Putting practice.

[atrapasuenos]

Hey there! I will like to read in this thread how do you practice with the putter. Cause I'm loosing some strokes with my putter. I don't know how to explain it, but it's not a problem of my putting stroke... my problem is that sometimes I don't read well the green or I misjudge the distance, more often the reading of the green.

I'm making a good percentage of G.I.R.'s, in 9 holes I'm hitting between 7 or 8. And I'm missing short putts... between ahmmmm 3 - 4 meters (10 to 13 feet, if I'm not wrong)...

So I will love to read some advices of how to read the greens better...

Thanks in advance!

Cheers!

[flopdarock]

reading greens to me is an art... and i sometimes dont have the right paintbrush... but...
i usually get way behind the ball(if there is room)...
crouch down as low as i can(not camilo low)...
if im above the hole i imagine water trickling to the hole... if im below i imagine water trickling from the hole...
if its a fast green i tend to take more into consideration... like if a body of water is going to attract the ball that way... the time of day(if the greens are drying out)... etc

[Shindig]

I'm making a good percentage of G.I.R.'s, in 9 holes I'm hitting between 7 or 8. And I'm missing short putts... between ahmmmm 3 - 4 meters (10 to 13 feet, if I'm not wrong)...

The best way to read greens better is to read more often, with feedback. I used to wonder about the people who read greens on the practice green from 10-13 feet, but I've lately come to understand it.

Grab a hole on the practice green, if you can, that isn't perfectly flat within the 3-4 meter radius. Remove the pin/marker, so it's just as if you're putting to a real cup. Put a few coins down at roughly 3-4 meters away. You can approximate this with 3-4 putter lengths, if need be. Take two or more balls with you. Attempt to read the green and putt from one of the markers, just as if you were attempting this putt for real. Full routine and everything. Now, the feedback: did it break as you expected? If not, look at what it did, and try to read it again expecting the break you saw . Repeat until you get the ball to do what you expect it to do. Repeat for another marker, maybe 45 degrees away. Get around the cup a few times. You don't have to sink a putt from each marker, just get the ball breaking the way you expect. Count how many of your first balls don't break the way you expect them to. See if you can reduce this number in subsequent trips to the putting green, hopefully going to a slightly different pin location. My suggestion for follow-up is to make a handful of putts from about 1 meter; putts you make routinely. This way, when you walk off the putting green after an hour or so of practice, you have making putts in your mind, not the missing. Finally, if you play the same course or two regularly, consider sketching maps of the greens, with where the hills, spines, and high points are.

[ks8829]

In Putting distance control is the most important aspect of putting. All putts are straight putts.

When I read putting I make sure that I read the green from behind the hole and visualize where the ball will enter the hole.