Scottie Scheffler gives amateur golfers his tip on how to improve the way they read greens on long putts

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Scottie Scheffler has managed to turn himself into one of the best putters on the PGA Tour over the past six months.

Incredibly, Scheffler is now inside the top 20 on the PGA Tour for strokes gained on the greens.

The 29-year-old really started to turn things around when he switched to a mallet putter from a blade model in March 2024, after advice from Rory McIlroy, and the Northern Irishman must be seriously regretting that now.

Scheffler has more bogey-free rounds on the PGA Tour than anyone else since 2021, and his improved putting has helped him massively in that regard.

And Scheffler’s improved putting has given him the capability to win tournaments even when he’s not at his best.

One of the Texan’s biggest strengths on the greens is his ability to lag his putts up close to the hole from outside of 40 feet.

So who better to listen to for amateurs looking to improve their lag-putting?

Scottie Scheffler gives amateurs a tip to improve their green reading

Scheffler hasn’t always been as good on the greens as he is now.

However, even when he struggled with the flat-stick, he was always very solid from long distance.

He once gave some priceless advice to amateur golfers looking to improve their lag-putting, when making a video on X for Golf Digest.

Scheffler said: “So looking at a putt of this length (50 feet), there is a decent amount of stuff you want to be looking for.

“The first thing I will do is I will look at it from behind the putt and I’ll kind of walk up and I’ll get a feel for it in the middle of the putt, and I’ll just notice little things like up to here, the break is going this way, the grain is going that way. You get to a point in the middle of the putt where it’s going to go up and over and down grain.

“A double breaking putt like this, especially with a lot of turn at the end, I’ll try and find that point where I think the ball is going to travel through, that will kind of be where I’m trying to aim.

“Then, I’ll get a feel for how fast it is at the end. I’ll read it from this side (behind the hole), you can really see the grain change. It gets really dark looking back up that way, and it gets really light on the other side.

“Now I have an idea where that ball is going to roll. I come in, have two practice strokes while looking at the line.

“Gave it a chance to go in and I’ve got an easy putt back up the hill to finish.“

Scottie Scheffler’s putting stats over the past six seasons on the PGA Tour

Scheffler’s improvement on the greens since 2019 has been quite incredible.

Not only has he become more consistent, but he is now actually one of the very best putters on the PGA Tour.

The big worry for Scheffler’s rivals is that what was once his weakness is now actually a strength.

And if he maintains his place inside the top 20 on the PGA Tour in the strokes gained putting category for the next few years, we could be set to witness a period of dominance that we haven’t seen since Tiger Woods’ heyday.