Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.

Three-footers are often scooped up on the weekends, but when you’re playing for something, these putts can make the knees shake. Pros and other high-level players are quite good at making these testers. Weekend warriors? Not so much.

Leaving your lag putts inside the leather should always be the goal, but that’s only half the battle. To make those lag putts really count, you’ve got to make the clean-up putt, too.

The shorties are easy to ignore, but crucial for scoring. A three-footer might not seem like much, but once you miss a couple, they can make you sweat. Everyone — pros included — has missed a three-footer before, and it’s never a fun experience.

The only way to make sure you’re up to snuff on these putts is to practice them (obviously). But instead of mindlessly swiping away on the putting green, you should go into the practice session with a goal.

In the video below, Phil Mickelson details the key to making all your three-footers, and a great drill to help you practice it.

The 25-75 rule

Mickelson has wowed fans with his wedge play his entire career, but he’s tidy with a putter in his hands, too. And some of that can be attributed to a tip he learned from Jackie Burke Jr.

“The trick that Jackie Burke taught me is 25-75,” Mickelson said. “We want to go back 25 percent [and] through 75 percent. That really helped me because when I was going so long [in the backstroke] my face angle would move as I would ease into the ball.”

By shortening the backstroke, it gave Mickelson’s putter face less time to open or close during the stroke. And additionally, it promoted a more aggressive stroke through the ball.

“I want to hit this ball aggressively, but still have it die into the hole,” he said. “That’s the basis for the technique.”

To practice this when hitting his three-footers, Mickelson used what he called the three-foot circle drill where he set up 10 tees in a three-foot circle around the cup. Before he would leave the putting green, Mickelson would go around this circle until he made 100 putts in a row.

“I do it three or four times a week while I’m competing,” Mickelson said. “This is the foundation of it.”

If you can remember 25-75 while doing this drill, you’re sure to make more than your fair share of three-footers.

Tour veteran Phil Mickelson doesn’t see a future with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan at the helm of the golfing body.

Phil Mickelson had previously told Jon Rahm he has no reason to join LIV Golf, but will no doubt be over the moon to see the Spaniard make the move to the breakaway league

Phil Mickelson has welcomed Jon Rahm to LIV Golf despite having previously told the Masters champion that he had ‘no reason’ to join the Saudi-backed series.

Rahm became the latest big-name player to join the LIV Golf setup, after signing a record-breaking deal worth a reported £450 million earlier this week. In doing so he follows in the footsteps of a number of fellow greats, including Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Mickelson.

On the back of his Saudi switch on Thursday, Rahm has received a number of well-wishes from his new LIV colleagues, and good friend Mickelson has become the latest after taking to X.

“In life you want good things to happen to good people,” the six-time major champion tweeted. “Happy for Jon Rahm.” Rahm’s move from the PGA Tour came as a shock to many, despite numerous reports linking the Spaniard to the rebel league in recent weeks.

Previously the green jacket winner has rubbished his chances of ever signing with the LIV setup. Most recently he told the Golf Sin Etiquetas podcast that he would ‘laugh’ when is name was linked with the Saudi switch, and also revealed he had been told by Mickelson to remain with the PGA Tour.

“I laugh when people rumour me with LIV Golf,” Rahm said in August. “I never liked the format. And I always have a good time with Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia in the practice rounds of majors. Phil [Mickelson] respects my decision, and I respect his [choice].

“Mickelson has told me that I have no reason to go play for LIV, and he has told me that multiple times.” In the weeks leading up to Rahm’s move, Fire Pit Collective’s Alan Shipnuck claimed Mickelson had already been confirming that a deal was done, a report the former PGA champion went on to play down.

Rahm himself was quizzed on whether Mickelson had played any part in his change of heart, but insisted he had held no conversations with his good friend. “[Mickelson played] no role at all. All those players on LIV are finding out shortly after we’re doing this Q&A. No role at all.

“He’s somebody I lean on to for advice as I’ve always done but not somebody I’ve talked to. I know he wishes I could’ve talked to him but it’s not something I could’ve done.” It remains to be seen what the future holds for Rahm’s PGA Tour and DP World Tour career on the back of his Saudi switch.

With negotiations between the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) ongoing, Rahm hopes he can play across all three tours when a deal is finally signed off. “I do want to maintain my PGA Tour and DP World Tour status,” he claimed.

“I will not give that up. Hopefully with the freedom LIV gives me I can play both those tours. There are certain PGA Tour events I want to play as long as my schedule allows. If possible, I want to make that happen.”

Phil Mickelson on Wednesday said a revised agreement “kind of opens the door” for other PGA Tour players to join the LIV Golf League, with the six-time major championPhil Mickelson on Wednesday said a revised agreement “kind of opens the door” for other PGA Tour players to join the LIV Golf League, with the six-time major championPhil Mickelson on Wednesday said a revised agreement “kind of opens the door” for other PGA Tour players to join the LIV Golf League, with the six-time major champion hinting that the breakaway league’s roster is “going to improve next year.”

“Do I think that? No. I know that’s going to happen,” Mickelson said at a news conference at Trump National Doral Golf Club outside Miami, the site of this weekend’s LIV Golf League team championship. “When players look at LIV, they are wanting to be a part of it. Everybody here is happy and enjoying what we are doing and enjoying the team aspect of it and enjoying each other and the camaraderie and enjoying playing golf globally and all the benefits that come with playing this tour.

“There’s a lot of players that see that and want to be a part of it. The question is how many spots are available? There’s a lot more players that want to come than there are spots.”

The framework agreement that the PGA Tour reached with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the DP World Tour on June 6 included a provision that the LIV Golf League would stop recruiting players from the other tours. That language, however, was later removed from the agreement because of pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

There are expected to be at least three open spots — and perhaps a few more — for players to join the LIV Golf League in 2024.

In a letter sent to LIV Golf commissioner Greg Norman and COO Gary Davidson on Oct. 10, Official World Golf Ranking chairman Peter Dawson said that the OWGR’s governing board had unanimously rejected LIV Golf’s application for world-ranking points in part because the circuit was too much of a closed shop.

In the letter, Dawson said LIV Golf League officials told the board that 14 players would be guaranteed one of the 48 roster spots for 2024, regardless of their performance this season. The top 24 in the season-long points race can return the next season.

According to the letter, LIV Golf League officials confirmed to OWGR that as few as four new players would be joining the league in 2024 — three from an upcoming promotions event and one, Andy Ogletree, from the Asian Tour International Series. Dawson did write that LIV Golf League officials were “projecting a higher turnover rate.”

Chase Koepka, James Piot, Jed Morgan and Sihwan Kim are in line to be relegated from the league because of their finishes in the individual points race. They can get back into the league by finishing in the top three in the promotion tournament later this year.

Mickelson, captain of HyFlyers GC, was asked about Piot, the 2021 U.S. Amateur winner, earning back his roster spot.

“The reality is, I’ve been fielding calls, as we all have, from players that are agents to PGA Tour players, to DP World Tour players that want to come over,” Mickelson said. “It’s probably going to be filled by the time the qualifying tournament is here. If I’m just being truthful, that’s a very real possibility.”

Mickelson also joined Bryson DeChambeau by calling on the four major championships to create new pathways for LIV Golf League golfers to compete in the sport’s biggest events.

“I think that the majors need to protect their product, and there’s probably other ways that they can do that by creating slots,” Mickelson said. “If they want to make sure they have the best fields in golf, they could create vehicles for players on LIV to play in majors where they don’t have to use the OWGR, which would undermine the TV contract and revenue of the PGA Tour if they gave points to LIV.”