If you have never missed a one-foot putt, you don’t need to read this post. The other 99% of my readers need to pay attention. And I don’t exclude myself.

One-foot putts are so easy. We don’t really have to go through our routine. Just step up the ball in any old way, give the ball a knock and it’s in the hole.

Except sometimes it doesn’t go in the hole and you think, “You’ve got to be kidding!” Or maybe that is a polite way of expressing what you are thinking.

It didn’t go in the hole because you did not give that putt its due. You got sloppy.

You approach this putt differently from every other putt you hit because you don’t think you have to be as careful with it as all the others.

And that is caused, I believe because you don’t have much experience in hitting one-foot putts, or in hitting them the right way.

Tell me. When you go to the practice green, how often do you hit one-foot putts? Or if you hit an approach putt to one foot, how often do you set up to it and hit that one-footer the same way you hit every other putt ? (Probably never.)

Here’s what I want you to do the next time you go to the range. Hit one-foot putts. A lot of them. Twenty is a lot. Set up each time like you always do. Hit the ball into the hole. Even though a putt this short is called a tap-in, you do NOT tap it in. Hit it in.

Don’t just go through the motions. Take each putt seriously. Get experience with these putts going in the hole.

Getting good at golf means getting good at as many things as you can, and taking none of it for granted.

Like one-foot putts.