Golf pros are much better putters than amateur golfers.
The average putts per green for tour professionals is close to 1.87.
Keep track of yours for the next few rounds of golf you play, and you’ll likely see that it’s more like 2 or 2.5 putts per green.
Some of the reasons you miss these putts could be your stroke, but many times, it’s the way you approach green reading.
Here are 5 things the pros are doing that you probably are not!
Accurate Green Reading: 5 Things the Pros Are Doing
Here are five things that the pros are doing to read greens better. They include
- Walk up to the hole and back
- Reading the green from the approach – not just when on the green
- Identifying the grain of the grass
- Studying the putt in sections, not as a whole
- Looking at the surroundings and watching other players
Walk Up To The Hole and Back
Let’s say you hit your ball in the front area of the green. As you get up to the hole, you don’t even walk all the way to the pin.
Instead, you get to your ball and make your putt. Maybe it’s a good way to save some time, but it’s not a great way to save a birdie or a par.
If you don’t walk up to the hole and back, you are not accurately judging how long of a putt you have.
Instead, you are just making a guess.
Simply walk all the way to the hole and then turn around and walk back to your golf ball. It’s enough to gain a general idea of how far the putt is and adjust your stroke accordingly.
Start Reading the Green From The Approach
When you get to the green, you’ve already missed out on an opportunity to read your putt. As you are in the fairway approaching the green, be sure to get a look at the slope of the green and how it will impact your golf shot.
You may leave yourself in a better position for your approach shot.
In addition, you’ll know what the golf ball will do when you get up closer to the hole. Golfers who take advantage of these opportunities to read the green from further out find that they have more knowledge to work with when they make it to the hole.
Identify the Grain of the Grass
The grain of the grass can impact the ball’s roll. Professional golfers study the green itself and look for the direction of the grain of the grass. They look at things like color and texture to see if the grain is going to influence the speed or the break.
Putts with the grain go faster, and against the grain, they move slower.
The easiest way to read the grain on a golf green is to look at the color and sheen of the grass.
The darker areas indicate grain growing towards you, while lighter, shinier areas show the grain growing away from you. Sometimes it’s easier to ese the actual direction of the grass when you look at the grass near the cup.
Studying the Putt in Sections
Another great strategy from the professionals is to study the putt in sections.
When you have a long putt, you must break it into more manageable sections. Think about what the putt will do for the first half of the roll and then what will happen when it gets closer to the hole.
Many putts break more than once.
If you only read what happens at the cup or what happens near the ball, your chance of making the putt is significantly reduced.
Study the putt in sections so you don’t end up with a surprise that takes your putt way off course.
Study Surroundings and Watch Other Players
Professional golfers look beyond the green itself. They consider nearby landscaping, such as hills or even bodies of water, and how that can subtly influence how the golf ball rolls.
However, even more importantly, they watch the break of other golfers’ putts. They use whatever information they can to adjust their line accordingly.
Now, it’s definitely possible to over-read a putt.
You can take this process a bit too seriously and end up looking too deeply into it. Remember to base some of what you are doing on feel. The better you are at paying attention to these factors and then also trusting your instincts, the better your chance of making the putt.
Final Thoughts
Once you have all of these green reading steps down, all that’s left to do is trust the putt. Make sure you commit to the line you choose.
The last thing you want to do is spend all this time and effort reading a putt only to get nervous and not trust the line you read.
Commit to each putt you make!
