Short Putts... Dead-Weight Or Firm? Our Experts Debate This Common Conundrum

It's the age-old dilemma, you are faced with a short putt to win the match for your team, break 90 for the first time or rescue an unlikely par - but do you hit it firm or dead-weight?

You will likely still need to read the green to some extent and ensure that your putting technique is sound, but let's be frank - pace is king when it comes to short putts.

We famously saw Rory McIlroy miss a short putt in his bid to secure the 2024 US Open, so this isn't just a problem plaguing amateur golfers. So, in the interest of finding a definitive answer, I turned to the eternal wisdom of two of Golf Monthly's experts to see how they would approach this common conundrum...

Fergus Bisset: Hit It Nice And Firm

Fergus Bisset

Fergus Bisset is Golf Monthly's resident expert on the history of the game and has written extensively on that subject. He has also worked with Golf Monthly to produce a podcast series. Called 18 Majors: The Golf History Show it offers new and in-depth perspectives on some of the most important moments in golf's long history. He is a golf obsessive and 1-handicapper. Growing up in the North East of Scotland, golf runs through his veins and his passion for the sport was bolstered during his time at St Andrews university studying history. 

At the outset, I should say that although I’m a strong advocate of the firmly rapped short putt, I’m not an impressive exponent of the method. The confidently struck three-footer is something I aspire to rather than proficiently demonstrate. But, as a poor putter, it’s clear to me that nonchalantly banging the short ones in is a far more effective strategy than trying to work out subtle breaks and cosy the ball into the front or side doors.

In bounce games, when not marking a card, I’ll often stride up to short ones that don’t matter and pop them straight in. Not considering much other than ‘firm and straight into the middle’, I normally make them. In competitions, or even doing a ‘general play’, I’m far more circumspect and I start to consider ways to miss.

More often than not, I’ll make a weak effort that dribbles towards the hole. At that point, I’m relying on a good degree of hope. I’m hoping I’ve judged the break, I’m hoping I’ve hit it hard enough, I’m hoping there are no imperfections on the line that could deflect a slow roller, I’m hoping the hole has been cut and has remained flush so as not to repel a labouring ball... Basically, with a dead-weight short putt, there are too many variables that could impact whether your ball ends up in the hole or not.

And, if you try to dead-weight a putt, your stroke must be very smooth – to play a putt softly and get it rolling straight is much harder than when giving it a wee bit of a hit. More attempts at dead-weight putts will be slightly pulled or pushed due to a decelerating stroke.

Most of us amateurs find it hugely tough to bring ourselves to do it, but if we could muster the courage to hit short putts nice and firm, we’d hole more of them.

Jeremy Ellwood: Dead-Weight Is The Way To Go

Jeremy Ellwood

Jeremy Ellwood has worked in the golf industry since 1993 and for Golf Monthly since 2002 when he started out as equipment editor. He is now a freelance journalist writing mainly for Golf Monthly. He is an expert on the Rules of Golf having qualified through an R&A course to become a golf referee. He is a senior panelist for Golf Monthly's Top 100 UK & Ireland Course Rankings and has played all of the Top 100 plus 91 of the Next 100, making him well-qualified when it comes to assessing and comparing our premier golf courses. He has now played 1,000 golf courses worldwide in 35 countries, from the humblest of nine-holers in the Scottish Highlands to the very grandest of international golf resorts.

The dead-weight putt is golf’s very own magic trick that nearly all club golfers would do well to take advantage of. How so? Well, it’s the only legal way to effectively widen the target by just under an inch. Wouldn’t you prefer to be putting to a hole that has now grown to just over 5in across, rather than the statutory 4.25in, as you stand over those nerve-shredding three-footers you know you simply have to make to keep your score ticking along?

The dead-weight putt’s remarkable hole-expanding properties are all down to gravity. The golf ball has a diameter of 1.68in, and, in theory, if 51 per cent of it catches the hole dead-weight, it will drop. If you try to rap them in firmly, the hole shrinks back towards its actual size and balls that don’t catch enough of the edge will lip out. Even worse, you’ll sometimes suffer the dreaded accelerating horseshoe, perhaps leaving you even further away and opening the door to the lifeblood-sapping ‘three-putt from nowhere’.

This is why aggressive short putting is really not a great idea for average golfers, as it reduces the margin for error and opens the door to potential disaster. Yes, you could argue that striking short putts firmly takes any break out of the equation, making every short putt nearly straight. But you need steely resolve and a silky-smooth action to take advantage of this, and many of us are blessed with nerves of jelly and a fragile, unreliable stroke.

Overall, average golfers with inconsistent putting strokes will not only hole more short ones dead-weight, they’ll also avert more of those agonising close-range three-putt aberrations. So, don’t waste energy – give those short ones only what they really need to safely find their way to the bottom of the cup.

What Do Our Readers Think?

We asked our readers, via the Golf Monthly social media channels, to tell us whether they would follow the advice of Fergus or take the Jeremy's gentler approach... and the results are in:

• Dead-weight - 34%
• Nice and firm - 66%

Have Your Say...

I would argue that the key to success is confidence, along with plenty of practice. So, if you want to get yourself ready for the 2025 golf season by pursuing putting perfection, why not try out some of our best putting tips and putting drills.

Best Tips For Holing Short Putts

These top tips, from Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Katie Dawkins, will have you holing out more efficiently from close range...

1. Use the line on the ball (or draw one on) - this will help you align the ball to your intended line
2. Keep the tempo consistent - imagine a tick-tock pendulum style movement
3. Don't look up - keep your head down and listen to the ball dropping into the cup
4. Be confident - the less you worry about it, the more you will relax and prevent tension building up in your swing