Putting
How to Putt Straight: Fix Your Start Line for Good
Control the Putter Face, Fix Your Start Line, and Hole More Putts
July 14, 2026 · 7 min read · Stephen Pickering
Control the Putter Face, Fix Your Start Line, and Hole More Putts
July 14, 2026 · 7 min read · Stephen Pickering
Key takeaway: The putter face controls roughly 80% of where a putt starts — so if your putts drift off line, look at the face before the stroke path. A square face comes from aiming the face first (then your body), setting your eyes over the ball, and letting the shoulders run the stroke while the hands stay quiet. Groove it with the gate drill, the coin toss, and the five-foot circle, then track your putts per round to prove it’s working.
If you want to know how to putt straight, forget about your stroke path for a minute. The ball doesn’t care where your putter travels nearly as much as it cares where the face is pointing at impact. Face angle controls roughly 80% of where a putt starts — so if your putts keep drifting off line, the face is the first place to look, not the arc of your swing.
The good news is that a square face is far easier to build than a perfect stroke. It comes down to how you aim, how you set up, and a couple of drills that give you instant feedback. Fix those and the ball starts where you’re looking — which is the whole point.
Once your start line is solid, distance control is the next thing to master.
How to Improve Putting Distance Control →Get scored putting drills that track your start line and streaks automatically.
See Putting Drills →You can groove a square face all week, but the only proof that matters is on the course. Putts per round and three-putt count tell you whether your straighter start line is actually saving shots. If those numbers are falling, the work is paying off. If they’re flat, you know to keep after it rather than assume you’ve fixed it. Guessing is how most golfers convince themselves they putt better than they do — the data keeps you honest. That’s exactly why Scoring Zone scores your drills and tracks your putting stats round by round: so you’re measuring progress, not imagining it.
See your putts per round and three-putts trend over time.
Round Stats →Almost always because the putter face is slightly open or closed at impact. Face angle controls roughly 80% of where a putt starts, so even a tiny amount of face rotation sends the ball off line. It usually isn’t your stroke path — it’s the face pointing somewhere other than your target at the moment of contact.
Start with a light, even grip pressure and let the putter swing from your shoulders, not your hands. Flicking or steering with the wrists is what opens and closes the face. A gate drill — two tees just wider than your putter head — gives you instant feedback when the face is off.
On short putts, keeping the stroke short and straight works well. On longer putts the putter naturally arcs slightly inside as it lengthens — that’s normal and you shouldn’t fight it. What matters most on every putt is that the face is square to your start line at impact.
Set two tees or coins just wider than your putter head as a gate about a foot in front of the ball, and roll putts through without touching either side. You can do it on any carpet. It trains a square face and an on-line start with instant feedback, no hole required.
Stephen Pickering
3-handicap golfer with 25 years on the course. Built Scoring Zone to bring structure and pressure to short game practice. Writes about what actually works from the practice green, not the press box.
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