Jim "Bones" Mackay's 10 Tips for Reading Greens

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, zipazoid said:

Was she the lady who gave me the lesson at the FSK demo you did in Orlando a few years back that you invited me to? 50-ish, thin, smoker? I liked her.

No. That was probably Cathy.

[boogielicious]

22 hours ago, zipazoid said:

There's one in my area, at Doral, next month. $125. So now it's a financial decision. Definitely intrigued by it...just have to decide if I'm $125 intrigued by it. 

Do it! You will not regret it. 

[JonMA1]

I played a course yesterday which had the most difficult to read greens I've played to date. I tried in vain to see why the roll would not react to what I thought I saw. There were a lot of hills behind the greens with varying slopes and I can only guess that was it. My playing partner - who is at least an average putter - was misreading them as well.

My putting is bad enough when I'm familiar with the greens. This was almost humorous. Literally speaking, on many of the holes I'd have done better pretending the greens were perfectly flat when lag putting.

All I could think of was what I've read about AimPoint and how that would have helped.

[DaveP043]

16 minutes ago, JonMA1 said:

All I could think of was what I've read about AimPoint and how that would have helped.

I took an Aimpoint clinic with @iacas about 2 months ago.  I've found that Aimpoint has helped me improve my reads on my home course, a course that I've been playing for 25 years, and thought I knew pretty well.  I'm absolutely certain that its going to help my reads when I play less familiar courses.

[JonMA1]

8 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

I took an Aimpoint clinic with @iacas about 2 months ago.  I've found that Aimpoint has helped me improve my reads on my home course, a course that I've been playing for 25 years, and thought I knew pretty well.  I'm absolutely certain that its going to help my reads when I play less familiar courses.

That's good to know. I have yet to hear anything but praise for Aimpoint. If or when I get serious about improving my scores, there is a lot of room for improvement with putting. As @dennyjones mentioned, there's a very good instructor within a  2 1/2 hour drive.

[boogielicious]

22 hours ago, JonMA1 said:

I played a course yesterday which had the most difficult to read greens I've played to date. I tried in vain to see why the roll would not react to what I thought I saw. There were a lot of hills behind the greens with varying slopes and I can only guess that was it. My playing partner - who is at least an average putter - was misreading them as well.

My putting is bad enough when I'm familiar with the greens. This was almost humorous. Literally speaking, on many of the holes I'd have done better pretending the greens were perfectly flat when lag putting.

All I could think of was what I've read about AimPoint and how that would have helped.

A good green designer will purposely put in optical illusions to make the slope look different. They want to make it hard to read the green with your eyes. That is what makes AimPoint so effective. Gravity doesn't have an optical illusion. Your feet/body knows where uphill is. You just have to calibrate yourself to know the slope. That part takes a little practice with a level. Easy Peasy!

[JonMA1]

If I'm superstitious about anything, it's in claiming some level of improvement. But after several rounds it appears that by taking a longer, slower backstroke with the putter, my starting line isn't quite the adventure it has been for the last few years.

I'm still above 2 putts per hole, my lag putting hasn't been great, and I can still miss an easy putt, but it's nothing like it had been. 

I hope this is a real fix. My inability to get the putter back and forward with any semblance of control made it tough to take advantage of par and birdie chances. The inevitable blowup holes will happen in my game. Until I improve my full swing, the only way to counter those blowup holes is to score lower on the other ones.