The purpose of this study was to identify critical parameters of a putting performance using jerk cost function. Jerk is the time rate of change of acceleration and it has been suggested that a skilled performance is characterized by decreased jerk magnitude. Four elite golfers($handicap{leq}2$) and 4 novice golfers participated in this study for the comparison. The 3D kinematic data were collected for each subject performing 5 trials of putts for each of these distances (random order): 1m, 3m, 5m The putting stroke was divided into 3 phases such as back swing. down swing and follow-through. In this study, it was assumed that there exist smoothness difference between elite and novice golfers during putting. The distance and jerk-cost function of Putting stroke for each phase were analyzed Results showed that there was a significant difference in jerk cost function at putter toe (at media-lateral direction) and at the center of mass between two groups by increasing putting distance. From these it could be concluded that jerk can be used as a kinematic parameter for distinguishing elite and novice golfers.