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Reading greens

Golf / Popular

Read slope, grain and speed to pick a start line and pace.

What coaches agree on

  • Find the green's low point first - where water would drain, or the one truly straight putt near the hole - since every putt breaks toward it, and that is your reference for reading any other putt's direction and how much it will break.
  • Walk around the hole, or straddle the line of the putt, and feel which way your feet or weight tilt - that picks up slope that is often too subtle to see with your eyes alone.
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  • The speed you hit a putt changes how much it breaks: a firmer pace holds its line more, while a putt that is dying at the hole gets pulled by the slope the most.

Common mistakes

  • Picturing the putt's apex point and aiming there starts the ball on too straight a line and it misses on the low side - the real start line has to be well outside the apex.
  • Waiting until you are standing over the ball and reading only from directly behind it misses slope that shows up more clearly from a distance walking in, from the low side, or from behind the hole.
GOLF: Green Reading Lesson
Intermediate

GOLF: Green Reading Lesson

Coach's take: Real diagnostic coaching that isolates reading from stroke — valuable framing.

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