Tommy Fleetwood has steadily turned himself into one of the best putters in the world.
Early in his career, that was not the case. He lost strokes to the field on the greens during his first few seasons on the PGA Tour but made steady progress each year. Last season, he gained more than half a shot per round in Strokes Gained: Putting.
His most impressive performance on the greens came at East Lake when he won the Tour Championship. In that tournament alone, he picked up 2.37 strokes with his putting.
And Fleetwood believes that good putting is not just about mechanics – preparation matters just as much.
Tommy Fleetwood’s advice for sinking more long putts
On Rick Shiels’ YouTube channel, Fleetwood emphasized that the most important tip is properly reading the green. He advises taking time to fully explore and map the putting surface, not just viewing it from behind the ball or hole.
“The number one thing, and my kids don’t do this, and I’m always rattling it on and I’ll go and watch them and I can see it straight away, is they don’t walk around the hole. Like it’s the most simple thing,” he began by saying.
“This put we’ve actually set up is uphill, and you can see pretty much most things because the putt’s facing you. But so often, it doesn’t take much to start walking to the side and have a look.
“And I think people might struggle from this distance, but I think also you can hit a good putt and hit it to eight feet and wonder, ‘What happened there?’ Because you’ve not assessed it.
“And it’s just walking around. But I would say the important thing is to always find you should always walk around the putt, but also read the putt from where the lowest where the putt’s facing you.
“I always think of it as like reading a book. I wouldn’t read a book like from that way. So that’s one of the first things. Make sure you have a walk.”
Tommy Fleetwood explains how golf buggies have made it harder to read greens
Part of the process is noticing those details as you approach the green. Walking up the fairway gives you a natural look at how the slopes and contours might affect your putt.
But Fleetwood pointed out that with more golfers using buggies, there is less opportunity for this kind of observation.
He said: “I actually think buggies maybe stop that sometimes because you drive a buggy up and then just get your club and walk to the green, but you can always be looking.
“You can always have a look, and there’s a lot of green actually over here, but if we were stood over here and we’d parked up, you can start to see the green might be, you know, flowing that way.
“There might be an edge where it’s higher than the other. You know, there are things that you can always see and pick up, and you start to build just a picture of that putt.”
The more attention you give to these details before hitting your putt, the better feel you will have for how it will break across the surface. It does not take much extra effort – just a bit more awareness as you make your way onto each green.
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