As the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship puts the game’s best players under major pressure at Hazeltine, it is the perfect week to study five women whose putting brilliance left lessons every golfer can use.
The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship has a way of exposing the truth.
At Hazeltine National Golf Club this week, that truth is not only about who drives it the farthest, who flights the best iron shots or who can handle major championship pressure for four days. It is about who can control a golf ball once the noise quiets down and the putter is in their hands.
The 2026 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is being played June 25-28 at Hazeltine National in Chaska, Minnesota, with a record $13 million purse and one of the strongest fields in women’s golf. Ina Yoon opened the championship with a record-tying 63, while the official course guide points to Hazeltine’s large, tiered and demanding greens, including a 17th green where lag putting is expected to be a major factor.
That makes this the perfect week for PrimePutt to ask a timeless question: Who are the five best female putters of all time, and what can the everyday golfer learn from them?
This is not a pure statistical ranking. The LPGA’s earliest decades did not have modern strokes-gained data, and even today, putting numbers can fluctuate in ways that do not always capture the full art of the craft. This list is a coach’s list. It blends reputation, pressure performance, career achievement, historical testimony and, most importantly, teachable habits.
1. Inbee Park: The Quietest Stroke In Golf History
If there is a Mount Rushmore of putting, Inbee Park’s face belongs in the middle of it.
Park has 21 LPGA Tour wins, seven major championships and the 2016 Olympic gold medal on her résumé. She also became the first player in the modern LPGA era to win the first three majors of a season in 2013.
But the numbers only tell part of the story. Park’s real genius was the complete absence of drama. No twitch. No hurry. No visible panic. Her putting stroke looked like it was moving through water. Slow, soft, balanced and completely her own.
A GolfChannel.com-sourced feature from 2018 noted that Park had led the LPGA in putts per greens in regulation five times in 10 years. In that same piece, Hall of Famer Sandra Haynie called Park “one of the best putters ever,” while Joanne Carner said Park was the best putter she had seen since Nancy Lopez.
The lesson for everyday golfers is simple: stop trying to make your putting stroke look powerful. Putting is not a strength move. It is a rhythmic move.
Park’s stroke teaches players to reduce hand action, soften the arms, keep the putter moving low and let speed become the priority. Most amateurs miss putts before they ever hit them because they are trying to steer the face. Park looked like she was letting the putter swing.
PrimePutt takeaway: Build a stroke that can survive pressure because it does not require perfect timing from your hands.
Try this: Hit 20 putts from 20 feet with one goal only: finish each ball inside a three-foot circle. Do not worry about making them. Track how many finish in the circle. That is how you train like a great putter.
2. Nancy Lopez: The Feel Putter Who Made Confidence Look Easy
Nancy Lopez brought joy, rhythm and belief to the greens.
Lopez won 48 times on the LPGA Tour, including three major championships, and became one of the most beloved figures in women’s golf. But her putting legacy is not just about what she won. It is about how she rolled the ball.
Lopez was a feel player. Her stroke was more handsy than Park’s, and her approach looked less mechanical than many modern strokes. Yet that is the point. Lopez owned her method. She was not trying to copy anyone. She saw the putt, trusted her instincts and let the ball go.
In the same 2018 feature on Park, Haynie named Lopez among the best putters she had ever seen, and Carner specifically used Lopez as the historical comparison point for Park. That is high praise from players who saw generations of great golf up close.
The amateur lesson here is massive: great putting is not always about having the most technically “perfect” stroke. It is about matching your stroke to your personality.
Some players need structure. Some need freedom. Lopez showed that a player can putt at an elite level by trusting feel, pace and imagination.
PrimePutt takeaway: Your putting stroke does not need to look like everyone else’s. It needs to be repeated under pressure.
Try this: On the practice green, putt three balls from 25 feet while looking at the hole during your rehearsal strokes. Then step in and hit the putt with the same pace picture. This trains feel instead of mechanics.
3. Kathy Whitworth: The Winningest Player Who Had To Hole Everything
Kathy Whitworth’s career almost defies logic.
She won 88 times on the LPGA Tour, making her the winningest professional golfer of all time. You do not win 88 times without being able to putt. You especially do not win that often across different courses, grasses, green speeds and competitive eras without having a putter that travels.
Whitworth may not have had the modern highlight-machine reputation of a player like Park or Ko, but her putting greatness lives in the consistency of her career. Week after week, year after year, she found a way to get the ball in the hole better than anyone around her.
That is an important lesson for club golfers, because most players judge their putting only by the number of makes. Great players judge it by patterns. Are you starting the ball where you intend? Are your long putts finishing near the hole? Are your short misses predictable? Are you three-putting less often over time?
