There is not a golfer anywhere that has not missed a short 2ft putt when it matters due to nerves and tension but why is this because the easiest thing in the world should be to hit a ball into a hole from such a short distance?
The answer is simply that the closer your ball finishes to the hole the greater the expectations of success you place on yourself in the knowledge that if you do miss the putt you will feel foolish in front of your partners.
For sure you have a greater chance of success in holing the putt if you say to yourself “i am going to hole this putt” rather than “i MUST hole this putt”
The action of holing the putt must remain a putting action backed up with a routine that you use for each and every putt rather than concentrating on the end result but trust me this can be easier said than done and even the very best players have negative thoughts enter their heads at such critical times.
In the 1995 Ryder Cup at Oak Hill Nick Faldo had a slippery down hill 3ft putt to win his match against Curtis Strange and give Europe the chance to win the match which he did with what appeared to be ease HOWEVER when interviewed later he stated that his thought was “if I miss the putt I could go 8ft past the hole and could lose my match”.
The relied on what he had practised for hours and using the same technique and routine as normal managed to put those negative thought to the back of his mind and holed the putt.
More recently 47 year old Stewart Cink won his second USPGA event of the year by 4 shots but on hole 18 on day three missed a putt from 2ft and didn’t even touch the hole but put this behind him to go on and win the event and his thoughts on short putts:
“If I depend on holing two or three foot putts to make myself feel better about myself then I would be in the wrong business”.
“I don’t like the word routine but follow a process which starts when I take the putter is taken from the bag and doesn’t end until the ball is rolling and mouth to myself montaintop of trust or mountaintop of peace to help keep me calm during the process”
So you can see that even the very best players get nervous and uncomfortable over short putts but find ways to distract their conscious mind which then allows the sub-conscious mind to follow the process or routine and avoid focusing on the outcome.
Go on give it a try, what is the worst that can happen?