I can't read a flipping green to save my life.

[IanM]

4 things....

1) A quick walk to check from behind the hole and one look from each side makes a big difference.
2) Get on the green first if you can a point of 'tending the flag if possible.. see what others do. Always watch the other putts before yours...what do they do?
3) Go out and play on your own late one evening and putt from all over to the usual pin positions... and
4) Make a sketch map of your home course greens over the next few weeks add arrows for the slopes as you find them out. (or mark arrows on the Strokesaver if you have one)


...sometimes your brain doesn't register! I've been playing Burnham annually for 20 years and the first green always catches me out! Maybe I need to redo number 4

 

[smange]

A very simple guide (by an idiot) on how aimpoint works so you should be able to get the gist from there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKxTlCCspqc&t=14s

So a fellow golfer comes on asking for green reading advice and you suggest he watches a video of a mid-handicapper giving out the basics of Aimpoint in which the said mid-handicapper misses every single putt using the technique!

Seriously? If that's what advice you give out I think you really should stop.

To the OP.....go get a lesson from your pro, it will be cheaper than Aimpoint initially and if you find you want to try Aimpoint in the future then give it a go but if the problem is seeing slopes I don't know how Aimpoint will help as you still need to actually acknowledge the slope before you stick your fingers in the air to "judge" the break.

 

[Wabinez]

So a fellow golfer comes on asking for green reading advice and you suggest he watches a video of a mid-handicapper giving out the basics of Aimpoint in which the said mid-handicapper misses every single putt using the technique!

Seriously? If that's what advice you give out I think you really should stop.

To the OP.....go get a lesson from your pro, it will be cheaper than Aimpoint initially and if you find you want to try Aimpoint in the future then give it a go but if the problem is seeing slopes I don't know how Aimpoint will help as you still need to actually acknowledge the slope before you stick your fingers in the air to "judge" the break.

You don't see the slope...you feel the slope. I had my aimpoint clinic this morning...and it was very good. Just gotta practice and put it into play

 

[shortgame]

said mid-handicapper misses every single putt using the technique!

Seriously? If that's what advice you give out I think you really should stop.

Missing on the LOW side on home course greens already played 100's of times

Far better IMO to do the video on greens you don't know to get a genuine Aimpoint read

Video hasn't sold me on Aimpoint I'm afraid

 

[Marshy77]

Probably repeating what loads have said but have a couple of putting lessons. It's seriously improved my putting which at best was pretty bad. Like someone said alignment sticks will show you were your aiming which possibly isn't where you thought you would be aiming.

For the price of a couple of lessons it will be well worth it, I'm so glad I had a couple.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

You don't see the slope...you feel the slope. I had my aimpoint clinic this morning...and it was very good. Just gotta practice and put it into play

And that in essence is all I am trying to get across. Not snake oil or rocket science. A simple explanation and mid-handicap or not, it's not hard

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Just watched your video Homer. If nothing else it might give me a bit of confidence that I have a read of some kind rather than standing there clueless.

Cheers pal. It's a very simplistic version of how it works and while I know money is tight, getting onto a proper course at some point will make it much clearer. At least you have a rough, simplistic starting point and providing you putt better than I did in the video you'll be fine

 

[user2010]

So a fellow golfer comes on asking for green reading advice and you suggest he watches a video of a mid-handicapper giving out the basics of Aimpoint in which the said mid-handicapper misses every single putt using the technique!

Seriously? If that's what advice you give out I think you really should stop.

To the OP.....go get a lesson from your pro, it will be cheaper than Aimpoint initially and if you find you want to try Aimpoint in the future then give it a go but if the problem is seeing slopes I don't know how Aimpoint will help as you still need to actually acknowledge the slope before you stick your fingers in the air to "judge" the break.

Absolutely spot on bud.:thup::thup::clap:
Well said/typed.



Oh, and OP, if you're feeling depressed don't ffs watch that video or you'll be opening a vein, sharpish.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Bit like how I feel every time you post. So negative. So trolling

 

[user2010]

Boo Hoo.
You know what they say Homey, the truth hurts.:ears:

 

[Marshy77]

Knew this is how the thread would turn in to!!

Pathetic.

 

[Orikoru]

He was only showing the basics of what Aimpoint teaches, I appreciated it. The fact that he didn't hole the putts is neither here nor there. I'm only going to take the 'reading with your feet' aspect away from it anyway. The rest of it seems alien to me - I have no idea how you would judge what 2% or 3% of a slope is.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

He was only showing the basics of what Aimpoint teaches, I appreciated it. The fact that he didn't hole the putts is neither here nor there. I'm only going to take the 'reading with your feet' aspect away from it anyway. The rest of it seems alien to me - I have no idea how you would judge what 2% or 3% of a slope is.

Comes with practice and once you begin to attune your feet into what you consider a 1, 2, 3% slope and then use the appropriate number of fingers to give you a read, you can put a tee on the practice green and then putt to that, see how the break affects the ball and how well you do.

It does take practice. I still read a putt with my feet and think it feels for arguments sake a 2% break but when I get behind the ball again and look at the putt, think it may only be 1%. Sometimes I'll opt for the lower and be right and other times I should have trusted my read, so I know I need to get on the practice green and work on my feeling through the feet.

