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Multiple factors go into a good scan of the green. I always take in my surroundings first! Where is the grain, which way is the sun setting, moisture, are their mountains influencing the slope, and then of course I plum bob which is proven to work. Ben Crenshaw was a big fan of this and was at a clinic back in the day when he worked with a select few on his style. Green reeding is an art so don’t let the aim point guys tell you otherwise. An art must be practiced so get out their and work on that craft.

I’m a pretty simple lag putter. I try to find the high point in the line and consider the speed the ball needs to be at to reach it and also to break its way to the hole.

Mid-length putts of 15-20 I struggle a little bit because I focus more on being aggressive enough with speed to take the subtle breaks out of it.

5-8 footers I’m playing at most a ball out and focusing on dropping it vs trickling in.

On undulating greens I struggle a bit in general because that type of set up is all speed and line. Luckily for me most of the greens in NY tend to be a bit flatter.

Best way to read a green? Hit your approach closer than your playing partners.

but I’m with Eddie and Bananapants, quick visual. And my struggles are that I worry about PoP so I don’t take the time to check from a few angles and lately, my mind often tries to see a nice flowing break when there just isn’t enough there if you have some confidence and hit it to the back of the cup.

rrkman Yup, back of the cup was my mentality in my peak years. Slowly went to “seeing the ball die into the hole” and I became an atrocious putter of the ball inside of 10 feet.

      Here’s my 2 cents when it comes to reading greens…

      Everyone sees things differently because everyone putts differently. I just spent 3 days at my Member Guest and I may be a terrible host when it comes to giving someone reads. Inside of 8 feet I want to take the most break out of a putt that I possibly can. Outside I just really focus on speed and how I can die
      a ball around the cup. Once I went to that method I just became such a better putter.

      When I’m taking break out it’s because I am, at that moment, very comfortable with my stroke. I know that I am going to be able to put a good stroke on it that with the extra speed it’s hitting the back of the cup.

      I am comfortable saying that most of the year I am an above average putter. When my putter is struggling, I may as well not even play 😂

      I struggled with this last year pretty bad, went and took a aim point lesson with a highly rated guy. Learned a ton about green reading as a whole from him, I don’t use aim point unless I really can’t get a read. I will say I recently have adapted the Harry Higgs method and it’s crazy how free I feel over a putt. There’s a video on YouTube somewhere with Trottie golf but basically it comes down to figuring out which way it breaks and just react from there not picking a specific spot just an area. This probably doesn’t work for most but as a ex high level pitcher I knew I perform better when I just react.

      bigjohntripod (No aim point, please) 😂

      Sorry @bigjohntripod, but I have to add another vote for Aimpoint Express 😅.

      I gave up trusting my eyes after getting flummoxed by the greens at LPGA International a few years back. It was $100 for a private lesson with a guy at the World Golf Village's Tour Performance Center.

      It works. I played Aiken Golf Club on Friday and rolled in some really insane putts from distance because of Aimpoint.

        OffTheDole You evere see George Bryan over there? Seems like a real chill guy.

            ckay I was just in town for the day and played the course for the first time. He does seem like a cool dude, him an his brother.

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