READING THE GREENS
W L
GOLF
READING THE GREENS
BY TOM ATKINSON , PGA GOLF PROFESSIONAL
As you well know , and if you don ' t then you should do , putting is the glue that will hold any round of golf together , unless you ' ve holed out from off the green then you will be required to putt .
This is made considerably easier if you can read the green , is it an art ? Something you ' re born to do ? or Can it be learned ?
Maybe a bit of all three ... Let ’ s help you to learn it .
Most if not all greens will have an element of side slope to them , after all they need to drain . The first thing you could do is to imagine how running water would move across the surface , but have a think about that before you even get to your ball , often you can learn more about a green complex by looking at it from further away , start your process as you are making your approach to the green .
You ' ve ascertained its general slope , so time to go into more detail , but be careful , nobody can read the exact break , why ? As you don ' t know one vital part of the calculation , how hard you ' re going to hit it ? You know how hard you ' d like to hit it and how hard you need to hit and therefore you can get the break pretty accurately , long story short , the distance or speed is always going to be more important .
My favourite bit of advice is to use the next tee to do a 360 survey of your putt . Walk past the ball on the green looking at the slopes from that side , put your clubs by the next tee and then walk back to the ball on the opposite side of the ball , again doing a survey , you will see the slopes more clearly but also your subconscious will feel them under your feet .
As a rule of thumb , you want to apply more borrow to a downhill putt , mainly because you won ’ t need to hit it as hard thus allowing the ball more time to curve , to the contrary an uphill putt being hit harder will want to keep its initial start line for longer .
Still can ’ t see or feel it ? How about this , imagine a dead straight line from your ball to the front of the hole , now imagine hitting it with enough speed to drop in at dead weight , now , given the slope , how far underneath the hole do you think the ball will finish if hit along that line . Experience tells me that an initial aim of let ’ s say 3 ' left of the cup will become as much as 3-4 ' when using this visualisation . That said , if the end result would be 3 ' right then the aim point for the putt needs to be 3 ' left , as in the picture , a target that will seem outrageous upon first glance when you retake your address , but , trust it !
Make sure you have a unit of measurement too , so often I ’ ve asked my students for a read , " a bit left to right " I hear , I ’ m not sure Paul Hollywood uses a ' bit of flour ' when baking his cakes . Make sure you ' re clear in your mind by using specific units , the edge or half of the hole , the ball or something in the distance beyond , say a penalty area post etc . Now you should be set to go , and even if you ’ ve not got it spot on , you will at least think you have and therefore will be able to pull the trigger with more confidence and authority . Using a line on the ball isn ’ t necessarily for everybody but if you have been struggling then I would try it , I actually use a pair of lines to create a crosshair , the long line I will point at my aim point and the shorter line I use to align my putter face to , this way I can get a clearer picture of square .
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