By Fred Altvater
Before you beat yourself up the next time you miss that six-foot putt to lose a couple of bucks to your golfing buddy, consider this.
The average of putts made inside eight feet for all PGA Tour Pros is only 67%. If tour professionals miss three, or four putts for every ten putts longer than five feet, we should feel OK about missing a few, too!
In 2021 Xander Schauffele led the PGA Tour with putts made inside eight feet. With 273 putts inside eight feet, he made 220, or 80.6 %. To prove the old adage ‘drive for show and putt for dough,’ Matt Wallace finished No. 125 on the percentage of putts made inside eight feet with just 67.4%.
Wallace ended the 2021 season at No. 111 on the FedEx Cup points list and earned $1.37 million, a very nice year to be sure, but what if he had made just a couple more putts. He played 60 rounds on the PGA Tour in 2021, attempted 181 putts of less than eight feet and made 120. The top ten putters on the PGA Tour made 75% of their putts under eight feet. To reach the top ten in putting, Wallace only needed to make 15 more putts in 60 rounds, that’s one putt in every four rounds.
On the PGA Tour one more putt made every day leads to four strokes less for the week and will move a player from a top 25 up to a top 10 finish. A Top 25 finish pays around $100,000, not too bad, but a Top 10 is worth over $250,000.
Doing the math, $150,000 divided by four putts equals $37,500 each. That’s why you see tour pros spending so much time on the practice green working on their stroke.
How much time do you spend on the putting practice green?
When I work with students, I tell them they should spend the same amount of time working on putting and chipping as they do banging balls on the range.
One of my favorite drills is the ‘around the world’ drill. Place ten balls three feet around the hole and force yourself to make all ten. It is a bit more difficult than it seems. When Jackie Burke challenged a young Phil Mickelson to make 100 consecutive three-foot putts, it took him six hours. 
Rest assured, if you make only eight, or nine out of ten, you will drastically improve your putting on the course. Over time, however, golfers should strive to make ten out of ten every time.
Once you are comfortable with three-putt putts move out to four feet, then five. Remember as you increase the distance, the percentage of putts made will decease slightly as well.
Last year, Chesson Hadley led the PGA Tour by making 66% of putts longer than ten feet. If an average golfer makes 40% or even 50% of putts longer than ten feet, he is considered exceptional with the flat stick.
The point here is don’t forget to practice putting. This is only one drill, there are several more, plus great training aids like the Putting Arc to groove the correct stroke and improve your putting.
