Pros usually win or lose by close margins. Being a little weak in one or two areas is what separates elite golfers from those who struggle to hold onto their tour cards.
For amateur golfers, the opposite is true. It is a big mistake to separate low handicaps from high handicaps. The moment when it takes two shots to make one shot.
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Three examples where this occurs most often:
Since you missed your first chip, you now need two chips instead of one to get on the green.
If you hit the ball into the penalty area from the tee, you must drop your third shot or re-tee.
You might miss a short putt or miss your first putt so wide that a two-putt opportunity turns into a three-putt.
The latter in particular is something that everyone can relate to. The 3-putt is such an unforced error that it often feels like a particularly bad gut punch. So we took a look to see who avoided the most three-putts on tour last season.
What’s the answer? Rickie Fowler.
What he does best: Avoiding three-putts.
Fowler, who won Golf Digest’s Ernie Award this year, led the PGA Tour in 2025 with a 3-putt percentage of just 1.4 percent and approach putts of just 2 feet.
That shouldn’t be a big surprise. He was an elite putter for most of his career. I went to the Golf Digest archives to look for clues as to why, and here’s what I got back.
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1. Raise the putter off the ground.
Fowler has always done interesting things throughout his career. Just before starting the stroke, Fowler lifts the putter head a few millimeters above the ground.
This, the six-time PGA Tour winner explains, is because holding the putter lightly in place relieves tension in your fingers and forearm and prevents the putter head from digging into the turf when trying to take back.
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2. Two different grips
Fowler also played around with two different grips at various ranges throughout his career, something Scotty Scheffler himself did. He uses claws from close range and regular attacks from long range.
Fowler’s approach is somewhat similar.
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From long range, he used a conventional grip to encourage a subtle hinge of the wrist on his putting stroke.
From shorter distances, Fowler switched to a low grip with his left hand. This aligns the forearms, reduces wrist hinge, and makes the clubface more stable, he says.
The important thing here is that long putts and short putts require different things. Speed is important for long putts. A short putt is about keeping the clubface square. Different tasks may require different grips.
3. 24 inch rule
It doesn’t do you any good to be unsure of how hard you want to hit your putts.
Fowler says he tries to eliminate confusion by choosing one speed up front instead of second-guessing. Fowler’s goal, he says, is to choose a speed that ends the putt two feet beyond the hole. He works backwards from there.
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4. Concentrate on the spot behind the ball
In the end, Fowler is quiet, his eyes still, his head still as he stares at the putt, but not in the way you might think. He doesn’t have his eyes glued to the ball. Instead, he pins the golf ball to the ground behind it. That makes sense. Unlike the ball, that spot doesn’t move, so he focuses on it.
