You may have the best putting stroke in the world but unless you know how to read greens, you have a very slim chance at making any putts over 4 feet unless you get lucky.  This is probably the most overlooked aspect of putting and one that requires experience, visualization and imagination.  It will take you sometime to learn and or improve at but with commitment you will be making more putts.

Once we visualize the line of our putt and which way it breaks we can then select our aiming point.  95% of putts have some break and require you to aim and something other then the center of the hole.  Sometimes a putt might only break 1 inch which would require you to aim just inside the edge of the hole and other times you may be aiming 3 feet outside of the hole.  Just like when I talked about alignment in our pre shot routines, we often aim at something other then where we want the ball to end up.  Although it will end up there, we have a different aiming point or target.

So what goes into reading the break on a green complex?  Slope and speed!

Slope

When approaching the putting surface you should be already trying to determine which way the green slopes.  Is it back to front, right to left or left to right?  Just take a second to scan around the green and see what way the land falls.  Just a quick note, if a putt is going uphill, you will have to stroke the putt a little harder then normal.    Going downhill the putt will be faster so you have to stroke the putt softer.

Once you have the break figured out you have to determine how much the putt will break in that direction.  This is a skill that will take some time to master but the main goal is to figure out which way the ball will move.  Don’t get to discouraged at the beginning if you are not playing the correct amount of break, just take the positive away that you knew what way it broke!

There are a few reasons that cause a putting surface to be fast or slow.

Moisture Level

If there is a lot of water on the top or in the soil, the green will not break as much.  I have no explanation for this but all I can tell you that it’s true from playing many rounds on the west coast (rainy coast) of Canada!  Moist characteristics are big ball marks and very green putting surfaces.

Firmness

If a green is firm then it will generally be faster and tend to break more then normal.  Firmness can be gauged by the color of a green (brownish tint means it’s firm) how deep the ball marks are (if there are not noticeable then it’s firm) if you can hear a thud sound when you tap your putter head on the green and by walking on the green.

Grass Length

If the grass is longer then the green will be slower in pace and not break as much.  Shorter grass length equals faster greens which break more.

Wind

Not only can wind affect our full shots but it can also affect our putts.  Wind direction can cause a putt to be fast, slow or break more then it should.  If you’re faced with a putt into the wind, it will be slower and vice versa with a putt down wind.  If the wind is coming from the right or left of you, it will cause the putt to break more then it normally should.

Grain (depending on the type of grass)

Courses that have bermuda grass will have a grain to it much like wood.  You can determine which way the grain is going by looking at the tint of the grass on the surface.  Below is a picture from http://www.zoysiagolf.com that is of a fairway.  Although it’s a fairway the grass has grain and I will explain how to determine grain below.

The shiny grass on the right side of this picture is going down grain which would make a putting surface play faster and break more.  On the left side of the fairway the grass is darker meaning it’s going against the grain.  This would make the green slower and require you to hit the ball harder or play less break.

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