How Best to Play Putts with Two Breaks Senior Putting Tip (Video) - by Dean Butler
How Best to Play Putts with Two Breaks Senior Putting Tip (Video) - by Dean Butler

Well if only all putts were straight, then the game of golf would be a lot easier wont it? Do it all straight, but unfortunately we have slopes and that’s what makes the game of golf fun, fun I hear you say, I’m sure some of you pull your hair out like I did many years ago, with trying to learn how to read this putts. But what happens when you have a double break, a two break, well how do we go about it? Well very simple you must start off down here, get as close to planet earth as you can, because that’s where the slope is down here, its not here five foot, six foot off the ground when you are looking down, let’s get right down look at the contours. The first move we are going to look out from here, is where the putt breaks, so the first thing is the slope, if it’s a big left to right putt we are going to look at this and say right where is the point where the ball is going to break?

So we are going to picture this in our mind and sometimes you might think this is difficult, it’s not when you practice this a little bit, if you putt a left to right slope the most obvious factor is going to fall to the right. And the key is, is what point on this journey from here to the where it breaks that’s the point where the ball start to fall, at what point is it going to break and how high up? So the first thing is that gauge, so there is the putting green here the hole and maybe the break six foot to the left hand side. I’m getting behind and picking the marker and the key now is to have a look and get to feel of the sort of stroke and pace I need on this stroke to get the ball up to the point where this break is. And up to the point the break the ball is not going to fall at least left to right and as it falls it’s going to start gathering a bit of pace. So what you don’t want to do is hit the ball with a bit of pace to start with, because that might well take it through the break or worse still hits the break and then roll miles past the hole. So here we’ve got to think about it. First of all the slope, look at the slope, look at the point where it’s going to break and then secondly the pace. To get the pace is all about feel, now feel is about hitting lots and lots of putts and basically we’ll swing this, it will hit ball so far and with practice you’ll gauge, there is no good having a couple of swings like this and then we go to the ball and it’s a 54 putts and 25 foot down the line its a break, because that swing is not going to get there. So feel, practice exactly what you think you are going to need. And don’t worry about the people in the putting ring. If you want to rush around we could all play to a 20 handicap. If you want to improve your game take your preparation, take your time; think about what we got to do, feel that swing. You don’t see any of the worlds best players go into that putt until they’ve going through that preparation and they are ready to actually swing. So here I spend a few seconds going, now I’m going to the ball, the practice swings I’ve done is now in the memory bank the last thing I did was have the swing say back here and forward. I now go to the ball and I’ve got the chance now to reproduce that swing, to get that ball on its journey on it’s line and with the right pace and of course its not easy to get that pace, it’s a very, very difficult putt. But remember putts aren’t straight, they have these burrows, so a good exercise will be to get the ball, go into the putt with half a dozen balls and get one of the nice slope and get down, do what we’ve just said read it get the crown green balling person would do, get down and let that ball roll and roll it up that slope to the point where that ball you think is going to drop down. Do it six times, how many did you get within five foot and I think to get maybe five foot from say 30 foot, I think you have done fantastic, it is so difficult and just do it there with your hand first of all and once you have got the feel of what you are doing get your putts around and try. It’s very, very important read the putts then from there feel -- feel the sort of direction and the pace that you need to go with and then only then do you go to the putts and reproduce it. So now you have got the knowledge, knowledge is king in life go to that putting green, go with that practice drill and I’m sure you will get the pace and the feel of those long putts without brakes, enjoy. 2014-04-01

Well if only all putts were straight, then the game of golf would be a lot easier wont it? Do it all straight, but unfortunately we have slopes and that’s what makes the game of golf fun, fun I hear you say, I’m sure some of you pull your hair out like I did many years ago, with trying to learn how to read this putts. But what happens when you have a double break, a two break, well how do we go about it? Well very simple you must start off down here, get as close to planet earth as you can, because that’s where the slope is down here, its not here five foot, six foot off the ground when you are looking down, let’s get right down look at the contours. The first move we are going to look out from here, is where the putt breaks, so the first thing is the slope, if it’s a big left to right putt we are going to look at this and say right where is the point where the ball is going to break?

So we are going to picture this in our mind and sometimes you might think this is difficult, it’s not when you practice this a little bit, if you putt a left to right slope the most obvious factor is going to fall to the right. And the key is, is what point on this journey from here to the where it breaks that’s the point where the ball start to fall, at what point is it going to break and how high up? So the first thing is that gauge, so there is the putting green here the hole and maybe the break six foot to the left hand side. I’m getting behind and picking the marker and the key now is to have a look and get to feel of the sort of stroke and pace I need on this stroke to get the ball up to the point where this break is. And up to the point the break the ball is not going to fall at least left to right and as it falls it’s going to start gathering a bit of pace.

So what you don’t want to do is hit the ball with a bit of pace to start with, because that might well take it through the break or worse still hits the break and then roll miles past the hole. So here we’ve got to think about it. First of all the slope, look at the slope, look at the point where it’s going to break and then secondly the pace. To get the pace is all about feel, now feel is about hitting lots and lots of putts and basically we’ll swing this, it will hit ball so far and with practice you’ll gauge, there is no good having a couple of swings like this and then we go to the ball and it’s a 54 putts and 25 foot down the line its a break, because that swing is not going to get there. So feel, practice exactly what you think you are going to need. And don’t worry about the people in the putting ring. If you want to rush around we could all play to a 20 handicap. If you want to improve your game take your preparation, take your time; think about what we got to do, feel that swing.

You don’t see any of the worlds best players go into that putt until they’ve going through that preparation and they are ready to actually swing. So here I spend a few seconds going, now I’m going to the ball, the practice swings I’ve done is now in the memory bank the last thing I did was have the swing say back here and forward. I now go to the ball and I’ve got the chance now to reproduce that swing, to get that ball on its journey on it’s line and with the right pace and of course its not easy to get that pace, it’s a very, very difficult putt. But remember putts aren’t straight, they have these burrows, so a good exercise will be to get the ball, go into the putt with half a dozen balls and get one of the nice slope and get down, do what we’ve just said read it get the crown green balling person would do, get down and let that ball roll and roll it up that slope to the point where that ball you think is going to drop down.

Do it six times, how many did you get within five foot and I think to get maybe five foot from say 30 foot, I think you have done fantastic, it is so difficult and just do it there with your hand first of all and once you have got the feel of what you are doing get your putts around and try. It’s very, very important read the putts then from there feel — feel the sort of direction and the pace that you need to go with and then only then do you go to the putts and reproduce it. So now you have got the knowledge, knowledge is king in life go to that putting green, go with that practice drill and I’m sure you will get the pace and the feel of those long putts without brakes, enjoy.