
On subtle slopes the key to holing those critical
four-footers lies in the ability to ‘see’ the deviation
from a straight line and read putts accurately.
And it’s a skill that can be acquired with experience and
practice, says Jeremy Bennett.
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So, who will win The Open? Easy answer,
the player who reads the greens the best!
The player hugging the claret jug come
Sunday evening will almost definitely lead
the putting stats, whether that’s putts per
green and/or putts per round, or at worst
he will be in the top 5. That person may
not necessarily have been the best at starting
the ball on his intended line (i.e. best
stroke) or the very best pace putter, but he
will have consistently read the greens better
than his fellow competitors.
Muirfield’s green complexes are not
especially dramatic or undulating, and as a
result of this the breaks are extremely subtle
– a frustrating defence! It is the ‘almost
straight’ putts that can sow the most doubt
in a player’s mind – do they see it as right
edge when in fact, it should have been left!
In order to overcome the difficulty of
reading those ‘almost straight’ putts you
have to learn to identify ‘the straight’. On
uniform slopes there are only two possible
dead straight putts – one straight down the
hill, the other straight up it. When putting
from anywhere on the top side, anything
right of the straight will break from left-to right,
while anything left will have to move
from right-to-left. [Without wishing to state
the obvious, any putt close to the straight
will only have a very faint movement and
the most severe breaks will be the 2 putts
at 90 degrees to the true straight.]
The knack to finding the straight is for
you to move enough to one side of your
ball that you are confident the read will
break left-to-right, then move to the other
side until you can definitely visualise it
moving right-to-left: the point directly inbetween
the two will be the straight! This is
a skill that can be acquired and is there for
all to see if you know what to look for.
Practising with the help of a digital spirit
level is the only true way to learn to identify
subtle slopes – it gives you invaluable
feedback and confirmation as to where the
straight line actually is. A lot of professional
coaches use the model you see here –
the BreakMasters Digital Green Reader;
you can download a similar device onto
your smartphone for next to nothing and it
will really help you with the necessary
information.
If you don’t have a digital spirit level, go
out onto the practice green, find the flattest
area you can and stroke a few putts
until you find the line upon which the ball
rolls straight into the cup without deviation
– a perfectly straight four-footer. Once
you have established that line, place a ball
and then look at the surrounds, moving 6
inches, then a foot, and so on either side of
the straight putt, and take a good look a
the putt in order to learn to recognise the
deviation of putts either side of straight.
Like all other skills in golf, this is one that
requires practice and repetition.

Once you have identified
a straight putt, have a
look from either side of
that line to get a sense of
the break you have to
factor in on those ‘nearly
straight’ putts – on a
green running at a typical
stimp of 10, you need to
play more break than you
might think
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The digital spirit level also provides you
with the precise percentage of break as
well as the direction (left or right of the
centre line). And this can help you to establish
in your mind useful parameters
according to the speed of the surface. For
example, a useful fact to remember is that
when putting on a green running at 10 on
the ‘stimp’ – average summer speed for
most UK courses – on a break of 1% or less
from 5 foot you will never need to aim outside
the edge of the cup. (On quick green,
the vast majority of golfers under borrow).
Practising your putting between 5 and
10 foot of the hole is the most beneficial as
these are the ‘clutch’ putts to make for
every standard of golfer. And with a better
understanding of what that subtle break
looks like, you will hole more of them!
Reproduced with kind permission of Golf International Magazine

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