Why I Suck at Short Putts | The Complete Series

Struggling with short putts? This video combines all four episodes from the Why I Suck at Short Putts series to guide you through the steps to improve your putting game using the CATT framework—Concepts, Assessments, Training, and Tracking.

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced golfer, these tips will help you better understand the root causes of missed putts and how to train for success. Take a few minutes to watch and transform your putting performance.

Don’t miss out on this journey to better putting! Hit play and get started today.

In this episode, Brian Bailie introduces a new acronym, CAT: Concepts, Assess, Train, and Track. This forms the foundation for understanding and improving short putting performance. Key Concepts: Read, Speed, and Start Line: These are the three essential elements to making short putts. However, most golfers don't dig deep into identifying the root cause of their missed putts, instead treating symptoms such as "pulling" or "missing left." Often, players are under-reading putts and forcing the ball onto the line, which leads to errors. Assessment: Understanding what happens during a missed putt is crucial. Players should assess whether the issue lies in read, speed, or start line. Many tend to focus on start line when it might be more of a read or speed problem. Training: Once the root cause is identified, players can train effectively. For example, practicing speed control by ensuring the ball passes through the hole by no more than a foot or using feet to predict break severity. Brian emphasizes the importance of consistently training speed control on short putts, especially through the hole. Tracking: Tracking performance over time allows golfers to understand their progress. Methods like journaling, spreadsheets, or using a stat program (e.g., Arccos) help players identify trends and ensure long-term improvement. Tracking helps avoid the trap of overreacting to one bad day by focusing on overall trends. Key Takeaways: Root causes are often overlooked in favor of symptom treatment. Players should assess whether their putt misses are due to read, speed, or start line. Training drills should focus on consistent speed delivery, break prediction using feet, and assessing start line control. Tracking variance is key. Golfers should focus on long-term trends, aiming for consistent improvement rather than perfection every day. Brian concludes by highlighting the importance of focusing on read and speed in short putts, while encouraging players to continue honing their skills using the principles discussed in the series. Stay tuned for next week's episode on short game!

In Episode 3 of Whiskey High IQ's "Why I Suck at Short Putts?" training mode, the focus is on improving putting performance by assessing and training three key components: Read, Speed, and Start Line. Brian Bailie emphasizes that reading the green is the most crucial for short putts, recommending using your feet to gauge slope severity. Speed control, or distance control, is developed through structured practice, adjusting stroke length and timing to roll putts consistently past the hole without over-hitting. Lastly, start line accuracy is addressed by ensuring the putter face remains within a degree of the target line. By mastering these skills, golfers can significantly improve their short putting percentages, building a reliable foundation for long-term performance improvement.

This putting hack focuses on improving green reading by introducing the concept of a "gutter" to quantify putt reads. The gutter represents the area where a ball should end up if the read is correct. A correct read will leave the ball within this defined zone, while misses below or outside indicate read, speed, or start line issues. The hack emphasizes that while most players and coaches focus on start lines, a good read is crucial for consistent performance. By tracking misses and understanding whether the issue is the read, speed, or start line, players can make informed adjustments to improve their putting over time.

In this episode of Golf High IQ, Brian Bailie tackles the question, "Why do I suck at short putts?" by breaking down the key components of successful putting: read, speed, and start line. He explains that many golfers mistakenly focus heavily on start line drills when, in fact, read and speed are more critical for short putts (3-6 feet). Through a stool analogy, Brian highlights the importance of balancing all three components, noting that even with a face error of up to two degrees, good read and speed can still result in made putts. He sets performance goals based on skill levels, from newbies to enthusiasts, and assigns a homework task for listeners to assess their make percentages from 3-6 feet, with specific benchmarks for each golfer level. This foundational understanding will be built upon in future episodes to help improve putting performance.