Putting at a new course

If you are a tournament player you will frequently find yourself playing a course that you have not played in a while.  The subject of this post is to share a technique for you to rapidly get the feel for greens that you are not accustomed to.

The technique that I use allows me to get a good feel for the greens in only 5 minutes or so.  It is more effective than circling around all the holes that may exist on the practice green.

The first thing I do is look for the grain.  Most courses have grain, even bent grass courses.  I have talked to experienced players used to playing bent grass greens and they never thought of grain.  No wonder they have a tough time with speed control leaving some putts well short or running them well past.

So how do you see the grain?  Walk around the green and you will see where the green color looks darker versus lighter and shinier.  When it looks lighter green and shiny you are looking down the grain.  This means the blades of grass are leaning away from you and will result in much less friction to the golf ball and the putt will be much faster.  Where the grass appears the darkest green, that means the blades of grass are pointing toward you and the friction will be the highest slowing down your putt.  The difference between the two can be more than 20+ percent so a 15 foot putt could be three feet slower or faster.

So what do you do with this information?  You better account for it in planning to hit a putt or you will find yourself three-putting a lot.

My warm up routine on a new course starts with looking for the grain.  Next you want to pick out two practice holes on the green that are about 20-25 feet apart where putting from one to the other is directly with and against the grain.  Take two balls and putt from one to the other, and then back to the hole where you started.  Keep going back and forth until you can get both putts to consistently stop near the hole.  It should only take you five minutes or so.

After than you can try other length putts in various directions to see if you have achieved a good feel in your mind.

Grain does not only affect putts directly with or against.  If the grain is at an angle with or against you will still see the putt be a little faster or slower, respectively.  A putt that crosses the grain will also be affected.  You could have a level putt where the grain is 30-60 degrees across your line and the putt might move up to six inches on a 20 foot putt.  Be sure to include the side grain in your green reading too.  You will find that for some courses the grain is not a "strong" as it is on other courses.  On some courses it can be very strong making for some VERY slow or VERY fast putts.

Bermuda grass greens are similar but you can also look at the grass around the edge of the cup for another clue.  You may see one side where the grass is dying or looks brown.  If you are putting towards a hole where the brown is around the front edge you are putting against the grain.  If the brown edge is behind the hole you are putting with the grain.  The brown part is a result of the grass being cut.  If the roots are where the hole is that area will be brown.  If it is the side where the blades are, they will continue to grow over the edge of the hole with time and won't turn brown.

I still find some of the new faster bermuda grass greens more difficult to read the grain.  If you have a good technique for these, go ahead and comment.

I hope you found this article helpful for you to make more putts and reduce the number of three-putts.