How Do The Pros Read Golf Putting Greens (Video) - by Pete Styles
How Do The Pros Read Golf Putting Greens (Video) - by Pete Styles

It’s interesting when you’re watching the golf on the TV with the professionals because quite often you won’t see them read a putt just because in the way they’re edited together, you don’t want to waste your time watching the guy just walk round the green so you edit it, the program is edited together and the guy is already stood over his putt, and he hits and it goes in. And the viewer is often left thinking, well these guys are magically saw the break and he didn’t even read the green. What you don’t realize is there’s two people reading that putt, not just one. You and I generally we only play with one person ourselves. But on the golf course with the PJ tour plays they’ve got two people reading that green, they’ve got the caddie there to help them, to play at one end, the caddie’s at the other end, and then they swop over and have a good walk around it. So the player he marks his ball and he lines it up where he thinks he wants to go, then he has a wander and he walks to all the way up here, and he’ll have a walk all the way round the other side, I’ve got to look at it back this way back towards the camera, see which way it breaks all the way back round here, looking for the left and the right slope, looking for the ups and the downs slopes, back round again, maybe make a little adjustment to the way golf ball’s aiming, then he’ll have a chat with the caddie, are you happy with that line, I’m I happy with that line, and then finally settles down to go and take his putt, totally one of the reasons why it takes him five and a half hours to play an 18 hole round the golf with bulls, spotters and marshals and everything else. So when you’re reading greens on the golf course just be conscious of speed of play, I don’t want to slow anyone down too much here and make the round of golf take longer than it already does.

So we’ve got to be able to read this green fairly quickly but it is quite useful if we can walk all the way up and come back round again. So little trick I like to be able to do, tips sorry , is I go to the far end always take the flag out, everyone I play golf with thinks I’m really kind and polite because Pete always takes the flag out. He’s always very good like that isn’t he? But I like to do that because it gets me up to that end; it gives me an excuse to have a walk up and down the full length of my putt. To see the gradients on the green, to see how it breaks, so I take the flag out that gives me a chance to get at that end then come back down here, view it from this side. The biggest view I like to see is side on, because we know pace is the most important thing on long putts. So as a professional golfer long putts, pace is not the biggest priority for me. Once I’ve read it from both sides, I can then step up, input all of that data of how it’s going to break and stroke it down there and hopefully knock it in nice and close. And that’s how the professionals are reading the putts that you watch on TV. 2014-10-13

It’s interesting when you’re watching the golf on the TV with the professionals because quite often you won’t see them read a putt just because in the way they’re edited together, you don’t want to waste your time watching the guy just walk round the green so you edit it, the program is edited together and the guy is already stood over his putt, and he hits and it goes in. And the viewer is often left thinking, well these guys are magically saw the break and he didn’t even read the green. What you don’t realize is there’s two people reading that putt, not just one. You and I generally we only play with one person ourselves. But on the golf course with the PJ tour plays they’ve got two people reading that green, they’ve got the caddie there to help them, to play at one end, the caddie’s at the other end, and then they swop over and have a good walk around it. So the player he marks his ball and he lines it up where he thinks he wants to go, then he has a wander and he walks to all the way up here, and he’ll have a walk all the way round the other side, I’ve got to look at it back this way back towards the camera, see which way it breaks all the way back round here, looking for the left and the right slope, looking for the ups and the downs slopes, back round again, maybe make a little adjustment to the way golf ball’s aiming, then he’ll have a chat with the caddie, are you happy with that line, I’m I happy with that line, and then finally settles down to go and take his putt, totally one of the reasons why it takes him five and a half hours to play an 18 hole round the golf with bulls, spotters and marshals and everything else. So when you’re reading greens on the golf course just be conscious of speed of play, I don’t want to slow anyone down too much here and make the round of golf take longer than it already does.

So we’ve got to be able to read this green fairly quickly but it is quite useful if we can walk all the way up and come back round again. So little trick I like to be able to do, tips sorry , is I go to the far end always take the flag out, everyone I play golf with thinks I’m really kind and polite because Pete always takes the flag out. He’s always very good like that isn’t he? But I like to do that because it gets me up to that end; it gives me an excuse to have a walk up and down the full length of my putt. To see the gradients on the green, to see how it breaks, so I take the flag out that gives me a chance to get at that end then come back down here, view it from this side. The biggest view I like to see is side on, because we know pace is the most important thing on long putts. So as a professional golfer long putts, pace is not the biggest priority for me. Once I’ve read it from both sides, I can then step up, input all of that data of how it’s going to break and stroke it down there and hopefully knock it in nice and close. And that’s how the professionals are reading the putts that you watch on TV.