Putting

["Richard"]

My putting is pretty good considering the short time I've been playing. I do three putt from time to time but its rare. They are mostly two putts as rare as a three putt... the one putt. Is there a rule of thumb when putting against the grain of the green? Uphill? reading breaks? I remember in tiger woods golf there used to be a grid and you just had to count the boxes and it would tell you how much to aim to the left or the right... How exactly do you read a green? I try but I'm all over the place. My one putts are usually on flat greens

[broken27]

My putting is pretty good considering the short time I've been playing. I do three putt from time to time but its rare. They are mostly two putts as rare as a three putt... the one putt. Is there a rule of thumb when putting against the grain of the green? Uphill? reading breaks? I remember in tiger woods golf there used to be a grid and you just had to count the boxes and it would tell you how much to aim to the left or the right... How exactly do you read a green? I try but I'm all over the place. My one putts are usually on flat greens

One thing I found useful when starting out (I now consider myself an above-average putter) was to concentrate more on the weight of the putt than the break. If you're getting the ball 18" past the hole on each attempt, then you're on the right track. From there, you start with reading breaks.

For me, the best way to do it is to look from behind the ball, then from behind the hole back to the ball. Most people check from behind the ball, and leave it at that.

Then, try to remember that the ball will break more as it loses speed (assuming a constant break in the green). Therefore, most of the actual "break" will occur right before the ball gets to the hole. For this reason, it's always a good idea to imagine that the break is actually almost DOUBLE what your eyes are telling you.

I watched an interesting show with David Pelz about how most people (in the 90% range) will miss putts LOW. This weekend I missed most of mine high, but I'm sure that's because subconsciously I was making adjustments to my reads.

Don't get too worried about how the grass bends or anything like that just yet. It really won't affect you that much until you're consistently doing the rest of it properly. It's detail work...

Also - PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE....

Cheers,
Dan