Just like with your full swing, your putting stroke needs to be a smooth and flowing motion, with a relatively full finish.

A great drill to use quickly before a round to refine your stroke's rhythm is to hit five or six medium-length putts while looking at the hole, not the ball.

By focusing your eyes on the hole, you lose the "hit instinct" that players tend to get when they fixate on the ball.

Instead, you are better in tune with the rhythm of your stroke, much in the same way that a full practice swing - when there's no ball - is always more fluid and rhythmic than the swing you make when you set up to the ball. Looking at the hole, your putting stroke will be smoother and longer through the ball, instead of an abbreviated "jabbing" motion.

If you find that you tend to lose this rhythmic motion after a few holes, you might want to incorporate a few practice putts while looking at the hole into your regular pre-putt routine.