Green Reading How to become a better putter
Green Reading How to become a better putter by understanding greens.
Slopes 1. Obviously, every green that you play on was manufactured by the course designer. Without getting too confusing, you need to understand that there are two important principles in understanding the slopes on greens… A. Drainage of water *This is important because greens can be sensitive and require great care to maintain throughout the year. Therefore, controlling the water on the greens is a must and the drainage areas on greens is crucial in maintaining consistent putting surfaces. B. General/local terrain and how they affect the high/low points of the green. *You have to understand where you are playing. Is the natural terrain of where you are hilly, mountainous, desert, or flat? Understanding the natural terrain of where the course is located can help you understand how an architect would shape the slope and curves of greens.
Slopes Cont. Water Drains *One of the best ways to get a great idea of the slope/s of greens is to find where the drains or drainage areas are. Look around. Is there only one drain for the green? Are there multiple? Answering these questions will give your brain a way to visualize how the water moves once on the green; and if you can visualize how water will move on a green then you can visualize what a ball will do!
Slopes Cont. General/Natural Terrain *If you know that you are going to the Hill Country to play in a golf tournament, what should you expect as far as slope goes on the greens? Hopefully, it’s obvious. Also, if you go to somewhere the surrounding landscape is generally flat, you can assume that the architects had to be deliberate about how they shaped the greens so it should be more obvious to the naked eye as to how the greens are sloped. *Don’t space out when walking up to a green! When you are making your way up to the green (about 30 -50 yds out), look around the green. You will be able to notice slopes that won’t be so apparent when you are actually standing up there. Always observe the green from afar before you get up there! *Understanding where the water will drain for the ENTIRE COURSE is also important. Obviously, if architects didn’t care about this then the course would be at risk for flooding whenever it would rain. If the course is flooded then people can’t play it. If people can’t play it then they can’t make money. Managing how the water drains for the entire course is extremely important! Therefore, understand before hand where the architect wants all the water for the course to end up. Is there a lake nearby? Was the course built up higher than the natural surrounding, but alongside a river? If you understand this then you can start to foresee where the low areas are and since golf balls are affected by gravity, you should know where the low areas are!
Slopes Cont. Basic Tips *Beside what we have covered, you can use some pretty basic techniques to help you understand the slopes on greens. 1. Always walk around the putt. Your feet are actually much more perceptive than most people understand. Use your feet as well as your eyes when walking around a putt because your feet might clue you in on a subtle break that your eyes missed. 2. Plumb-bobbing. Some of you might have seen this before. You hold the club up to your eye over the ball to use the shaft as a way to “predict” how much the putt will break. We will cover this further, but this is not exact and can really only help with the big picture of the break. 3. Get low! Always get behind the ball and behind the hole and squat down to look at the line and slope of the putt. Both angles give you the two pieces of the puzzle to fully understand how much a putt will break. Similarly, since you are going to walk around the putt anyways, this is something that helps fill in what your feet have told you. 4. Find the high area and find the low area for the green. If you find these two places then you can understand the overall slope of a green. Since gravity will pull almost everything to that one low area and away from the high area then you can start making predictions about the line of your putt.
Gravity. . . It’s For Real! Hopefully, you all realize this by now. However, it’s always a good idea to go over the basics… 1. Obviously, the reason why a ball breaks on a green is because of gravity. The fact that your ball is rolling on a slope simply gives gravity an opportunity to pull the ball down towards the low point (see why I was harping on the high/low points yet? ? ? ). 2. It’s important to understand high/low points because they are ultimately the determining factors in your ball rolling straight or breaking off line. Therefore, knowing this can give you a substantial boost in your confidence of the line that you have chosen for your putt. 3. I don’t think I should have to emphasize this, but the same principles apply, not only to break, but to speed as well. Knowing hi/low points can give you the edge in determining the overall speed of a putt, especially long ones. 4. Things can get complicated if there are numerous drainage and/or high/low points on a green. Course architects love making complex green structures so you have to be diligent and deliberate in noting all of these areas.
Grass and The Surface Itself: Grain 1. Since we live in the South (pretty much anything South of the Red River), you will undoubtedly see greens that have a lot of grain to them. Bermuda grass is usually the main suspect in Texas so it is important that you understand how the grain can affect putts. 2. What is grain? *Grain refers to the “bias” that the collective blades of grass have. Usually, stronger blades of grass grow in a collective direction. The stronger the blade, the more influence that it will have on a ball that is rolling over it. 3. How will this affect me when putting? *Ultimately, depending on the course, grain can have a significant impact on the line of your putt. *Imagine a golf ball flying through the wind on a regular shot. The stronger the wind, the more that the ball travels off its original line and veers toward the direction that the wind is blowing; the same can be said about grain. The taller and less cut the grass, the more that it will “push” your ball in the direction that it *Credit to andrewsgolf. co. uk for this awesome visual!
