HIT IT HARD FROM FIVE FEET OR LESS
Nobody wants to miss a short putt; it's a stroke lost that could have been saved so easily. Short hitters especially face many putts in that knee knocking, character-building three to five-foot range because they often depend on chipping or pitching, then one-putting to make par. The most agonizing way to miss a close-range putt is to hit it softly and watch it break below the hole, or worse, hang on the lip, just short. As of right now, vow you'll never again miss a five-footer by being tentative. In this range, always be firm.
The pros take this approach. Watch any tournament on television and you'll see that, nine times out of ten, they rattle the short ones in hard rather than trying to slip them over the front edge.
Two simple guidelines:
1) Play less break never aim outside either edge (unless there's severe contour); and
2) hit everything firm enough to bounce the ball off the back of the cup.
The only time you should abandon this aggressive strategy is when the greens are extremely fast and you risk sending the ball way past. It's true that once in a while you'll miss with the hard-hitting approach, but you'll make a lot more short putts by hitting them firmly than you will by stroking them softly.