Compiled by Multiple-Award-Winning PGA Professional Brendon R. Elliott, PrimePutt’s Director of Instruction and Lead Writer
Some weeks, the putter is the sidekick. This past week, it was the closer.
At Harbour Town, The Concession and El Caballero, three very different tournaments all turned on the same truth. You do not have to lead every putting category to win, but you do have to make the putts that show up when the tournament gets tightest. Matt Fitzpatrick won the RBC Heritage at 18-under 266, Stewart Cink ran away with the Senior PGA Championship at 19-under 269 after a final-round 63, and Hannah Green won the JM Eagle LA Championship at 17-under by making the only birdie in a three-player playoff.
Harbour Town Came Down to One More Make
Matt Fitzpatrick’s week at the RBC Heritage is exactly why pressure putting is never just about totals on a stat page. Yes, the official PGA TOUR event stats listed him first in Putting Average for the week. But the putt everyone will remember came after he striped a 4-iron from 204 yards on the first playoff hole, leaving himself 13 feet and knocking it in to beat Scottie Scheffler for his second Heritage title. That was not just good putting. That was a closer’s moment.
What I like about Fitzpatrick’s win is that it reminds golfers that the putter does not always have to dominate all week in some flashy, headline-grabbing way. Sometimes pressure putting is about staying clean, staying patient and then owning the one putt that carries the entire tournament. Fitzpatrick did exactly that. He gave himself a chance, stayed in position and then rolled in the one that finished the job.
Stewart Cink Turned the Senior PGA Into a Putting Clinic
Stewart Cink’s Sunday at The Concession was a little different. This was not a one-putt moment at the end. This was wave after wave of putts that kept building pressure on everybody else. Cink closed with a course-record 9-under 63, won by six shots over Ben Crane and finished at 19-under 269 for his first senior major.
The championship recap made it pretty plain that the putter was a huge part of the story. Cink said he refined his putting Saturday night, started playing more break and saw it pay off on Sunday. He pointed specifically to a 10-foot par save on the fifth hole as the putt that helped ignite his round. That is such an important reminder for everyday golfers because pressure putting is not only about the birdie bomb. A lot of times it starts with the par save that keeps the round from drifting.
And this one was not a fluke. The PGA TOUR Champions putting stats page currently lists Cink first in season-long Putting Average at 1.690, which makes his Senior PGA performance feel even more like the continuation of a trend than a one-week spike.
Hannah Green Finished the Job When It Mattered Most
At the JM Eagle LA Championship, putting decided the outcome in the most dramatic way possible. Hannah Green won at 17-under, and the playoff page shows exactly how it happened. On the first extra hole, the par-4 18th, Green made 3 while Jin Hee Im and Sei Young Kim both made 4. One hole. One birdie. Tournament over.
What makes Green’s win even more interesting is that she was not in complete control of the tournament the whole way. The official round-two summary showed Sei Young Kim leading at 14-under, Chizzy Iwai at 13-under and Hannah Green at 8-under, meaning Green was six shots back after 36 holes before coming all the way through on Sunday. That adds a layer to the putting story. She did not just putt well late. She stayed steady enough to hang around and then trusted herself when the biggest putt of the week showed up.
That is a huge lesson for amateur golfers. You do not have to own the tournament from the first round to win it. Sometimes the real pressure-putting skill is staying patient, avoiding panic and being ready when the door finally opens. Green did that beautifully. She kept herself close enough to matter and then made the only birdie the playoff produced.
What This Week Really Taught Us About Pressure Putting
Across all three events, the common thread was not just hot putting. It was timely putting. Fitzpatrick buried the playoff birdie at Harbour Town. Cink turned a final round into a runaway by making the momentum-saving and momentum-building putts that kept his foot on the gas. Green stayed patient, made it to extra holes and then made the one putt nobody else could match.
That is why I always come back to the same point with golfers I coach. Pressure putting is not just a make-more-putts conversation. It is a pace-control conversation, a start-line conversation and maybe most of all an emotional discipline conversation. Can you accept the miss, stay present and still make the next one with freedom instead of fear? This week, on three different tours, the winners all answered yes.
Season-Long Putting Snapshot
Before we close this one out, it is worth zooming out. The biggest putts of the week decided the trophies, but the season-long numbers still tell us who has consistently been sharp on the greens. Since each tour presents putting stats a little differently, this list uses the official current putting categories shown by each circuit.
-
PGA TOUR: Jacob Bridgeman currently leads the season-long Strokes Gained: Putting category at 1.201.
-
PGA TOUR Champions: Stewart Cink currently leads Putting Average at 1.690.
-
LPGA Tour: The current Putting leaders are Ariya Jutanugarn (27.67), Minami Katsu (27.70), Mi Hyang Lee (27.80), Minjee Lee (27.91) and Gemma Dryburgh (28.08).
That list is a nice reminder of something I come back to often. One week can absolutely be decided by one putt, but over the course of a season, elite putting keeps the same names showing up near the top of leaderboards. This week’s winners made the clutch putts. The season-long stats show the players who have built a year around that same kind of reliability on the greens.
Your Takeaway: The Closer Drill
If you want to practice the skill that showed up across all three of these events, try this:
Set tees at 6, 10 and 14 feet around one hole. Make one from 6 feet, one from 10 feet and one from 14 feet. Then back up to 30 feet and lag one inside 3 feet. Finish by holing the 3-footer. If you miss at any stage, start over.
Why this works is simple. It forces you to blend two pressure skills, pace and conversion. That is what Fitzpatrick did at Harbour Town. That is what Cink did all over The Concession. That is what Green did when the playoff got real in Los Angeles.
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.