 

[shortgame]

The fact that he didn't hole the putts is neither here nor there

Most people underestimate the breaks

Aimpoint should fundamentally help with this

Therefore, my constructive critisism is not that the putts miss per se (a mid-capper wouldn't necessarily expect to hole them), more that they miss LOW (1st one by 50%) and don't look convincing

Appreciate HJS's efforts though

 

[Foxholer]

I don't understand how I'm so bad at this. At least twice a round there will be a putt that I think goes 6 inches left and actually it goes 6 inches right (which means it goes miles right by the time I've aimed that way). Upslopes and downslopes often look flat to me. Putts that look dead straight aren't straight at all. It feels like there's something wrong my eyes, or I have one long longer than the other or something....

I believe everyone gets reads wrong at times, for one reason or another! Touring Pros and their caddies get it right more often, purely because they have excellent green descriptions in their yardage books and/or they have a huge amount of experience! Just check the number of well hit shortish putts that actually miss the hole, some by a considerable amount, to confirm this!

Green reading, by eye, is as much about feel/envisaging as any other golf shot - and the need to do that is probably more apparent!

...
Sometimes having read the putt from several feet behind the ball, I'll address the ball to take the putt and now the slope looks different - bizarrely the read I get from this latter position is often the slightly more accurate read (which I wouldn't expect given that I'd be looking at it side-on with my head tilted by this point) - so it actually pays to second-guess myself.
...

A Putting Coach I had a (mini)lesson with stated that the line looks different when addressing the putt too. He actually suggested to avoid looking at the hole while over the putt, though if the line from address is more accurate from there, I'd suggest you adjust! But, in a practice session, keep a count of how many each method gets right/wrong!

...
I can't trust myself to read any green correctly, unless it's EXTREMELY obvious. Has anyone got any tips or advice that can help with this?? Bear in mind I don't have any spare cash to put into lessons right now, I'm just looking for literally any advice that might help. One thing I started doing was taking the whole green and the surrounding terrain into account more, this helps sometimes, but other times it does more harm than good (i.e. a severe slope in the background can make a light slope in the foreground look flat).

I'm clueless. Any advice welcome.

Course designers are often sneaky, using surrounding slopes to 'disguise' the slope, or lack of it, of greens! Plumb-bobbing may help in these cases - or may add to the confusion!. Just remember that any slope that is behind the hole is not going to affect your putt!

Be positive! And remember that while we see a lot of TV shots of great putts from Pros, the average distance where they only make 50% of putts is a pretty short one - about 7-feet!

Practice your lag putts! Getting within 2-3 feet from long distance will save you more shots than improving your 7-10 foot success percentage slightly!

 

[Orikoru]

Most people underestimate the breaks

Aimpoint should fundamentally help with this

Therefore, my constructive critisism is not that the putts miss per se (a mid-capper wouldn't necessarily expect to hole them), more that they miss LOW (1st one by 50%) and don't look convincing

Appreciate HJS's efforts though

Well, my take on it was that he was demonstrating the Aimpoint method which at the time he'd only just learned so he wasn't experienced in it and thus underestimated the breaks he was feeling. Obviously anything takes practise. Maybe he should have used it for a few months before making the video and might have shown better results! For me it's still worth a try as my eyes clearly let me down badly.

 

[Orikoru]

Be positive! And remember that while we see a lot of TV shots of great putts from Pros, the average distance where they only make 50% of putts is a pretty short one - about 7-feet!

Practice your lag putts! Getting within 2-3 feet from long distance will save you more shots than improving your 7-10 foot success percentage slightly!

It's actually lag putts I was referring to... well all putts really. If I misread the lag putt it can leave me too far away to hole the 2nd putt. I'm too worried about holing 10 footers as that's just a bonus to me - I'm trying to eliminate 3 putts first and foremost. Getting the right reads is going to be crucial for that.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Well, my take on it was that he was demonstrating the Aimpoint method which at the time he'd only just learned so he wasn't experienced in it and thus underestimated the breaks he was feeling. Obviously anything takes practise. Maybe he should have used it for a few months before making the video and might have shown better results! For me it's still worth a try as my eyes clearly let me down badly.

Actually I've been using it a while so I can't use that as an excuse. I didn't putt well on the video but I think that was a lot to do with trying to explain stuff on camera, be aware of people coming onto the first tee behind me and simply putting a bad stroke on the putt. No amount of green reading will compensate if you don't set the ball at the hole at a good speed. However, while the putts didn't go in (or threaten) they were simple two putts

 

[Foxholer]

It's actually lag putts I was referring to... well all putts really. If I misread the lag putt it can leave me too far away to hole the 2nd putt. I'm too worried about holing 10 footers as that's just a bonus to me - I'm trying to eliminate 3 putts first and foremost. Getting the right reads is going to be crucial for that.

Then you make sure your 'distance control' improves - that's what I really meant by 'lag putts'! Getting the 1st putt within a dustbin lid - preferably past - is the key. It takes a considerable miss-read, or big/early slope, to miss even very long putts by that much, but it's very easy to leave lag putts woefully short!

You may well also be being too hard on yourself in any case! Try simply concentrating on getting the distance right!

 

[shortgame]

Actually I've been using it a while so I can't use that as an excuse. I didn't putt well on the video but I think that was a lot to do with trying to explain stuff on camera, be aware of people coming onto the first tee behind me and simply putting a bad stroke on the putt. No amount of green reading will compensate if you don't set the ball at the hole at a good speed. However, while the putts didn't go in (or threaten) they were simple two putts

The honking horn probably didn't help either 😅👍👍