The best lesson to take from the above is that you really never are going to achieve putting perfection. If a machine in perfect working under operating under perfect putting conditions fails to hole every golf putt, then a human being with all his or her imperfections never is.

So, the first tip is, stop giving yourself such a hard time whenever you miss a few putts. It happens to even top professional golfers. In fact, any problem you have with putting is much more likely to be psychological than physical, so the very last thing you should be doing is getting down on yourself mentally; this can only make matters worse.

Is there anything you can do if you really do have severe, regular putting problems? Well, apart from working on the mental side of things to inculcate strong belief that you really can putt (try some self-hypnosis tapes etc.) the best tip is to see if a change of putter will do the trick. Take your lead from the professionals. So many professional golfers who've suffered terribly from the 'yips' on the putting green, such as Bernhard Langer, found their salvation in the broom handle putter and perhaps this could help with your putting game?