Whitworth’s lesson is that putting greatness is built through repeatable habits, not occasional hot days.
PrimePutt takeaway: The best putters do not chase magic. They stack small advantages over hundreds of rounds.
Try this: Track only three numbers for your next five rounds: total putts, three-putts and number of first putts that finish within three feet. That will tell you more about your putting than simply remembering the one 20-footer you made.
4. Mickey Wright: The Great Ball-Striker Who Still Belonged On The Greens
Mickey Wright is often remembered first for having one of the purest golf swings ever seen. That is fair. Her full swing was legendary.
But do not let that hide the other part of her greatness.
Wright won 82 times on the LPGA Tour and claimed 13 major championships, both second all-time in LPGA history. She was not simply hitting it close and tapping in. She played in an era when equipment, agronomy and green conditions were nowhere near what modern players enjoy. To dominate the way she did, she had to be a complete scorer.
Haynie also included Wright among the best putters she had ever seen. That matters because Wright’s putting brilliance is often overshadowed by her swing, but elite players know what scoring really requires.
For the everyday golfer, Wright’s lesson is about not separating ball-striking from putting. Your putting starts before you reach the green. Approach shots that finish on the correct tier, below the hole or on the safer side of the green create easier putts. Smart strategy makes the putter better.
That will matter at Hazeltine this week. On greens with shelves, ridges, water nearby and major championship hole locations, the best putters are not always the players who make the most long bombs. They are the ones who leave themselves putts they can actually manage.
PrimePutt takeaway: Great putting begins with smart approach play.
Try this: During your next round, write down whether your first putt was uphill, downhill or sidehill. If most of your first putts are defensive, your putting problem may actually be an approach-shot strategy problem.
5. Lydia Ko: The Modern Master Of Pace, Patience And Poise
Lydia Ko belongs in this conversation because her putting has been part of her identity from the time she was a teenage phenom to her Hall of Fame-level prime.
Ko has 23 LPGA Tour wins and three major championships, according to her LPGA bio and stats page. She also won Olympic gold in Paris in 2024, which qualified her for the LPGA Hall of Fame.
Her putting is not loud. It is not flashy. It is controlled, patient and deeply connected to pace. Ko’s best putting weeks are master classes in emotional regulation. She does not appear to rush under pressure, and she does not let one miss turn into three more.
Golf Monthly has described Ko as long being considered one of the top putters in the women’s game, noting the consistency of her putting even during seasons when the rest of her results were not as strong.
That is the lesson for the average player. Putting slumps happen. Missed short putts happen. Lip-outs happen. The great ones do not turn every miss into a personal crisis.
Ko shows golfers that putting is as much about recovery as it is about perfection.
PrimePutt takeaway: Your next putt does not care what happened on the last one.
Try this: Practice nine holes of putting with one ball. If you miss, finish the second putt fully. Keep score like a round of golf. This builds consequence, patience and the ability to reset.
The Honorable Mentions Matter, Too
Any list like this will leave out great names. Se Ri Pak belongs in any conversation about clutch putting and women’s golf history, especially because her 1998 U.S. Women’s Open victory at Blackwolf Run helped transform the global direction of the women’s game. The LPGA’s 25-year retrospective noted that Pak drained a birdie putt in sudden death to complete that 20-hole playoff win.
Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Juli Inkster, Beth Daniel, Ai Miyazato, Cristie Kerr, Jin Young Ko and several others also deserve mention. Sorenstam’s 72 LPGA Tour wins and 10 major championships put her among the greatest players ever, even if her legacy is usually framed around total dominance more than putting alone.
But for a blend of putting reputation, historical weight and lessons that translate to the practice green, Park, Lopez, Whitworth, Wright and Ko give golfers five different models to study.
What You Should Watch This Week At The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
As you watch the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, do not only watch whether putts go in.
Watch speed.
Watch how players handle 35-footers across tiers. Watch how often they leave uphill second putts. Watch how calmly they go through their routine after a poor read. Watch who commits to the line without steering the stroke. Watch who looks like they are trying to make everything, and who looks like they are trying to control the ball.
That is where the real lesson lives.
The best female putters of all time were not all built the same way. Park was quiet and almost hypnotic. Lopez was feel and freedom. Whitworth was relentless consistency. Wright was total scoring intelligence. Ko is modern patience and pace control.
Different strokes. Different eras. Different personalities.
Same truth.
The putter rewards the golfer who can see clearly, move freely and stay steady when the moment gets bigger.
That is what will decide plenty at Hazeltine this week. It is also what can help every golfer who walks onto a practice green with a PrimePutt mat, a few golf balls and a willingness to learn from the best who ever rolled it.
