How to Read the Green When Playing Golf

The ability to read the green is essential to improving your game. If you have a great putting game, you stand a very good chance of winning.

Becoming a master putter requires physics, art, and the ability to read and predict the balls speed and path over a certain area. Not only that, you have to develop precise control and aim, without giving up the ability to know where your ball is going.

You can stand and gaze out over the newly plowed fields of green all day, but that wont help you learn to read it. The farther away you stand, and how tall you are, can all lead to reading errors. Depending on the altitude of your eyes, you can misjudge texture, wetness, contour, and density

You can forgo this problem by simply sitting on your haunches and taking a good look. Squint if you have to. You can put your club on the ground, facing the hole, and peer down the length of the shaft. This will give you an even better look. You should look for any lumps, curves, hills or dales that you might not have noticed from a standing position. Calculate how many ups and downs there are between you and the hole. Because even a drop of dew can alter the balls speed, try to get a feel for how wet the grass is. Put your hand on it and actually feel it!

If the golf course's landscaper has mowed the grass in two different directions, then the grass is double cut and can change the travel distance of your ball by 12 inches. If landscaper has also rolled or compacted the grass, this can also effect the roll by 10 inches.

The cutting of the grass isn't the only factor to look at. You also have to be aware of the amount and direction of curve. The amount of force you put behind a ball should be directly effected by whether you're uphill or downhill, or how much to the right or left the green breaks. Obviously you can't really measure all of this without the appropriate tools, but learning the ins and outs will come in handy.

Practice makes the game grow fonder! Take some time out to practice on both the practice green and actual green. If you are playing with a partner, watch how he putts. Use what you see as a tool to help improve your shot.

Make sure that you aren't holding up someone's game, but keep in mind that most courses have slow days, so go on one of those days to practice. Take a pen and pad of paper with you, write things down, take note of everything you observe about each hole.

If you read the green, and play with your new found knowledge, you would probably play your best game ever. Wouldn't that just make your day?

Hit Them Straight,

JJ

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David Nevogt writes golf instruction material that helps golfers of all levels reach their full potential and lower their scores. David is the author of "The Simple Golf Swing" which guarantees to have you shooting 7 strokes lower in only 1 week from today.