thinking more. It comes from removing variables until the correct motion becomes the easiest one to repeat.