Rim Out

In a Rim Out the ball runs with too much tempo toward the Cup, hits the lip and circles the hole for a stretch without dropping. In German people often call it Lip Out, even though strictly speaking that refers to any putt spinning past the lip. The Rim Out is the most spectacular variant: The ball seems to be in the hole already and changes its mind at the last moment. Under the rules the matter is clear — only what comes to rest in the hole has dropped.

In practice the Rim Out almost always comes down to too much speed. An example: You putt a downhill putt from three meters, strike it a touch too firmly, the ball jumps off the far lip of the hole and spins back out. If the putt had had hole tempo — that is, enough to run at most half a meter past the hole — it would certainly have dropped. On fast, hard greens this happens more often, because the ball jumps off the lip on impact instead of settling in.

The typical misconception: "But the ball was in." No — the rulebook knows no "almost". Only when the ball comes to rest below the lip of the hole is it deemed holed. Still, that is no reason to putt anxiously. Anyone who merely pushes every Putt up to the hole leaves too many short attempts standing. The solution is the right balance: confidently aggressive on short putts, with feel on long ones.