Putting: Line vs Pace – Which One is Really More Important?

When you are standing over a putt, what are you thinking about – line or pace?

Typically, golfers will favor one of these over the other as their point of focus, which leads to the inevitable debate about which one is more important. In the end, this is a debate which cannot be settled, as both of these elements are critical.

If you get one right and the other wrong, it doesn’t matter which was which – the ball isn’t going to fall into the hole.

So, if this debate can’t be settled, why are we even writing this article? Well, although we can’t settle the argument you might be having with your playing partners, we can offer some insight into how thinking about this debate can make you a better putter.

Let’s get started…

Why They Both Matter

This might be obvious to more experienced players, but let’s take a moment to discuss why you need both halves of this equation in place in order to make a putt.

For our first example, picture a 10-foot putt that is going to break a few inches from right to left. You make your read, settle on a line, and decide how hard you want to hit the ball.

As the ball leaves the putter face, it rolls precisely on the line you had selected. That’s a great start, but the ball isn’t in the hole just yet.

If you had hit the putt too firmly, it won’t take as much break as expected, and will miss high. Or, if you hit it too soft, it will take more break than you planned, and it will miss low. Only when you nail both the line and the speed will the ball be able to drop in (assuming your read was correct).

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It’s not only on breaking putts where this is an issue. Picture another 10-footer, only this time the putt is perfectly flat.

You will aim right at the hole and getting the line right will be a matter of nothing more than executing your mechanics. While your speed control doesn’t need to be quite as precise in this situation, since there is no break to consider, you’ll still need to be somewhat close to the right pace in order to make the putt.

If you leave the putt short, of course, it can’t go in. Or, if you hammer it, there’s a chance the ball will hit the back edge and pop out on the other side. Again here, even on a straight putt, you are only going to be happy with the result when you hit the line and manage the speed properly.

Reading Both Pace and Line at the Same Time

As you get ready to hit a putt, you are naturally going to take a look around the green to analyze the slope and come up with a plan. During that process, it’s important that you keep the speed that you intend to use in mind.

Some people like to be aggressive with their putts, running them a couple of feet past the hole if they don’t go in. Others are more conservative, using a pace that will have the ball come to rest right around the hole.

It’s fine to putt either way but know your own style and factor that into your reads. A putt with more pace is going to break less than a putt played on the same line with less pace.

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This is why it is so difficult to get help with your reads from other people. When someone looks at your putt and says they think it is a ‘ball outside right’, they are saying that in context to the speed they usually use on their putts.

That’s fine, but is it the same speed you will use?

Maybe, maybe not. In general, stick to reading your own putts, as you are the only one who can picture the ball rolling up to the hole with the exact speed you have in mind.

Playing Favorites

Okay – so we’ve established that both line and pace are critical when trying to make putts. That’s a good start to this conversation, but we aren’t finished just yet.

It would be great if you could truly treat them as equals, but in the real world, it’s likely that you will favor one over the other, at least slightly. Since that is the case, it’s good to have a plan for how you will approach reading and executing your putts.

As a general rule of thumb, you will want to favor pace on long putts and line on short putts. So, when you are 30-, 40-, or 50-feet from the hole (or beyond), your main concern should be getting the speed right.

Even if you miss the line by a bit in either direction, nailing the speed will mean you are left with a short putt to finish up the hole. Two-putting is always the goal from long distance and getting the speed right on your first putt is the key to doing just that.

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When you get closer to the hole, your focus can shift, and you can start to think in terms of line more than anything else. Yes, you still need to get the speed right, but that’s not as hard from 5-feet as it is from 50-feet.

Carefully select your line for the putt and be sure to keep your head still during the stroke so you can roll the ball accurately toward your target.

In the end, you’ll need to match up line and pace perfectly if you are going to hole any given putt. Sure, some are more difficult than others – it’s hard to get things right on a downhill, left-to-right 20-footer than a 5-footer straight up the hill – but you always need these two elements in place for the ball to fall in.

We hope the discussion in this article helps you keep both of these pieces of the puzzle in mind as you continue to work on making more putts. Have fun out there!