I've been putting wrong. Not the stroke — the setup.
That's the thing I learned on August 3rd, in a 30-minute putting lesson with Dave Theise at GolfTec Westport. I went in thinking I had a path problem. I came out realizing I had an eye problem.
Here's what was happening: short putts missing left. Short putts missing right. No consistent pattern — or rather, a pattern that looked like two different problems. When your misses go both directions, the natural assumption is that your stroke is inconsistent. That the putter face is opening and closing at random. That you need to groove the path.
Dave's diagnosis was different. The stroke wasn't the issue. The issue was where my eyes were relative to the ball.
The Problem: Looking Down From the Top
I was leaning too far over the ball. Too close to it. Which sounds like a setup that should produce good putting — you're focused, you're over it, you're committed. But what it actually does is put your eyes above the ball, looking down at it from the top rather than looking at it from directly over it.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. When your eyes are directly over the ball, you see the line the ball is on. When your eyes are above the ball, you see the line from an angle — and your brain has to adjust. Every time you stand over a putt, your body is subconsciously trying to correct for what your eyes are telling it. If your eyes are giving you a skewed perspective of the line, your body compensates. Left miss. Right miss. Short. The compensation is the inconsistency, not the stroke.
This is why my misses went both directions. It wasn't that my stroke was random. It was that my body was trying to fix a visual problem, and the fix was different every time.
Flight pattern: short, left and right misses from compensation on path. Resolution: eyes at address, handle movement thru impact. This is a setup problem, not a stroke problem. Fix the eyes-over-ball position and the path/arc compensation fixes itself.
The Fix: Eyes Directly Over the Ball
The correction is simple to describe and difficult to feel: get your eyes directly over the ball. Not above it. Not looking down from the top. Directly over it.
When your eyes are in the right position, the putter path naturally straightens. You don't have to think about the arc. You don't have to manipulate the face. The path fixes itself because your body is no longer compensating for a skewed visual. The line you see is the line the ball is on. The stroke your body produces matches the line your eyes see.
The tool for this is a putting mirror. You set it down on the ground, align the ball to the mirror, and check your eye position in the reflection. If your eyes are directly over the ball, you see them centered in the mirror. If you're too far over — like I was — your eyes are above the reflection. The mirror gives you immediate, objective feedback. You can't fool it.
Dave's instruction was clear: putting mirror work this week. Train the eye position until it's the default setup. Not a check — a habit.
The Handle Thru Impact: The Hockey One-Touch Pass
The second piece of the lesson was about what happens after you hit the ball. Or more precisely, what happens through impact.
Keep the handle moving thru impact.
The grip — the handle — needs to lead the putter head through the strike. Not stall. Not flip. Lead. When the handle leads, the putter face stays stable and the ball rolls end-over-end. When the handle stalls, the putter head overtakes the hands, the face twists, and the ball hops or skids instead of rolling pure.
Here's how I think about it: it's like a one-touch pass in hockey. In hockey, when you receive a pass and immediately move it along, the bottom hand leads the stick through the pass. You don't let the stick head do the work — the hands do. The stick follows. It's quick, it's committed, and the puck comes off clean.
Putting is the same thing. The bottom hand leads the handle through impact. The putter head follows. The ball comes off clean — end-over-end roll, consistent speed, predictable line.
When the handle stalls — when you let the putter head do the work — it's like letting the stick head flip a hockey pass. The puck wobbles. The ball skids. The speed is inconsistent. You leave putts short. You hit them too hard. The roll isn't pure.
Keep the handle moving thru impact. The grip leads the putter head — like a one-touch pass in hockey with more focus on the bottom hand through follow-through. Dave Theise, GolfTec Westport — August 3, 2026
Why This Is a Setup Problem, Not a Stroke Problem
The distinction matters because it changes what you practice.
If the problem is your stroke, you practice the stroke. You do path drills. You do gate drills. You try to groove the putter head through a consistent arc. You work on the motion.
If the problem is your setup, you practice the setup. You put down a mirror. You check your eye position. You build the habit of standing over the ball correctly. The stroke takes care of itself because the body is no longer fighting a bad visual.
This is the lesson I keep learning in golf — and keep forgetting. The root cause is rarely the thing you see. The weak push fade in my full swing wasn't a face problem; it was a path problem. The path problem wasn't really a path problem; it was a depth problem in the backswing. And the inconsistent putting misses weren't a stroke problem; they were an eye position problem.
Every layer you peel back reveals the layer underneath. The symptom is always one step removed from the cause.
The Putting Lesson History
This isn't my first putting lesson. The history tells a story of peeling back layers:
- June 2023: Distance — leaving putts short. Resolution: hold the finish. The stroke needed a definitive end to ensure proper acceleration.
- April 2025: Distance again — still leaving putts short. Resolution: ball back in stance, lean shaft more at address, keep handle forward. Promotes end-over-end roll and less upward angle of attack. Same symptom, deeper fix.
- August 2026: Direction — left and right misses, no consistent pattern. Resolution: eyes over the ball, handle thru impact. The root cause was setup, not stroke.
The progression is clear. The first lesson addressed the finish — the end of the stroke. The second addressed the address position — ball placement and shaft lean. The third went to the root: where your eyes are relative to the ball before you even start the stroke. Each lesson went one layer deeper. Each fix was more fundamental than the last.
The putting mirror is the project this week. Not a quick fix — a habit. Stand over the ball. Check the mirror. Eyes directly over it, not above it. Handle leading through impact, putter head following. End-over-end roll. Consistent speed. The line you see is the line the ball takes.