Long Putt, How Can I Read Long Breaking Putts (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Long Putt, How Can I Read Long Breaking Putts (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

You can see me now I'm about 30 paces away from my golf ball I'm having a good look at the line of this long putt; it’s quite a long putt, quite a big swinger. I have walked up the high side of the putt and I'm going back the low side and I will just count the paces as I do this. So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Twenty paces all the way back to the golf ball so it’s a very, very long putt. In my math’s that’s about 60 feet it’s a 60 footer. It’s got quite a big swing in, but what the important thing about this putt is it breaks the whole way every single foot of this putt is going to break down the hill. Now initially I'm going to hit the ball so hard to clear these 60 feet, it won't break a lot, early doors, but it would be breaking its whole way and at the end it will definitely die after the right hand side. And this green is quite slow but if the green was quicker it would be breaking an awful a lot more than this. So I have picked my spot quite high upon that right hand side hill, I'm just going to roll it nicely along there.

The important thing to notice is on breaking putt like this is my stroke is not going to pull back to the hole; I have no interest in the hole anymore. I have picked my spot upon that right hand side just right of the tree in the back ground. That’s the thing I'm aiming for, now and I make a very straight smooth stroke at that point, and then the ball will move to the hole on its own. I don’t need to hook this ball around or spin around then, so I aiming that high side of the hill trying to give it a nice roll, it’s going to stay up there; is it? It’s coming on a little bit, I think because these greens are so bubbly today they really don’t seem to take too much curve lets go a little bit firmer a little bit straighter again. There we go that was better, so the line was actually pretty good with the first one it was just slightly under hit and because I under hit it, it didn’t have the pace to get to the back end of the putt to start swinging in. That second was a little bit better left me a tap in and from 60 feet really if you leave yourself a tap in you got to be pretty happy with your results. So I think the biggest priority with this sort of putts is often golfers get quite lazy they don’t really want to be bothered walking the full length of the putt and back again. Maybe speed plays an issue as well but we just on to the green with always me to go I better I have my go, but actually it would be better off walking the full length of the putt, coming back down the other side of the putt, good couple of practice range. Pick your spot over in the background and go ahead and be nice and committed, give that ball a good firm wrap particularly when you are long away from the whole when the sun is going to break the whole way down into the hole and really lagging that putt which is quite important because the closer you can leave it the better it’s going to be to hole your next long putt. 2014-10-07

You can see me now I'm about 30 paces away from my golf ball I'm having a good look at the line of this long putt; it’s quite a long putt, quite a big swinger. I have walked up the high side of the putt and I'm going back the low side and I will just count the paces as I do this. So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Twenty paces all the way back to the golf ball so it’s a very, very long putt. In my math’s that’s about 60 feet it’s a 60 footer. It’s got quite a big swing in, but what the important thing about this putt is it breaks the whole way every single foot of this putt is going to break down the hill. Now initially I'm going to hit the ball so hard to clear these 60 feet, it won't break a lot, early doors, but it would be breaking its whole way and at the end it will definitely die after the right hand side. And this green is quite slow but if the green was quicker it would be breaking an awful a lot more than this. So I have picked my spot quite high upon that right hand side hill, I'm just going to roll it nicely along there.

The important thing to notice is on breaking putt like this is my stroke is not going to pull back to the hole; I have no interest in the hole anymore. I have picked my spot upon that right hand side just right of the tree in the back ground. That’s the thing I'm aiming for, now and I make a very straight smooth stroke at that point, and then the ball will move to the hole on its own. I don’t need to hook this ball around or spin around then, so I aiming that high side of the hill trying to give it a nice roll, it’s going to stay up there; is it? It’s coming on a little bit, I think because these greens are so bubbly today they really don’t seem to take too much curve lets go a little bit firmer a little bit straighter again. There we go that was better, so the line was actually pretty good with the first one it was just slightly under hit and because I under hit it, it didn’t have the pace to get to the back end of the putt to start swinging in. That second was a little bit better left me a tap in and from 60 feet really if you leave yourself a tap in you got to be pretty happy with your results.

So I think the biggest priority with this sort of putts is often golfers get quite lazy they don’t really want to be bothered walking the full length of the putt and back again. Maybe speed plays an issue as well but we just on to the green with always me to go I better I have my go, but actually it would be better off walking the full length of the putt, coming back down the other side of the putt, good couple of practice range. Pick your spot over in the background and go ahead and be nice and committed, give that ball a good firm wrap particularly when you are long away from the whole when the sun is going to break the whole way down into the hole and really lagging that putt which is quite important because the closer you can leave it the better it’s going to be to hole your next long putt.