CONQUERING THE GREENS
nvision this scenario: you E have just launched a beautiful driver shot off the
tee and followed it up with an even better approach shot from the fairway. As a result, the ball is sitting 10 feet from the cup with a chance at birdie! You are probably feeling pretty good until you walk up to grab your putter and think to yourself “what on Earth do I do now?” You would be like many golfers who haven’t quite yet developed the skill of reading a putt. In essence, you are attempting to envision the path your ball is going to take to hear that wonderful sound of the bottom of the cup. There are numerous factors that play into this potential success and we will review them here. First things first. Determine an estimate of the distance your putt will need to travel. If the ball is a mile away from the hole and on the green, you need to adjust your strategy. You cannot realistically go for the hole and expect to make it from 40 feet and out. Instead, deploy the “lag” shot as it is called. This is a shot in which you do your best
to get it relatively close to the hole in order to give yourself a true chance of sinking the next putt. On your way to grabbing the flagstick out of the hole, attempt to eyeball the distance by pacing off the walk carefully. There is a rule of thumb that for every foot of distance the club needs to be taken back 1 inch on the backswing (use that simply as a guide). Next, determine the bend or slope of the green. Not every putt is going to travel on a straight path towards the hole and you must realize that and account for it. Putts with a lot of break should fall into the cup from the side of the hole, not the front like most straight traditional putts. This allows you to really play the break and give you a better chance to hole out the putt. If you can’t determine the slope of a green, know that if there is water involved that the green USUALLY falls towards that hazard. The slope and break of a putt are the two biggest components of any putt. For example, if a putt has a lot of break but is downhill, you will need to compensate for the break more. The reason for this is that a slower putt will experience the full force of the break as opposed to a faster hit uphill putt. One last thing to keep in
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