One thing many middle and high handicap golfers have trouble with is reading greens. I’ve had beginning students taking their first putting lesson that could not see any but the most severe slopes on greens. But once you have hit your first putt and seen it break you begin to tune into things on a more subtle level, and the more time and experience you have putting on greens the more developed your ability to read them gets.

What is reading the green or putt?
Reading a green or putt is anticipating, imagining or visualizing the path on which the ball will roll once it is struck. Some putts will be straight, but most of them will curve (also called “break”) — some very slightly and some enormously. You read a putt to get a sense of how the ball is going to break so that you can start it in the right direction to have it end up in the hole, or close.

What factors go into reading a putt?
Judging a putt is a combination of speed (how fast or slow the ball will roll and, therefore, how far it will travel) and line (direction). Gravity and friction act on the ball over time, so the more slowly the ball rolls the more it will break and vice versa.

Things that will help
(Do these things as thoroughly as you like and at your leisure while practicing. But, of course, don’t do all these things on every putt during a round of golf — keep pace of play in mind.)

1 Get your eyes down lower (that’s why everybody is squatting down to read the putts — the closer your eyes get to the level of the plane you’re trying to see the better your perspective).
2 Get any information you can from approaching chips and putts — yours or those of the other players in your group — especially if they’re on a similar line to the putt you will hit next. It’s especially good to see how the ball behaves as it slows down and gets very near the hole.
3 Look from the low side of the hole. This is just another way of getting your eyes lower.
4 Get far enough away from what you’re looking at to give yourself a good angle or perspective. A good place to start, at least on shorter putts, is to get back as far away from the ball as the ball is from the hole.
5 Take a look from the side of the putting line (approximately perpendicular to the intended line of the putt). This helps you to see if the putt is uphill or downhill.
6 Imagine pouring a bucket of water on the green between your ball and the hole, which way would the water run?
Judging the speed and line of your putts can be obvious or very subtle from putt to putt. It’s an art, in the end, but with a little time and experience and lots of trial and error just about anybody can develop the ability to read greens.

Mark Blakemore is a PGA Professional teaching in the San Francisco east bay area of Northern California. He teaches golfers how to get more distance in his private Long Drive Schools and works with students on all other aspects of the game in his private Custom Golf Schools. Visit Mark’s popular golf instruction web site, www.PGAProfessional.com, for more information and for more tips and resources to improve your game.