Reading the greens

I play a course with subtly undulating greens that I find almost impossible to read. I was hitting the ball great yesterday but shot a 91 partly because I three putted eight or nine times and never made a birdy putt of course.

What makes it even more frustrating is that I have a good putting stroke but I just can't read the line, although my pace is not too bad. On more than one occassion I completely mis-read the borrow, thinking the putt would break from the right only to find it breaking even further away to the left.

The course itself is also very undulating (you rarely get a flat lie) so there are few horizontal surfaces to use as a reference point when you're on the green.

Does anyone have any good tips on how to read greens? This could make a huge difference to my scores.

If you play this course regularily, the best bet is to bring a note pad with you and keep track of each green and which direction they break. Note the pin position each time as well. Carry this note pad with you each time out and soon you will know how much it breaks.

Well, there's quite a few different articles at different sites about this, golfdigest.com for one.

Personally, I go into 'pro mode' when on the green (although it often takes 3 shots to get there).

I stand behind my ball, making a line from me to ball to hole (X-o-O), and get as low as I can before looking past my ball at the hole. If you've ever looked at 'magic pictures' (you have to look 'past' the picture to see it), you'll know what I'm talking about. This gives me an overall impression of the left/right breaks, and shows any switchbacks.

Then, I take a profile of my putt where I stand between my ball and the hole, often 20 feet away or more (o-X-O). This lets me know where the tiers are (if any), and basically lets me know if I'm putting uphill or down.

Finally, I crouch right behind my ball (Xo-O), and plumb-bob with my putter, looking with only my dominant eye, and bisect the hole. If half the hole seems higher than the other half, this indicates the 'final break' (away from the high side). I say 'final break', because this break will affect your ball the most as it slows down near the hole.