There are few things more frustrating in golf than misreading a green and watching your birdie completely miss the hole for an even harder par putt. Many amateur players struggle with reading a green accurately, and it is often seen as a specialist skill that only the very best players can truly master. However, this is not true, and by considering a few simple things, your ability to read the green will greatly improve, resulting in fewer missed putts. Below, we provide 5 tips to help you better read the green and reduce the number of 3 putts.
Understand That All Greens Tilt
From a distance, golf greens look like a perfect flat carpet of short grass. It is only when you are near them that you can see that they are not truly flat. The reason for this is not just to challenge the golfer but to prevent water from pooling on the green. Golf greens are designed to have good drainage to allow golfers to play in wet and damp weather conditions. Approach every hole with this knowledge, and you will be better able to identify the predominant tilt of the green. Another trick is to imagine placing a glass of water on the green to visualize which way the water will slant and, therefore, the breaks in the green.
Pay Attention to Grass Grain
This is a small but very important detail that many golfers overlook when reading the green. The grass grain refers to the direction the grass tips are pointing, and this can have a big impact on your shot. When hitting the ball with the grain (in the same direction as the grass tips), the ball will travel faster than when hitting the ball against the grain (in the opposite direction of the grass tips). On a fast course, when the grass is cut very fine, the grain becomes less of an issue, but on a slow course, it can have a big influence on your putting strategy, especially if you are hitting against the grain.
Read the Green Before Its Your Turn
If you read the green just before you attempt to putt, you are putting a lot of pressure on your shoulders and increasing the chance of a mistake. From the moment you get the ball onto the green, you should evaluate it to look for high and low spots. Even if you are the first to play on the green, a rough idea will still be hugely beneficial. If you are not the first to play, you should use your time wisely to appraise the green further to get a general idea of the breaks. Also, watch the ball paths of your fellow players, as that will give you a clear visual indication of how the green tilts.
Walk the Putt
Most players only read the green from behind the ball before they are about to putt and don’t take advantage of the other ways to read the hole. Walking the putt from the ball to the hole has two advantages. The first advantage is that when you walk the green between the ball and hole, you can feel the surface of the green beneath your feet, giving you a better idea of the severity of the slopes. The second advantage is that you will get a much better sense of how hard you will need to hit the ball. Walking back to the ball from the hole will also give you another angle to evaluate the ball’s path.
Break Up Longer Putts
A long putt can have more than one break in it, making it challenging for every level of player. A good strategy to read the green for a long putt is to break it into sections to decide the best course of action. For example, if you break up a long putt into 3 sections and you see that two sections are left-to-right and one is right-to-left, your strategy will be to hit the overall putt slightly left-to-right. Always remember that distance control is more important for longer putts than getting the ball in the hole. Get your distance control right, and you will avoid the costly three-putts.