Is there anything more agonizing than coming up just short on a long par putt? Everything seemed to align perfectly, yet there you are, tapping in for bogey. When you have too much loft on your putter, you’ll find yourself experiencing this more often than you’d like.

Loft is necessary to move the ball out of its depression in the green and into a smooth roll. But too much loft causes the ball to jump into the air immediately after impact and bounce along the green. The ball doesn’t have the chance to get into an end-over-end roll. And without the momentum of a true roll, your ball is going to lose distance.

One of the greatest putters in the game, Phil Mickelson, once used a whopping 7 degrees of loft on his putter. But that’s because he pressed so far forward through his putting stroke that he reduced the dynamic loft, and needed more static loft to compensate.

Most off-the-shelf putters come with 3 degrees of loft. But is that right for your stroke?