How to be a good putter. We’ve been doing it wrong for years and here’s why!

You’ve heard the ancient golfing wisdom a million times.

“Never up, never in.”

It’s not so much generally agreed as demanded that your first putt should always finish past the hole.

But according to Scott Fawcett, the brains behind the DECADE course management system, the hoary old logic is way past its sell-by-date.

Fawcett was a good college golfer in the US yet no more than a journeyman on the second and third tiers of the pro game.

But he turned his pain on its side and created DECADE.

It takes an astute look at shot distribution patterns and PGA Tour data to create revolutionary ideas about the way the game is played.

And he believes that elite lag putting has a lot to teach the average golfer.

“It is one of the most under-practised and misunderstood areas of golf,” he writes.

“A common misconception is that all putts should go past the hole.

“This is flat-out wrong.”

That sounds at complete odds with everything everyone else tells us.

Short is good!

But DECADE data argues: “As we get farther and farther from the hole, our putting distance dispersion needs to start centring around the hole.

This means that leaving a chunk of our putts SHORT of the hole is CORRECT.

“The reason for this is because, as we emphasize at DECADE, speed is king with putting.

“Our only objective for the majority of putts is to avoid three-putts.

“The best way to do this is to improve the proximity of our first-putt attempts.”

DECADE looked at Aaron Baddeley, the Aussie who was ranked first for 3-Putt Avoidance in 2025. In 414 holes, he three-putted just three times (0.72%).

He had 61 putts of 30+ feet and left 55% of them short of the hole.

But, writes Fawcett: “His deft speed control produces a lot of tap-ins and some accidental makes by maximizing the hole’s capture rate.

“Crafting this type of speed control is an area that I believe nearly all players don’t practice enough.

“It is a guaranteed way to make your rounds less stressful and your scores lower.

“I challenge you to start tracking your First Putt Performance. You’re probably much worse at lag putting than you may have realized!”

You can learn more about DECADE here.

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