What Is The Best Approach To Putting On Slow Golf Greens (Video) - by Pete Styles
What Is The Best Approach To Putting On Slow Golf Greens (Video) - by Pete Styles

Here is a question about putting on slow greens and how is the best to approach these greens. Now generally we all like to see really fast greens, don’t we watch the guys on the TV and we see them playing at Augusta or at the open, and they’ve got these big breaking putts on really fast greens, and it looks great when they curve one into the hole. But in reality a slow green is actually much easier to putt on because the ball will have less deviation, less break, and you won’t be able to hit so far past the hole if you make a mistake.

The problem with slow greens for a lot of club golf is that they don’t just adjust they are not comfortable with making adjustments to their stroke. They have got a 20 foot putt and they are going to hit with their 20 foot stroke regardless of what the surface is like and then they are going to blame the surface of the green. So when we’ve got slow greens we’ve got to use to our advantage, we’ve got to try and hold a few more putts and generally be more aggressive and more assertive. So a slow putt it’s going to need hitting harder to get to the hole but we know if we over hit it, it won’t actually go that far past because the green will slow it down a little bit. And also because the ball rolls quickly and slows down quickly the break is going to be a lot less so we can actually read putt straighter so you might bend down behind the ball and you might see that it has got maybe a foot of swing on the normal speed green. But if the grass on the green is longer and it’s rained overnight and its wet and it’s slow you can actually allow for a lot less break maybe six inches less break that ball will curve into the hole a lot less than it would do normally. So we can read them straighter and we can be more assertive, and I think the key to be more assertive in your putting stroke is to make sure you have a good long follow through. So as I line up to this putt here I am going to have a really positive follow through following through at least twice the length of my back stroke, so my back stroke is one third my follow through is two thirds so I am being really assertive and really positive. And actually the surface I am putting on today is quite slow so I might have a few practice putts on the putting green to get used to the surface I am going to try and have the roll down on this one, aligning myself up have a little practice stroke, try and be positive, looking at the back of the hole and beyond the back of the whole I want to give this one a run so it has the chance to go in. So have a good stroke it bubbles away massively this green has got some real big breaks and real big bubbles on it, but when you look at the speed of that one it had a decent chance. It’s gone maybe nine to 12 inches beyond the hole and it gives me a good chance to haul a return putt. The worst sort of play her would be something that just dallied up towards the hole never really had a chance that lives me a horrible length putt for my next one. And even if I was too aggressive on this one; so even if I gave this one a little bit of a whack and really run it to the hole too fast at least it only leaves me three foot coming back. Now generally speaking, I am going to haul most of my three footers, so if a putt finishes within a putter’s length of the hole you should be pretty confident you can get your return putts. So on slow greens we need to have a longer follow-through, be more positive, and allow for a lot less break and hopefully that will help improve your putting on slow greens. 2014-10-10

Here is a question about putting on slow greens and how is the best to approach these greens. Now generally we all like to see really fast greens, don’t we watch the guys on the TV and we see them playing at Augusta or at the open, and they’ve got these big breaking putts on really fast greens, and it looks great when they curve one into the hole. But in reality a slow green is actually much easier to putt on because the ball will have less deviation, less break, and you won’t be able to hit so far past the hole if you make a mistake.

The problem with slow greens for a lot of club golf is that they don’t just adjust they are not comfortable with making adjustments to their stroke. They have got a 20 foot putt and they are going to hit with their 20 foot stroke regardless of what the surface is like and then they are going to blame the surface of the green. So when we’ve got slow greens we’ve got to use to our advantage, we’ve got to try and hold a few more putts and generally be more aggressive and more assertive. So a slow putt it’s going to need hitting harder to get to the hole but we know if we over hit it, it won’t actually go that far past because the green will slow it down a little bit.

And also because the ball rolls quickly and slows down quickly the break is going to be a lot less so we can actually read putt straighter so you might bend down behind the ball and you might see that it has got maybe a foot of swing on the normal speed green. But if the grass on the green is longer and it’s rained overnight and its wet and it’s slow you can actually allow for a lot less break maybe six inches less break that ball will curve into the hole a lot less than it would do normally. So we can read them straighter and we can be more assertive, and I think the key to be more assertive in your putting stroke is to make sure you have a good long follow through.

So as I line up to this putt here I am going to have a really positive follow through following through at least twice the length of my back stroke, so my back stroke is one third my follow through is two thirds so I am being really assertive and really positive. And actually the surface I am putting on today is quite slow so I might have a few practice putts on the putting green to get used to the surface I am going to try and have the roll down on this one, aligning myself up have a little practice stroke, try and be positive, looking at the back of the hole and beyond the back of the whole I want to give this one a run so it has the chance to go in.

So have a good stroke it bubbles away massively this green has got some real big breaks and real big bubbles on it, but when you look at the speed of that one it had a decent chance. It’s gone maybe nine to 12 inches beyond the hole and it gives me a good chance to haul a return putt. The worst sort of play her would be something that just dallied up towards the hole never really had a chance that lives me a horrible length putt for my next one. And even if I was too aggressive on this one; so even if I gave this one a little bit of a whack and really run it to the hole too fast at least it only leaves me three foot coming back.

Now generally speaking, I am going to haul most of my three footers, so if a putt finishes within a putter’s length of the hole you should be pretty confident you can get your return putts. So on slow greens we need to have a longer follow-through, be more positive, and allow for a lot less break and hopefully that will help improve your putting on slow greens.