⛳️ Is your putting stroke path costing you strokes? In this video, I’ll break down the common mistake golfers make with their stroke path and show you how to fix it fast. You’ll learn the correct path to square the face, roll the ball on line, and sink more putts.
✅ What you’ll learn in this video:
• How to identify your stroke path mistakes (pushes & pulls)
• Simple putting stroke path drills you can practice today
• The key to building a consistent putting stroke that holds up under pressure
Bonus Drill from #1 putter on Tour Sam Burns
If you struggle with pulling putts, pushing putts, or missing short ones, this putting lesson will help you find your perfect path and improve your accuracy on the greens.
⛳️ Subscribe for more golf tips, drills, and putting secrets from Nick Kumpis at https://smartlineputting.com
👍 Like this video if it helps your game, and drop a comment with your biggest putting challenge!
With technology and launch models, we found out that face is king. It has the most influence on where that golf ball is going to go. And that’s definitely true for putting. Now, a lot of times people will say, “Hey, the path doesn’t matter as long as you can get the face square.” But when the path is off, we’ve got to have some compensations and timing in it to get the face better. And and and why would we want to have this timing if we don’t need to? So, couple things that I see with with poor pass that lead to poor face. Okay. One would be somebody kind of takes it a little bit outside. They come through and they either just kind of keep it closed and come across which would be like a pull for a full shot or they come across and kind of a slice motion, come across and then they open that face back up and get the ball to go somewhat online. But again, that’s a lot of timing just like a golf swing if I was coming across and then leaving that face open and trying to time that up. The other one I see is a little bit where somebody will take it a little bit too much inside arcs inside and then they kind of leave it out and kind of push it. So again, yes, the face is the face is king, but that path can have some influence on my face control. So I want to get the path under control and have it have it in a good spot so I don’t have to have more timing. So I got a couple things to show you with this to help us in kind of make sure our path is in a good spot to again help that face be in a good spot. So here I’ve got Tiger’s famous uh gate drill. Now the way he does it is he has two T’s. He does this so he can make sure he hits it in the center of the face and he feels like he’s making good contact and he’s not hitting it off the toe of the heedle, which I can do. The bad part about this is because I just have the two T’s. And we’re going to expand on this in a little bit. I could make a stroke that goes a little bit out and back in. Hey, and I can still make it. Okay. And I hit that pretty close to the middle of the face. I didn’t hit any of the TE’s, so it must have been it must have been pretty good. But again, that’s got some timing to it. I don’t want to have that timing. So, a couple ways that we can change this or kind of add into this to help this path. Okay. So, first what I’ve done is I’ve taken I’ll put some pictures up on the side there, but I’ve taken the Smart Line stencil plate. Okay. And what I did here on the first one was I just put these these two straight lines here. So, again, that’s going to help me with my path. Okay. Now, the way that I’m going to do this here is I’m going to take these TE’s and one of the videos I’m going to show you our our the number one putter on the PJ tour last year was Sam Burns. Okay? He likes to do this same G gate drills Tiger, but he adds to it. So, he puts a T here and a T here kind of at the front. And I’ve seen him do it with two sets of T’s and also three sets of T’s. Now, when I was growing up, this is the way that I used to do it. I used to put kind of it’s like a little bit of a box, so to speak. So, I’ve got this box here. Okay. Now, I’ve also got the lines on the ground to kind of help me from the stencil plate. But again, if I just kind of set up this box again, I get lined up here. Now, if this path gets off, look how I’m going to hit it. So, from the high-speed cameras, what we’ve seen is the putter is gonna again, it has a slight arc to the stroke, but when when I’m closer to the golf ball, about 2 and 12 inches behind and about 2 and 12 inches through, the putter is staying pretty straight. The face is square on a good stroke and the path is pretty straight. There’s not a lot of arc to it from that short of a distance. Okay? So again, when I’m doing more of my short putts, when I’ve got a three-footer like this, I’m not trying to have a lot of arc in this. It It’s pretty close to straight back, straight through. It’s not exactly, but I don’t want to have this massive outside or massive inside because again, that’s going to affect me having to time it up with the face. So again, I’ll put some pictures up of Sam Burns here doing this. He’s doing this one. I’ve got a video here of him doing two and I think he does one with three. But again, now when I’m here, hey, I’ve got to have a little more control of this path going through because if it got inside, boom, it’s going to hit there. it gets outside, it’s going to hit that tee. So, I put a golf ball here. And again, I’ve got this just set up as a box. So, I’ve got this uh the set of the front T’s is at the front of my putter, the face, and then the set on the back TE’s is at the back. You could put your ball a little bit