Compiled by Multiple-Award-Winning PGA Professional Brendon R. Elliott, PrimePutt’s Director of Instruction and Lead Writer
Some weeks, putting is the story.
Not the driver. Not a hot stretch of iron play. Not a lucky bounce or a Sunday collapse from somebody else.
Just putting.
This was one of those weeks.
Gary Woodland won the Texas Children’s Houston Open at 21-under, five shots clear of Nicolai Hojgaard, and he did it with the kind of steady, assertive putting that turns a contender into a champion. On the LPGA side, Hyo Joo Kim backed up last week’s win with another one at the Ford Championship, finishing at 28-under and holding off Nelly Korda by two. Different tours, different styles, same truth: when the pressure rose, both players trusted the flatstick.
Gary Woodland Owned the Week’s Biggest Putts
There was an emotional weight to Woodland’s win that made it feel bigger than a normal PGA TOUR Sunday. This was his first TOUR victory since the 2019 U.S. Open. It came after brain surgery in 2023 and after he publicly shared his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder. That alone made the moment powerful. But from a putting standpoint, what stood out most was how calm and functional he looked when the tournament was his to finish.
And the numbers back that up. Woodland led the Houston Open field in Strokes Gained: Putting and also led the event in putting from 10 to 15 feet, the exact range that so often decides whether momentum sticks or slips away. Even more interesting, he came into the week ranked 32nd on the PGA TOUR in season-long SG: Putting at 0.432 per round. In other words, this was not some season-long putting machine simply doing what he always does. This was a player rising into the moment and putting like the week demanded.
That is what makes Woodland’s win so useful for everyday golfers. You do not have to be the best putter on the planet every week. You do have to own the putts that show up when the round starts to turn. Those 10-to-15-footers are where birdie chances become rewards, par saves become round-savers and tournaments start to tilt. Woodland did not just survive those moments in Houston. He won them.
Why Woodland’s Week Matters for the Rest of Us
A lot of golfers spend too much practice time either raking 3-footers mindlessly or launching 40-foot putts with no purpose. Woodland’s week is a good reminder that the scoring window in putting often lives in the middle. Not gimmies. Not miracles. That makeable, nervy stretch where commitment matters just as much as technique.
If you want to score better, start there.
Build practice around 8, 10, 12 and 15 feet. Give yourself consequence. Make two in a row before you move on. Miss and start over. That is the kind of training that makes your heart rate rise just enough to mean something. And it is far more transferable to the golf course than banging ball after ball with no target and no pressure.
Woodland’s win felt emotional because of the man and everything he has been through. It also felt instructional because it showed, again, that pressure putting is rarely flashy. Usually, it is disciplined. Usually, it is conviction. Usually, it is one solid stroke after another when the noise gets louder.
Hyo Joo Kim Showed a Different Kind of Putting Nerve
If Woodland’s week was about mid-range authority, Kim’s was about control.
Kim defended her Ford Championship title by shooting 28-under 260, alternating rounds of 61 and 69, and setting the LPGA’s 54-hole scoring record along the way. Korda made a real run on Sunday, including two eagles in her final round of 67, but Kim never let the tournament fully get away from her. She answered pressure with poise, which is another form of great putting that too many golfers overlook.
One of the most telling details from the week came in the third round, when Kim needed only 25 putts while building her lead. That stat jumps off the page because it tells you she was not just making a few timely putts. She was managing the entire green beautifully. Distance control, cleanup range, momentum putts, all of it.
And Sunday made the lesson even better. Kim was not perfect coming home. She made a double bogey at the eighth and a bogey at the 16th. But that is exactly why her win still belongs in this column. Great pressure putting is not only about making everything when you are rolling. It is also about regaining your footing before one mistake becomes three. Kim stayed composed, made the putts she had to make late and closed it out anyway.
What PrimePutt Readers Should Steal from Both Wins
Woodland and Kim got there in different ways, but together they offered a pretty complete putting blueprint.
Woodland showed the value of becoming dangerous from a makeable range. Kim showed the value of keeping the round organized when the nerves arrive. One player looked explosive with the putter. The other looked relentlessly tidy. Both approaches travel.
That is the beauty of studying putting at this level. There is more than one way to be clutch.
For lower-handicap players, the biggest takeaway is to sharpen conversion from 8 to 15 feet. That is where you separate. For mid-handicap players, the lesson is to pair that work with better lag putting so birdie chances do not become sloppy pars. For higher-handicap players, the takeaway is even simpler: stop giving shots away with three-putts and short misses. Pressure putting is not reserved for tour pros. Every 5-footer for double, every 2-footer after a poor lag and every first putt from 30 feet with trouble nearby carries pressure of its own.
This week reminded us that good putting wins in more than one voice. Sometimes it is bold. Sometimes it is quiet. But it is always valuable.
YTD Putting Snapshot
PGA TOUR, Putting Average
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Jacob Bridgeman
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Scottie Scheffler
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Blades Brown
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Jimmy Stanger
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Akshay Bhatia
LPGA, Putts Per Round
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Mi Hyang Lee, 27.25
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Minami Katsu, 27.29
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Minjee Lee, 27.63
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Alexa Pano, 27.75
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Hyo Joo Kim, 27.88
That is what Pressure Putts is all about at PrimePutt. Not just celebrating who won, but unpacking how the putter helped get it done and what the rest of us can learn from it. Because the game has a way of shrinking down to one club and one moment, and when it does, the golfers who stay steady on the greens usually have the last word.
Pressure Putts drops every Monday with the week’s best putting stories, stats, and drills from the PGA TOUR, LPGA, and DP World Tour. Got a putting question or drill request? Drop us a line.
