Reading the Green

Reading greens...Is this challenging or what ?

Those three PUTTS are killing me.....I put to where I intend to and most of the time at the right speed...but cannot read Greens yet !!!(4 years into this bizzare game) What mechanism works best for reading greens ?

I read the break backwards (from the hole to the ball). As the ball slows down, it will take more and more of the break. Where the ball is first struck, it is going at its fastest speed and the break will be the least.

I a simple 1 break putt that is at a consistant angle, imagine the ball rolling into the part of the hole that is the high side of the cup. Start to draw an imaginary curveing line from a point about 1 foot away. If there is a lot of break, then you will almost be at the top of the cup.

From there, you break the putt in half. Read the line that it would take to putt from where a streight line intersecting your ball and where the 1 foot putt would start. This will have a break of x feet. Take that distance and add half of that. That will be the amount of break the ball should take.

Example Here

The average person sees only 33% of the actual break play more break than you and your putts will end up closer to the hole.

Speed is 4 times more important than you line you can read the break correctly but if you stroke the ball too hard your putt will end up far away from the hole, if your stroke is tentative you will end up very short of the hole. Proper speed and the ball will die into the hole.

Use this as an aid, visualize dumping a bucket of water into the hole, now see where the water would drift off to. If the water is drifting to the right then play a left to right break. This works great

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Jordy Scerbo
Golf Instructor

I'm a solid two-putt from just about anywhere on the green (this isn't to say I don't three jack, I just don't do it very often). If I'm out side 10 feet, I'll always play the general break - which is the way I figure most of the putt will move. So if the green is higher on the left and lower on the right, I'll usually give myself 3" to the left for the first putt.

That being said, inside 10 feet, like Greg said, the last 3-5 feet of break is the most important, as it will wreak havoc on a ball with the proper weight. (Little tip - a fast moving ball tends to ignore break... and will similarily ignore the cup, too )

Then I try to figure out (strictly art here, not much science) how much the ball will move between it's current placement and the hole. I aim to a spot beside the hole on the high side of the break, and give 'er a tap.

Remember: If you three putt, it's because your first putt sucked!

Sometimes we look to hard at a put and this causes confusion in the brain and this results in a missed put even from a few feet.

The brain is really quite a simple thing, this is why you have heard all golf pundits say "your first line is usually right one".

How true is this in all golf shots, the minute you question the wind, lie, distance or indeed the line, you inevitably miss.

I have discovered with putting only since I have had my own green fitted at home (see Huxley Golf thread) I have started knocking putts in at a faster pace.

I am convinced this is because I am now used to the break needed and the speed of my putts has increased I am now holing more putts from longer distances.

It always comes back to confidence How many times do you read a putt then stand over the ball and become unsure of the line you have just decided to hit the ball on.

My advice is to go with your inital thought then clear your mind before you hit the ball.

Hope this helps

Ian.

I have a golfing buddy who could sink putts from anywhere on the practice green, but once he got on the course he would only hit the ball 5 feet on a 10 foot putt, then hit it 10 feet on the 5 foot putt. I asked him why he thought there was such a difference between the course and the practice green and his reply was "the putt doesn't mean anything on the practice green." He just went with his gut feeling and hit the ball. Once he was on the course, he was over-analyzing everything and forgot how hard he needed to hit the ball. The best advice for putting I can give is to line up your putt with whichever break you read. From there, TRUST YOUR LINE.

If you don't trust your line, you won't be able to get the proper weight on your putt. For example, if you think your line might be a bit inside the correct line, you will hit the putt a bit firmer than normal to take a little bit of the break out. If you miss, you will probably have over 3 feet for your second putt. The same if you think you are lined up outside the correct line - you will proably try to let the break carry it to the hole, leaving yourself a 3 or 4 foot downhill putt. TRUST YOUR LINE and only try to judge the correct weight - it's amazing how many more putts you will make.

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Gord

Quote of the month:
"It's easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister's fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification." ~Bruce McCall

I always like to analyse the green as I am approaching it. I first look to see where the highest point of the green is, then the lowest to determine the way the slopes on the green form. Also, on some courses there are certain features, like a lake where many of the greens slope towards!

Check out the green below, I imagine this causes some problems in the monthly medal!

I guess pitching while on the green would happen a lot...