How do you read greens?

[HawkeyeMS]

Sounds like a read issue to me. Balls adhere to the laws of gravity, they don't break uphill!

For what it's worth, I do this...

Once I have established what way the break is I move uphill until I am on a line that feels like it would be a practically straight putt. I then go back to my ball, keeping the "straight putt" line in my vision and make my aim line roughly the mid point of the "straight putt" line. I try not to analyse it too much and will often adjust it to what feels right. Before I putt I look at the part of the hole where I expect the ball to go in (ie. on the straight putt line much the way GMac explains it is this months mag) but my focus then is not the hole, it is my aim line. I then switch off and hit it. It doesn't take long to do but I finding the straight putt line does give you an appreciation of the slope. I think this is a much less scientific version of aimpoint

When I first started doing this I was amazed at how far away from the hole you have to aim but it didn't take long to trust it. If for any reason I'm not sure I always go with more break than less.

 

[ManinBlack]

When I first started doing this I was amazed at how far away from the hole you have to aim but it didn't take long to trust it. If for any reason I'm not sure I always go with more break than less.

If you watch professional golf you'll see that even the pros miss more often on the low side.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

When in doubt with a strait [ish] putt look at the hole cup line, from low down and it will generally fall one way.
That is the direction the ball will travel in if you have judged the pace correctly.

I have always believed that the pace of the putt is vital to good putting. A dieing ball will have nearly 5" of the hole cup to drop into whereas a charged putt only has about 2"

 

[patricks148]

Not wishing to have a dig at you old boy but; you have said in prev posts you are a good ball striker and hit it a long way, now you say you are a good putter... I'm I missing something, why are you still of 18? Do u keep missing your tee times in comps?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

How confident are you that your actually hitting the ball where you think you are???? it's very common seeing people read a putt, pick their spot stand up to the ball and are actually aiming nowhere near where they think they are.

Good point well made. I have been working hard for a while now on my aim and set up with my putting mirror and the old raised string routine. Unless I pull or push a putt, it is rare for me to be out on my line up. Now the push and pulls are a different matter at the moment!

 

[drdel]

Generally when playing a new course I try and judge the overall slope of the land while walking up the fairway. Then I try and keep this in mind when looking at the slopes of the actual green to see if they add or detract from my thoughts on the overall slope.

 

[Khamelion]

Not wishing to have a dig at you old boy but; you have said in prev posts you are a good ball striker and hit it a long way, now you say you are a good putter... I'm I missing something, why are you still of 18? Do u keep missing your tee times in comps?

I can strike the ball well, I can hit it a fair distance, I didn't say I was a good putter, I said I can get the length correct most of the time, but I struggle to read greens, hence this post. Yesterdays comp would've been a cut in HC, bar three holes which screwed my card and I know why and hope Tuesday at the grove will help sort that, but that's a different thread.

It could be with the putts that I've never really bothered about lining them up, I've just had a quick look and hit the ball, but the gotcha is this season with me wanting to lower my HC, I'm taking more notice of what the ball does and seeing the subtleties of the greens. Very probably, possibly the more I line puts up the more I'll get to understand the breaks.

I had thought about going up to the course one night and mapping the greens, breaking them down into 1/4's and putt balls from each 1/4 to see how it rolls and make a note book of each green. I still may do this.

 

[3565]

I really can't understand why, when players get to the green just have a quick look, don't bother lining up and hit it in the general direction of the hole and hope it's good enough!!! Not personally attacking you Khamelion here I'm just saying a lot of players do the same thing. Putting is a game within a game and the object is to find the bottom of the cup in the least amount of shots possible.

 

[Khamelion]

I really can't understand why, when players get to the green just have a quick look, don't bother lining up and hit it in the general direction of the hole and hope it's good enough!!! Not personally attacking you Khamelion here I'm just saying a lot of players do the same thing. Putting is a game within a game and the object is to find the bottom of the cup in the least amount of shots possible.

I understand what you're saying and I agree, not lining a putt up is tantamount to stupidity and up until about a month prior to H4H last year I hadn't really done so, nor had any inclination to do so. Just getting the ball on the green was sufficient what I did next was just hit the ball, if it went in then great if not, then meh, whatever.

Then however I putt three cards in got my HC so I had an official HC for H4H and since then I line putts up.

 

[3565]

I understand what you're saying and I agree, not lining a putt up is tantamount to stupidity and up until about a month prior to H4H last year I hadn't really done so, nor had any inclination to do so. Just getting the ball on the green was sufficient what I did next was just hit the ball, if it went in then great if not, then meh, whatever.

Then however I putt three cards in got my HC so I had an official HC for H4H and since then I line putts up.

personally go and have a lesson with your pro to understand green reading. It's an art in itself.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

If you watch professional golf you'll see that even the pros miss more often on the low side.

Don't they call the high side the pro side and the low side the amateur side? (I'm not saying your wrong by the way)

 

[MashieNiblick]

Funnily enough I had one of these yesterday. I had a 15 footer left to right across a green that slopes down from the back right to left front. I aim above the hole and it breaks further up towards the back right. It definitely broke, I saw the ball curve away.

One of my FC's had almost the same putt and did the same thing. He read it the same as me and simply couldn't believe mine broke "up" the hill and thought I must have miss hit it.

Can only assume there is a very slight ridge where the hole was causing the ball to fall away in the last couple of feet.

Left my self a 15 incher back which despite the evidence of the first putt looked like it was slightly down hill. Think my brain was a bit scrambled as I missed it (weak and right) for a double bogey blob and an almost certain 0.1.