more in the middle if you wanted to. I’m going to put it at the front here. So, I’m kind of working more on my back swing path. Okay. And again, didn’t hit the T’s. So, this is a simple way for me to check my path. And again, Tiger’s drill is great, but as far as checking path, you can kind of cheat it and have some timing in there. And again, I I I there’s no necessary reason to have that timing. So, I like Sam Burns. Again, number one putter on tour. Let’s copy his drill he’s using. Okay. So, I can do that with TE’s. Again, I can put a set of um three T’s if I want. The other thing Sam Burns does is he has this drill. Again, you’ll see it in the video when he does it. He’ll put a set of T’s where the golf ball is going to go through. So, this kind of ensures his face is square and he’s got to putt it through there. So, this little box of T’s, this is helping with my path. I think if my path is a little bit under control or a little bit straighter back to start, I feel like I’ve got a little bit less timing with the face. And again, all comes back to controlling that face. So, this is the one that he’s got set up. Okay. Now, the other way that I can do this, and I like doing this because again, I think sometimes when we set those TE’s down, they can get a little bit off. So, here’s the putting uh Smartling putting gates. So, again, I’m going to do the same thing. I’m just going to put these on the outside here. Okay, we’ll get my putter set. Okay, I’ll make them a little closer. So, these are 5 in long. So again, I’ve got the ball at the front. So again, I’m working a little bit more on my back swing path. Usually I’ll put the ball a little bit more um in the middle there where the line is between those. So I’ve got that 2 and 12 inches back, two and a half inches through. So again, on this stroke here, okay, you can see that path again didn’t hit anything. Okay. So, when I’m here, okay, if I get with these, what’s nice about the gates here, too, again, the TE’s is the same, but if I get set here and I take this putter a little bit out, we’re going to hear that hit. Again, if I get a little bit in, I’m going to hear that hit. So, again, th this is going to help me make sure my path is under control. And again, I think everybody wants to have a good path because the other part of that is if I get Let’s take these away. The other thing I see, which is important, is when that path gets off, just like a full swing, when this path gets out and across and it’s coming back this way, I think there’s a high probability you’re going to hit it off the toe or mishit it. So again, I want the putter face to be square, but I got to make sure I hit it in the middle. And that’s what Tiger’s drill is doing. And he gets it back to the middle by not hitting those T’s. But again, if I’ve got that putter going out and across, hey, I think there’s a good chance I hit it on the T on the toe of the putter. And now I’ve got loss of distance on long putts. And again, it can make it wobble a little bit and and make us miss some putts. So again, let’s do this one again. So again, I’m here. I’m gonna put these gates here. Again, I’m going to put that ball right in the middle there. So I’ve got the gates kind of set right in the middle right there. Boom. Putter is going to go right in the middle. And again, I should feel my putter be able to swing back and through there to control that path. Okay. to get that thing to drop. I think I’ve got more face stability when the path is more under control. Okay. Now, the other one that I kind of like adding in on this. And this will help with two things. One, it’s going to help you with making sure you’re hitting it in the center of the face. Again, we won’t we won’t hit the things. But again, if I kind of get this path going on and I’m kind of opening the face or kind of closing it. Hey, I’ll put a little bit of sid spin on this golf ball. Put a little bit of spin on this. So, again, I want I’ve got this ball where the line’s all the way around. Okay. I’ve got to get that line on there and I’ve got to get that thing to roll end over end. So again, I’ve got the two the two pl uh the two gates to make sure I’m not going too far in or out. Okay. And then I’m set here and then I’m going to get this thing to roll down that line. Okay, so we can see how that ball rolled end over end. Okay, so again, face is king. Okay, face 100% is king. The two parts of that is I want the face to be square impact to get it down my line and I want to make sure I hit it in the middle of the face. Okay, that gives me my best distance control. Okay, if my path gets off out here, I’ve got to somehow reroute it, rework it, and now there’s some timing in there. Okay, I want to try to take some of that timing off so I don’t have to be absolutely perfect with it in my golf swing. I think the better my path, if I can get my path a little better, I think I’m going to have a little better face control. And again, just appear just off of looks and if we watch if we watch good putters, nobody’s taking it out and dropping it in. Nobody’s taking a way in and and closing it, right? The path is pretty consistent right there. A slight arc. A slight arc there. So again, I like Sam Burns’s uh doing the box. We’ll kind of call that the box drill where, hey, we’re keeping that putter in between because that box is there. And not just with the Tiger Gate drill. Again, if you if you work on this path, some of these path drills, I think you’re going to have better success hitting it in the middle of the face, having a little less timing, and you’re going to putt better.
