How to Stop Coming up Short                      This simple test tells you if you're standing too close and adding unwanted loft                     By Peter Krause                     Top 100 Teacher                                          This story is for you if...                                          • Your putts — even near-gimmes — often stop short of the hole.                                          • Your contact never feels solid.                                          • You're not sure how close to stand to your putter.                                          Check This!                     GET in your setup, take your right hand off the grip and let your right arm hang. If your hand hangs outside the grip, you're standing too close to the putter. This causes you to swing the putter outside and then cut across the ball. You feel this in your stroke, so you open the face, which adds loft. Now your putt has too much backspin and won't reach the hole.                     HOW TO GET IT TO THE HOLE                     Move the putter far enough away from you so that when you take your right hand off the grip it hangs even with the handle. From there, you can make a solid putting stroke that will send the ball all the way to the hole.                                          Make sure you don't overdo it! If you stand too far away from the ball (your right hand hangs inside the grip), you'll invite an overly inside-out stroke and introduce too much hand rotation (pulls) or potentially limit rotation (pushes).                     You're too close if your right hand hangs outside the grip.
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