Compiled by Multiple-Award-Winning PGA Professional Brendon R. Elliott, PrimePutt’s Director of Instruction and Lead Writer
Pressure in golf rarely announces itself politely.
Sometimes it shows up as a five-shot lead in a major championship, when the entire field is chasing and the only real opponent left is your own mind. Sometimes it shows up on the 18th hole of a team event, when a family dream, a PGA TOUR card and a historic win are all sitting inside one final birdie chance.
This past week gave us both.
Nelly Korda won The Chevron Championship at Memorial Park by five shots, finishing at 18-under and claiming her third major championship. It was a wire-to-wire performance, one that also returned her to No. 1 in the world. The win looked dominant on paper, but the final round still carried the kind of pressure only a front-runner truly understands. Korda played her final 29 holes in even par and still won by the largest margin at this major in 18 years.
At the Zurich Classic, Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick turned a family week into history. The brothers won at 31-under after a birdie on the final hole, becoming the first siblings to win a PGA TOUR title together. The win also gave Alex PGA TOUR status through 2028, changing the shape of his career in one unforgettable finish.
Those two wins were very different. One was a major championship coronation. The other was an emotional team victory built around family, nerves and one last chance.
But both came back to the same question:
Can you control yourself when golf gets loud?
Nelly Korda and the Pressure of Protecting a Lead
There is a kind of pressure that comes with chasing.
There is another kind that comes with being chased.
Korda’s Chevron win was a reminder that protecting a lead can be every bit as difficult as trying to erase one. When a player starts fast, builds separation and carries a large advantage into the weekend, the narrative changes. The question is no longer whether she is good enough. The question becomes whether she can stay patient while everyone waits for something to go wrong.
That is a lonely kind of pressure.
For putting, those rounds are not always about making everything. In fact, the most important putts in a runaway-looking win are often the ones that keep the lead from feeling smaller. The two-putt from long range. The four-footer after a slightly defensive approach. The cleanup putt after a lag that ran past the hole. The par putt that keeps a quiet round from turning into a nervous one.
Those putts do not always make highlight reels. They do, however, win championships.
Korda’s week had the look of dominance because she created so much early separation, but the back half of the tournament still required discipline. When you have a lead, every miss can feel bigger than it is. Every par can feel like giving ground. Every birdie by someone else can make the hole in front of you feel smaller.
That is where elite players separate themselves. They do not need every putt to drop. They need the right putts to settle them down.
The Fitzpatrick Brothers and the Final-Hole Moment
If Korda’s pressure was about control, the Fitzpatrick brothers’ pressure was about emotion.
They took a four-shot lead into the final round at the Zurich Classic, but the day tightened. A double bogey and bogey helped bring challengers back into the tournament, and by the time the final hole arrived, the story had become much less comfortable than it once looked. Matt’s bunker shot on 18 helped set up the winning birdie for Alex, securing the victory and avoiding a playoff.
From a putting perspective, that is a fascinating moment.
The final putt may have been short, but short does not mean easy when everything around it is enormous. Team events add a different emotional weight. You are not only putting for yourself. You are putting for the person next to you. In this case, Alex was putting alongside his brother, with a PGA TOUR card and a historic win hanging in the balance.
That is pressure at its purest.
Golf fans love the long bomb because it feels dramatic. Coaches and serious players know the short putt under pressure can be just as revealing. The stroke is shorter, but the mind is louder. The hole is close, but the consequences feel huge.
That final birdie was not just a putt to finish a tournament. It was a career-changing moment. The fact that Alex handled it says plenty about the difference between a player who hopes he is ready and one who can actually stand there and finish.
Pressure Putting Is Mostly Speed Control
When golfers hear “pressure putt,” they usually imagine a putt to win.
That is only part of it.
Pressure putting starts long before the final green. It starts with speed control. It starts with leaving the ball in the correct area. It starts with making sure the next putt is manageable. It starts with avoiding the three-putt that changes the emotional temperature of a round.