Grass and The Surface Itself: Grain 1. Obviously, from the visual on the right, we can easily understand that a putt going into the grain will be slower and a putt going with the grain will be faster. However, there a few other things that we need to understand. 2. When putting with side grain you have to realize that your ball will be influenced to the side. 3. Similarly, if you are putting down grain the putt will break less and if you are putting into the grain the putt will break more. 4. A great way to visualized this is to think of a clock. . . *Credit to andrewsgolf. co. uk for this awesome visual!
Grass and The Surface Itself: Grain 1. Now, imagine that you are standing at the 6 o’clock position (as noted by the image). *If the grain was pointing towards the 6 o’clock position, what would you need to consider? *If the grain was pointing to the 12 o’clock position, what would you need to consider? *If the grain was pointing to the 9 o’clock position, what would you need to consider? *I think you can see the pattern here. . . but let’s try some harder ones. . .
Grass and The Surface Itself: Grain 1. What would you have to consider for all of these positions? The grain is indicated by the arrow. . .
How to Tell The Direction of Grain. . . 1. The first way to figure out which way the grain is going is by noticing the color or sheen of the grass. When you are behind your putt reading the line, look at the grass directly behind the ball and then all the way up to about 5 ft past the hole. What do you notice? If you are looking at dark green grass then the grain is into you. If the grass is lighter and has a “shiny” look to it then the grain is going away from you. 2. One easy way to figure out which way the grain is going in the area around the hole is to look at the hole itself. Look at the picture. . . what do you notice? As you can see from the pictures on the right, the side of the hole that is
Dealing with Grain: Advanced 1. Now that we understand the basic principles of grain, what about some more complicated examples (like the last two pictures of clock faces)? 2. Those last two examples obviously tell you that you will encounter some putts with different types of grain. There have been times when, with long putts, I have seen 5 -10 different patches of grain that could affect the ball. What’s to stop us from getting too confused and overwhelmed? I’m glad you asked because there a few things to take into consideration… *Hitting a putt with speed not only takes out some of the break, but the same is true for grain as well. Therefore, for longer putts, the grain for the first ¼ or even first ½ of the putt will not be as a significant factor as the last 5 ft. On these long putts with grain just make sure you understand whether the grain will be making the putt faster or slower (down or against) and then only worry about the last 5 feet or so. Note: We will also be talking about the percentages of making long putts and how they are so low that you shouldn’t be worrying about making them anyways! More on that in a different presentation : ). *Now, just like a putt downhill will have less break than a putt uphill, the same principle applies to grain as well. If your putt is into the grain then it will break more whereas if the grain is going away from you it will break less. Example: Have you ever hit a putt (on bermuda greens) where it was looking really good about 1 ft from the hole and then all of the sudden, as you are starting to move toward the hole because you think you drained it, it throws on the breaks and dives left/right to miss? This is an example of what happens on into the grain putts with break to them; you thought you had drained it, but instead you got GRAINED!
Imperfect Putting Surfaces As much as I wish that I could say that we will play on perfect putting surfaces all year, the fact is that we will not. Greens can be minefields! Here are some things to note when it comes to imperfect surfaces… 1. Pitch marks *Guys, REPAIR PITCH MARKS!!!! Even I have fallen prey to missing a short putt because I was lazy and didn’t repair a pitch mark in between my ball and the hole. . . always survey the area between your ball and the hole to see if there is anything that you can repair to make the surface better for your ball to roll on, however… 2. Spike Marks *I wish I could say that people don’t shuffle on the greens and that people are careful when walking around on a green, but unfortunately, they are not. Even though you cannot repair spike marks, you can take them into account when you are putting. Although you may miss the putt because of them, at least you will know that you missed it because of something outside of your control; this is a huge psychological advantage!
Imperfect Putting Surfaces 3. Debris * You can use your hats to brush debris out of the path of your putt (just don’t brush it into somebody else’s line). Similarly, you can pick up leaves, twigs, rocks, etc. from your line so DO IT! Putting well is hard enough when just considering speed, direction, wind, etc so don’t make it any harder for your self by not getting rid of the things that you are allowed to! 4. Aerification Holes *Unfortunately, you will probably have to play in a tournament where these become an issue. There is nothing that you can do about it! Realize that everyone has to deal with them and you can only stay diligent in keeping to your routine/strategy. Don’t get frustrated and just do your best! 5. Overall *Guys, the truth of the matter is is that we will play on some TERRIBLE putting surfaces this year. This is part of the game! Therefore, there is one principle that you should always live by in golf: take care of the things that are in your power to control (reading slope/grain, repairing pitch marks, removing debris, etc) and then play the game without beating yourself up for the things that you can’t control (whether the ball goes in or not, somebody did the tango with spikes on your line, etc. ). Golf is a game of minimizing risk so as to maximize reward, but if you have watched enough golf you should know that you could do EVERYTHING right and still not get the
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