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Pulling or Pushing Putts: The $30-75 Fix for Each
I three-putted the same green four times in one summer. Missed right, right, right, then left. My playing partner finally said something: “You don’t have a putting problem. You have two putting problems and you keep trying to fix them with the same drill.”
He was right. Pulling and pushing are not the same miss. A pull comes from a closed face at impact, a stroke path swinging too far from the inside, or ball position creeping too far back in your stance. A push comes from an open face, a path cutting across the ball from outside to in, or ball position sliding too far forward. Buy a generic “putting aid” and you have a coin-flip chance it fixes your actual problem. Diagnose the miss first. Then buy the tool built for it.
Missing Left: The Pull
The Problem
Your putter face is closing before impact, or your path swings too far from inside the target line. Ball position too far back in your stance makes this worse because you catch the ball early in your stroke arc, when the face still has closing rotation left in it. If your 6-footers are missing 2 to 3 inches left and it happens on breaking putts and straight putts alike, this is a path and face problem, not a green-reading problem.
The Fix: Wellstroke Instinct ($75)
The Wellstroke Instinct is a printed arc-path mat with a foot grid and a putter-face alignment line. It comes in 12, 15, and 18-degree arc options, and Golfer Geeks rated it 5.0 out of 5, calling it the most effective putting motion trainer they had tested. Set your putter on the printed arc line and make slow-motion strokes, watching where your face points relative to the path at the top of your backstroke. A pull usually shows up immediately: the face is closing faster than the arc dictates. Ten minutes a day for two weeks retrains the sequencing so the face stays square to the arc through impact, not ahead of it.
Skip: The classic Putting Arc Co. trainer ($50-$70) if you want app-based drills. Wellstroke includes a free companion app with 50-plus drills designed by coach Cameron McCormick. The plain arc board gives you the same physical guide with zero digital support.
Also worth a look: The EyeLine Putting Alignment Mirror ($35) if your pull is really an eye-position problem. Stand over it and check whether your eyes sit inside the target line. Eyes set too far inside the ball is a common hidden cause of a closed face at address that nobody diagnoses correctly.
Missing Right: The Push
The Problem
Your face is open at impact, or your path is cutting across the ball from outside to in. Ball position too far forward compounds this because you meet the ball late in your stroke, before the face has squared up. If your misses cluster right of the hole on putts you were sure were dead straight, this is a face-angle problem, and it needs direct feedback, not a stroke-path drill.
The Fix: Visio Putting Gate ($47)
The Visio Putting Gate is an adjustable gate that sits just past your putter head at address. Narrow the gate to a hair wider than your putter face and any push shows up instantly: the putter clips the gate on the way through. EyeLine Golf, which makes a competing product, publishes the same diagnosis on its own site: rotating the putter around your spine on a consistent path is the fix for both pulls and pushes, and a gate forces that rotation because there is no room to cut across it. Mid-handicappers who push putts almost always have too much hand action and not enough shoulder rotation. The gate punishes the hand action within the first few strokes.
Skip: Buying the gate before you know your miss direction. A gate set for a push does nothing for a pull, and vice versa. Diagnose first.
Also worth a look: The PuttOut Pressure Putt Trainer ($30) for overall stroke feedback once your face angle is fixed. It won’t diagnose a push on its own, but it will tell you immediately if your newly-squared face is delivering the right pace, since a mishit with good pace still gets swallowed while a mishit with bad pace gets spit back out.
What I Would Actually Buy
If you know you pull putts, get the Wellstroke Instinct ($75) alone and use it for two weeks before buying anything else. If you know you push, get the Visio Putting Gate ($47) and the PuttOut Pressure Putt Trainer ($30) together for $77, that combination fixes face angle and pace in the same session. If you genuinely don’t know which one you do, start with the EyeLine Putting Alignment Mirror ($35) for a week. It will show you exactly where your eyes and face sit at address, which tells you which fault you actually have before you spend another dollar.
Total for the full diagnostic kit, mirror plus gate plus pressure trainer, runs $112. That is less than a single lesson with most teaching pros, and you get to keep the equipment.
Where to Buy
- Wellstroke Instinct $75 at Amazon
- Visio Putting Gate $47 at Amazon
- EyeLine Putting Alignment Mirror $35 at Amazon
- PuttOut Pressure Putt Trainer $30 at Amazon
Prices verified July 2026. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.