Leaving putts short

I have terrible trouble leaving putts short. I've tried taking a longer backswing and just letting the ball get in the way of the stroke, and a shorter backswing with more of a positive hit at the ball. But still the nearer I get to the hole the more tentative I get. Any tips?

Hit it a little bit harder, Stuart.  What I do on shorter putts is to line up, get in the stance, take one look at the hole, close my eyes and visualise it dropping to gauge the weight, look at the hole and then hit it.  Aim for the back lip of the hole.

Totally agree with Kevin. Striking the ball with enough pace to go 6 inches past the hole at least gives you a chance of holing out, if you keep leaving it short then your never going to get those scores down and as they say " Drive for show, Putt for dough!" So be bold!

I don't think of anything other than trying to hole every putt. Common sense tells me that I won't do it but that doesn't stop me trying. I don't like the idea of putting to dustbin lids and suchlike.

must admit that i agree with some comments and dis aagree with others!

I am a firm believer in the never up never in philosphy and do aim a little beyound the whole if it werent there, how ever i do tend to play for bin lids when facing monster puts, maybe JP is happy going all out to sink anything  25 ft and above but us mere mortals at the higher end of the golfing world need to do things a little different! i am sure you remember what it was like as an double figured handicapper dont you JP!

I have always left 95% of my putts short.  Last week though at St. Andrews I putted the likes of which I've never seen before.  From 60 feet away I was leaving putts within near tap in range, or even making one here and there.  Go figure.  The hardest greens in the world and I'm putting like Tiger Woods.  Seriously, I've never had such a good week.  Easily averaged around 32 putts for 6 rounds and considering some of these putts are over 60 feet, that was amazing.

Then I get back to the normal slow greens here in London and what do I do?  Now I have a 20 foot putt and hit it 10 feet short OR 20 feet long!  Now that's a change. 

So maybe it's all a matter of confidence.  Because when I hit my first few putts right on the money at St. Andrews and on those greens, I felt dialed in for the rest of the week.  It just fed on itself and it was so much fun.

The other thing I do when putting, and I'm not sure if anyone else does this, but when I stand over the putt I look at the hole and and slowly take my eyes back along the line of the putt in order to judge some sort of speed.  I go back and forth at least twice just trying to dial in a distance.  

One thing I've done to practice this visualization is to sometimes just look at the hole and then putt without ever looking back at the ball.  Something about that distance in my sight transfers into my body and I've always been closer to the hole that way than when I look back at the ball.  Danger however is that when I hit the ball without looking at it, the ground sometimes gets in the way.  So I don't do that much during a round, just on the practice greens.  But it's that thought that I'm trying to get connected between my eyes and my muscles for distance putts. 

Michael, you have just experienced what it is like to putt on greens that are fast and true, greens that the pros play on all the time, that is why they develop a good  consistent stroke.