Koivun protected his lead, Shin survived a difficult Sunday and Kelly adjusted quickly enough to finish a senior major with a birdie.
Compiled by Multiple-Award-Winning PGA Professional Brendon R. Elliott, PrimePutt’s Director of Instruction and Lead Writer
Some weeks, professional golf gives us a collection of long birdie putts and dramatic walk-offs. This week delivered something more useful.
Jackson Koivun, Jenny Shin and Jerry Kelly won three very different tournaments, but each victory turned on a similar putting skill: keeping one uncertain moment from becoming something worse.
Koivun made the par putt that stopped Scottie Scheffler’s charge from feeling even larger. Shin built enough putting equity early in the week to survive a difficult closing round. Kelly recognized that changing green conditions had affected his speed, recalibrated and eventually birdied the final hole of a senior major.
That is pressure putting in its most practical form. You do not always need to make everything. You need to recognize which putt the round cannot afford to lose.
Koivun’s Biggest Putt Was Not a Birdie
Jackson Koivun entered Sunday at the 3M Open with a three-stroke lead after a third-round 61. Scheffler applied precisely the pressure everyone expected, closing with a 63 and temporarily reducing a lead that had reached five strokes.
Koivun’s response came on the ninth green.
After finding a back bunker, the 21-year-old faced a meaningful par save with the leaderboard directly in view. Koivun later called it “the biggest putt I made all week,” explaining that a miss would have cut his advantage to two. He converted, preserved his momentum and played the back nine without surrendering control.
The putt mattered because of what it prevented. A bogey would not have erased his lead, but it would have changed the emotional temperature of the final nine. Instead, Koivun remained bogey-free for a second consecutive day, closed with a 66 and finished at a tournament-record 25-under 259, three strokes ahead of Scheffler.
Golfers often treat par putts as cleanup work. Koivun treated his as a momentum putt. That distinction matters. When you understand the consequence of a putt without allowing the consequence to rush you, the routine becomes a stabilizer.
Shin Built a Cushion With Her Putter
Jenny Shin’s Women’s Scottish Open victory followed a different path.
She opened with rounds of 66 and 67, taking only 50 putts and avoiding a three-putt through 36 holes. Shin openly credited her putting, noting that she was trying particularly hard not to three-putt while navigating Dundonald Links.
By the end of the championship, Shin had taken 112 putts across four rounds, averaged 1.69 putts per green in regulation and recorded only one three-putt. Her final-round 75 was not clean, but the work completed earlier in the week gave her enough room to finish at 9-under and defeat A Lim Kim by two.
There is a valuable lesson in that sequence. A lead is not protected only on Sunday afternoon. Shin protected hers on Thursday and Friday by eliminating waste.
Every three-putt avoided, every four-footer cleaned up and every lag putt left inside a comfortable radius became part of the cushion she carried into the final round. When her ball-striking and scoring became less reliable Sunday, that cushion mattered.
Kelly Recalibrates and Finishes the Job
Jerry Kelly’s putting story began with an admission.
After Saturday’s third round at the Senior Open Championship, Kelly said he had repeatedly left putts short. He believed the later tee time, moisture and possible growth in the greens had affected the pace, and he had not given those conditions enough credit.
That is an important competitive skill. Good putters do not stubbornly demand that the green behave as it did earlier. They observe, recalibrate and move on.
Kelly returned Sunday with another 68 and birdied the 72nd hole to win by two at 10-under 270. The victory was his 14th PGA Tour Champions title and third senior major.
The lesson is not that Kelly suddenly found a perfect stroke. It is that he identified why his distance control had been off and adjusted before the problem became permanent. Too many golfers respond to a few short putts by hitting the next one harder. Better players recalibrate the entire picture: moisture, slope, wind, pace and intended finishing speed.
What the Week Teaches
These victories offer three forms of momentum protection:
Koivun protected the present. He made the par putt directly in front of him and stopped one mistake from growing.
Shin protected the future. She avoided wasted strokes early and created a margin that survived a difficult Sunday.
Kelly protected his adaptability. He accepted that the greens had changed and adjusted rather than blaming his stroke.
For the everyday golfer, this requires a broader definition of successful putting. The goal is not simply to hole more putts. It is to reduce the number of holes damaged by poor speed, rushed reactions and missed short putts after a mistake.
The PrimePutt Drill of the Week: Protect the Hole
This game combines lag putting and pressure conversion.
Setup: Place three balls at 20, 30 and 40 feet. Create a three-foot safety circle around the hole. Then place one additional ball at five feet.
Procedure:
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Hit one putt from each lag distance.
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Award one point for finishing inside the three-foot circle.
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Award two points for holing the lag putt.
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After the three lag putts, attempt the five-footer.
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The five-footer is worth three points, but only if at least two lag putts finished inside the safety circle.
Play three rounds for a possible 27 points.
Scoring goal:
18 points is solid.
21 points shows strong control.
24 or more reflects excellent speed and conversion.
Purpose: The five-footer creates consequence, but the golfer must first earn the opportunity through disciplined distance control. This mirrors tournament golf, where the pressure putt is often created by the quality of the previous putt.
The drill works on a practice green or a PrimePutt mat when the available length allows you to vary starting distances and define a clear capture zone.
Your Momentum-Protection Checklist
Before important putts, ask:
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What is the acceptable finish if this putt misses?
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Has the green speed changed since the opening holes?
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Am I reacting to the last putt or reading this one?
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Does this putt require aggression, or does the round require control?
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Can I complete my normal routine without adding extra tension?
YTD Putting Watch
Data checked: July 27, 2026
PGA Tour SG: Putting Leaders
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Vince Whaley, +0.724
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Akshay Bhatia, +0.681
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Jacob Bridgeman, +0.675
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Sam Burns, +0.662
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Peter Malnati, +0.590
The official PGA Tour leaderboard changed in the fifth position from the previous week, with Malnati now listed at +0.590.
LPGA Tour Putting Average Leaders
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Hyo Joo Kim, 28.28
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Mi Hyang Lee, 28.30
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Minami Katsu, 28.38
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Alexa Pano, 28.61
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Angel Yin, 28.66
Putting Average measures putts per round regardless of whether the player hit the green in regulation. It should not be treated as equivalent to SG: Putting, and differences in greens hit can affect the number.
The Everyday Golfer Takeaway
Most golfers lose more strokes from compounded putting mistakes than from missed birdie opportunities.
A poorly judged lag becomes a missed four-footer. A missed short putt creates frustration. Frustration speeds up the next routine. One mistake becomes three.
Your job is to break that chain.
Protect the hole by leaving long putts in manageable positions. Protect your routine after a miss. Protect your score by identifying the putts that require control rather than heroics.
Final Roll
Koivun, Shin and Kelly did not win the same way. One stared down the world’s top-ranked player, another survived after building an early cushion and the third adjusted to changing surfaces before finishing with a birdie.
Their common skill was not perfection. It was containment.
The best pressure putters know when a round is beginning to tilt, and they make the putt that levels it again.
Pressure Putts drops every Monday with the week’s best putting stories, stats and drills from the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour and DP World Tour. Got a putting question or drill request? Drop us a line.
