What I learned watching golfs best putter chase the Masters lead – Golf.com

By: Luke Kerr-Dineen April 10, 2022

Cameron Smith had an ironclad putting routine that was the same every time to the second.

Stephen Denton / GOLF.com

AUGUSTA, Ga. Scottie Scheffler had earned his lead, but for large parts of the day, it never felt as comfortable as it perhaps deserved to.

How could it? After all, its the moment you can relax that the sniper pulls the trigger on the dot circling on your back. And Cam Smith, one of best putters on Masters Sunday, was going hunting.

Ultimately it wasnt to be. It wasnt his putter that failed him, but the rest of his game. A series of poor drives, culminating in what he called a terrible swing on the 12th send his hopes of of a green jacket into Raes Creek. When he hit good shots, he made birdies like on the 11th hole, the most difficult of the tournament. His putter couldnt make up for when he didnt.

Yet like Ben Crenshaw before him, Cam Smith seems like one of those generational putters thats going to keep contending at this tournament.

Im frustrated not to walk away with a win yet, he said after his third top three, and fourth top 10, in his last five starts here. I love it here, and I look forward to the challenge of coming back here next year.

When he does, it will be his magical putter that leads the charge. Watching Cam Smith up close on Sunday as he attempted the impossible catching the best player in the field may not have yielded a green jacket for the Australian, but I walked away from what felt like a masterclass in putting.

Heres what I learned along the way.

Moving from tee-to-green feels like a bit of a game of roulette with Cam Smith. But the moment he walks into the green, he looks entirely in his element. The crowd feels it, and he knows it. Comfortable, confident, and composed.

Gametime starts and ends with his routine, which runs like clockwork. He marks his ball then walks behind the hole, looking at the entire length of the putt as he does.

When he gets to the hole, he stands behind it and crouches down to get a closer look at it. Then he walks back to the ball from the other side. He stops at the mid point of each putt as he does, sets up and takes his stroke, then back to his ball. At that point, he steps into the putt.

It may sound like a lot, but Cam Smith actually plays quite quickly. He glides through each step without delay and doesnt linger on any of them. Hes entirely focused on the process, and he does the same thing every time. Just because hes taking in a lot of information doesnt mean its an excuse to play slowly.

With his ball placed on the ground, Smith steps into the putt and spends 10 seconds over the ball. Trust me, I timed it, and on each putt it stays true to the second.

The steps dont waver, either: He takes three quick looks at the hole, while shuffling his feet and regripping the club. Then when he settles in, takes one long look at the hole and hits his putt.

Nothing changes, regardless of putt. The only thing that changes is whether he uses the line on the ball, which changes based on whatever feels most comfortable on the given putt.

My favorite part of Cam Smiths putting routine is the final moment before he hits the putt. All the movement comes to a subtle stop, and he takes one, long, deliberate look at the hole. It takes about six seconds, by my count, and it Smith says its the most important part of his entire routine.

Taking that last look, seeing the ball roll over the the front with the pace that you like, doesnt matter with its two feet of 100 feet, he says. Its something Ive always done and I think its key.

Its interesting and telling that Cam Smith mentioned pace when visualizing his putt, because all day, Cam Smith seemed to roll the putt with perfect speed. They didnt all go in, but did they all seemed to end with a tight radius around the hole. Hitting with the right speed is even more important than hitting it with the right line, he says, and he visualizes that by looking at a side of the hole, instead of the center.

I love seeing the ball going in the side of the hole, he says. Thats my focus.

And finally, for as great a putter as Cameron Smith is, its important to note that not every putt went in. He badly under-read a putt on the 11th hole, and after a mental error on the 12th hole, he was visibly angry. He clearly let it affect his nine-foot putt for double bogey, which he hit too hard and through the break. A basic mental error that one of the best putters in golf couldve shouldve avoided.

It just goes to show that putting (in the least surprising news ever) is really difficult. Cam Smith may be the best putter on the planet today, and yet he even makes multiple mistakes during a high-pressure round. The secret isnt avoiding them altogether, its accepting them and bouncing back.

Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Director of Service Journalism at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role he oversees the brands game improvement content spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness, across all of GOLFs multimedia platforms.

An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South CarolinaBeaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to pursue his Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University and in 2017 was named News Media Alliances Rising Star. His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

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What I learned watching golfs best putter chase the Masters lead - Golf.com