That is especially true in tournament golf. When conditions get firm, greens get quick or nerves get high, poor speed control creates panic. A 35-footer that finishes five feet past the hole turns a routine par into a stress test. A downhill birdie try that races by can make a player defensive for the next three holes.
Great putters do not only make more putts. They create fewer disasters.
That is the lesson from both winning stories this week. Korda protected a major championship lead by not allowing the round to unravel. The Fitzpatricks survived the late tightening of a tournament because they were still able to execute when the moment demanded it.
That is not magic. That is trained calm.
Putting Stat Watch
Each week, Pressure Putts will also keep an eye on who is rolling it best across the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour. These numbers matter because they show which players are consistently turning opportunities into score, not just who made one big putt on Sunday.
PGA TOUR: Putting Average Leaders
Through the latest available PGA TOUR putting updates, the top names in putting average include:
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Blades Brown — 1.665
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Jacob Bridgeman — 1.670
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Scottie Scheffler — 1.670
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Jimmy Stanger — 1.670
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Akshay Bhatia — 1.680
The PGA TOUR’s putting stats page lists Brown as the current putting average leader at 1.665, while ESPN’s PGA TOUR stat table also shows Brown, Bridgeman, Scheffler and Stanger among the top names in the category. CBS Sports’ PGA TOUR putting average table lists Bhatia at 1.680 among the next group of leaders.
LPGA Tour: Putting Leaders
Through the latest available LPGA Tour putting update, the top five in putting average are:
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Ariya Jutanugarn — 27.67
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Minami Katsu — 27.70
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Mi Hyang Lee — 27.80
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Minjee Lee — 27.91
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Gemma Dryburgh — 28.08
The LPGA defines this category as the average number of putts per round, regardless of whether a player hits or misses the green in regulation.
Why These Lists Matter
The PGA TOUR and LPGA lists measure putting a little differently, but both are useful.
On the PGA TOUR side, putting average is connected to efficiency on greens hit in regulation. On the LPGA side, putting average gives a broader view of total putting load per round. For Pressure Putts, the value is not just ranking players. It is seeing who is consistently keeping rounds alive, converting chances and limiting damage.
Those are the habits everyday golfers should be watching.
The Hidden Skill: Resetting After the Miss
Pressure putting also includes what happens after a putt does not fall.
Most golfers practice makes. They do not practice recovery. They do not practice the emotional reset after a burned edge, a misread or a three-footer that suddenly feels longer than it is.
In competition, that reset matters.
Korda did not need a perfect final stretch to win The Chevron. She needed to keep her lead from becoming a burden. Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick did not glide through the final round without stress. They had to absorb mistakes, recover from a shrinking lead and still find the shot and putt they needed at the end.
That is a powerful reminder for everyday golfers.
The pressure is not only in the putt itself. It is in the next breath. The next routine. The next decision. The ability to walk to the next green without dragging the last one with you.
PrimePutt Practice Takeaway: Build a Pressure Ladder
This week’s practice idea is simple: stop practicing only the comfortable putts.
Create a pressure ladder on the putting green.
Start with a three-footer. Then move to four feet, five feet, six feet and seven feet. You must make each putt before moving back. If you miss, go back to the beginning.
For the second round, change the goal. Instead of making five in a row from different distances, go through your full routine on every putt. Mark the ball. Read the putt. Take your practice stroke. Commit to the line. Hit it.
The score matters, but the routine matters more.
Then finish with speed control. Hit three putts from 30 feet, three from 40 feet and three from 50 feet. Your goal is to finish every ball inside a three-foot circle. That is not glamorous practice. It is tournament practice.
Because pressure putting is not only about the one putt to win.
It is about the putt that stops the bleeding.
The putt that keeps the lead comfortable.
The putt that makes the next hole easier.
The putt that lets you breathe again.
This past week, Korda showed what it looks like to protect greatness. The Fitzpatrick brothers showed what it looks like to finish through emotion.
Both stories remind us that putting under pressure is not about pretending you do not feel anything.
It is about feeling all of it and still rolling the ball where it needs to go.
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.
