Make More Short Putts on Fast Greens (Video) - by Pete Styles
Make More Short Putts on Fast Greens (Video) - by Pete Styles

I often ask golfers how they’ve played beautiful summer days, sun was beating down, drying the golf course out nicely, “How did you play? Was it good?” “Yeah I played the right tee, but I didn’t putt very well.” “Oh why didn’t you putt very well?” “Well the greens were too quick.” “But oh yeah you’ve been waiting for the greens to be nice and quick like they are on the telly and then you didn’t go putt very well.” It’s because people struggle to adjust to the speed of the greens. When they’ve played on relatively slow greens, average greens all year, then the greens get quick. They don’t really adjust very well.

So here’s five little tips that I think could help you putt better when you play on very fast greens. The first thing would be just lighten your grip pressure. You see golfers get a bit handsy, they get a bit too grippy and they give it a whack. So lighten your grip pressure, just soften everything up, that will give you a bit more touch and feel and hit a few putts that don’t quite go so quickly. The next tip would just be to grip down on the club as well. Gripping the golf club right at the top does not feel like you got a great deal of control give you a bit too much power. Just grip down and then you should grip light and that would really help you give a little bit more control to your putts. The next idea would be actually to pick a spot on the green, but maybe short of the hole. So if you’re consistently running everything six foot past six foot past, just pick a spot that’s a few feet shorter than the hole, try to putt to that and the extra fast green that you’re not used to playing on will just encourage the ball down to the hole. If you’ve got a really quick putt, now we’re talking straight down the slope , down the grain, a little slippery one, it might be worth considering hitting the ball slightly more towards the toe of the club. Now hitting the toe of the club is normally considered to be a bad thing because it’s going to sound a bit dead. It’s not going to hit the ball as far and there’s the key, it’s not going to hit the ball as far. So if you could just tap a ball off the toe, so when you set up to hit your putt, play it slightly from the toe side, it deadens the strike, it weakens the strike and the ball won’t race past the hole quite so well, quite so far. One last little thing; but actually need to find somewhere to practice where you can practice on very fast greens. Now if you’ve got fast greens at the club and you can find some downhillers, that’s great. But if you haven’t got that, it might be worth finding some carpet or even a hardwood floor that you can practice putting on. Just get used to the fact that you don’t need to take a great big swing to see a six foot roll, that you can just breath on the back of the ball and that will run down there. So a nice short carpet or even a hardwood floor to practice your putting. And if you can incorporate those five top tips into your putting when you’re on fast greens, I’m sure you’ll hole a few more when the sun’s out and the greens are quick, just how we like it. 2014-01-21

I often ask golfers how they’ve played beautiful summer days, sun was beating down, drying the golf course out nicely, “How did you play? Was it good?” “Yeah I played the right tee, but I didn’t putt very well.” “Oh why didn’t you putt very well?” “Well the greens were too quick.” “But oh yeah you’ve been waiting for the greens to be nice and quick like they are on the telly and then you didn’t go putt very well.” It’s because people struggle to adjust to the speed of the greens. When they’ve played on relatively slow greens, average greens all year, then the greens get quick. They don’t really adjust very well.

So here’s five little tips that I think could help you putt better when you play on very fast greens. The first thing would be just lighten your grip pressure. You see golfers get a bit handsy, they get a bit too grippy and they give it a whack. So lighten your grip pressure, just soften everything up, that will give you a bit more touch and feel and hit a few putts that don’t quite go so quickly.

The next tip would just be to grip down on the club as well. Gripping the golf club right at the top does not feel like you got a great deal of control give you a bit too much power. Just grip down and then you should grip light and that would really help you give a little bit more control to your putts.

The next idea would be actually to pick a spot on the green, but maybe short of the hole. So if you’re consistently running everything six foot past six foot past, just pick a spot that’s a few feet shorter than the hole, try to putt to that and the extra fast green that you’re not used to playing on will just encourage the ball down to the hole.

If you’ve got a really quick putt, now we’re talking straight down the slope , down the grain, a little slippery one, it might be worth considering hitting the ball slightly more towards the toe of the club. Now hitting the toe of the club is normally considered to be a bad thing because it’s going to sound a bit dead. It’s not going to hit the ball as far and there’s the key, it’s not going to hit the ball as far. So if you could just tap a ball off the toe, so when you set up to hit your putt, play it slightly from the toe side, it deadens the strike, it weakens the strike and the ball won’t race past the hole quite so well, quite so far.

One last little thing; but actually need to find somewhere to practice where you can practice on very fast greens. Now if you’ve got fast greens at the club and you can find some downhillers, that’s great. But if you haven’t got that, it might be worth finding some carpet or even a hardwood floor that you can practice putting on. Just get used to the fact that you don’t need to take a great big swing to see a six foot roll, that you can just breath on the back of the ball and that will run down there.

So a nice short carpet or even a hardwood floor to practice your putting. And if you can incorporate those five top tips into your putting when you’re on fast greens, I’m sure you’ll hole a few more when the sun’s out and the greens are quick, just how we like it.