First
Aid
How to Read the Greens for a Better
Putt
Part 2 - And last but not
least, "Ya gotta believe!"
by
Dr. Gary
Wiren, PGA Master Instructor
Last month, I covered putting styles and how
important it is to find the one you are most comfortable with, stick
with it, and...practice! This month's column includes tips on other
factors that can positively affect your putting style.
Let's consider an important part of putting:
determining slope and speed, or "reading the greens." When you're
dealing with slope, visualize pouring a bucket of water on the green
and imagine the direction the water would drain. The ball will roll
in the same direction. One way to treat sidehill putts is to say all
putts are straight putts. If I have a tilted putt, I just pick a line
that is straight ahead, up above the hole someplace, and then putt
for that spot treating it as a straight putt, letting gravity and the
tilt of the green take care of the curve. It's an easier way to do it
because it helps prevent the instinctive urge to pull or push the
blade to the cup rather than the target.
Green speed is a challenging part of putting because
we have different kinds of grasses kept at various heights and
quicknesses. I have a method of judging speed that's fun and has
proven helpful for lots of people. I call it the Goldilocks Method of
green reading. I've seen people stand up to a putt that is 10 feet
from the hole, take their grip, look at the target, aim, and
go...boom, 15 feet past the hole. Then they exclaim, "Oh, that's too
hard." I would prefer that they first take a rehearsal stroke, judge
it and then say, "Oh, that's too hard." or "Oh, that's too soft,"
because at that point, it's not too late. When they say, "Oh, that's
just right," in their practice stroke, they should then step up to
the ball and duplicate that stroke&endash;the Goldilocks Method,
similar to the "Three Bears" story. The point is this: feel the
distance before you hit the ball, when you can do something about it,
instead of after you hit it, when you can't.
Bermuda grass is traditionally slower than Bent
grass. This would make Bermuda easier to handle, except for the
presence of a grain, which makes putting more difficult. The easiest
way to find out if grain is present is to take your putter and drag
it on the surface of the green in different directions until you
bring up the nap or grain of the grass (this is not allowed in
competition). The grain indicates the direction the grass is lying,
and the ball will always try to follow the grain. The grain on most
southern courses follows the setting sun, and in some cases the
prevailing winds or drainage. So when you're on a Bermuda grass golf
course, orient yourself to the east and west. Knowing that the grain
generally goes west, you'll find it much easier to putt. For Bent
greens, it's primarily slope and speed that you contend with, rather
than grain.
Here is one "solid gold" tip I've found very helpful
when dealing with greens that are either extremely slow or
particularly fast. I guarantee you that this will help in your
putting. How many of you have played golf where the greens are
healthy but the grass is long and terribly slow? Or perhaps you play
early in the day, when the dew slows the greens. In either of those
situations, when you are standing over a putt six feet from the cup,
your subconscious brain sends you the message, "Six feet is as hard
as you should have to hit it." The fact that you're on a green that
is slow because it is wet, or the grass is long, is not part of that
message. The subconscious responds more to what it sees and has
experienced in the past. You may say to yourself, "Don't leave it
short," as many times as you like, but if your subconscious says,
"That's six feet, hit it only this hard," you'll leave it short. Time
after time you will be short.
So what you do is fool your subconscious. Take the
hole and move it, in your mind. Move it two feet farther away. Erase
it from six feet; now it's eight feet away. You see it farther away
in your mind and you rehearse your eight-foot effort. If you're
effective with your imaging, your mind will let you hit it hard
enough to get it to the hole. It's mental manipulation and it
works.
As for the technique of putting, including grip, aim
and stroke pattern, there are many variations. I like to find a grip
where my hands hang naturally, but which allows me to make a stroke
without a great deal of clubface rotation. That requires an
adjustment from the standard golf grip. In other full golf shots we
make a grip which encourages the forearms and clubface to rotate. On
a putt you want to minimize that rotation. Seek a grip position which
encourages the thumbs to turn slightly outward, away from your body,
when you place them on the club. The degree of that turning depends
upon how much you bend your elbows. The more bent, the more your
hands will open and the thumbs turn out. It will help you to keep the
blade square.
Another important point is to establish a grip in
which you feel you've got some touch; where you're not tied up so the
putter feels like a stiff, heavy stick. That feeling comes primarily
from grip pressure. You need enough so your left wrist doesn't
collapse, not so much that the feeling for distance
disappears.
Aiming in putting is a challenge. If you don't
believe it, stand behind people on the practice green sometime and
see how few aim the face accurately to their target. One of the best
ways to practice that is to use a piece of two-by-four board or a
putt path training aid. First draw a straight line across the top of
the board at right angles so that you can check your clubface. Then
rest the heel of your putter against the two-by-four or putt path
training aid, and simply swing your arms back and through so the
blade goes to the hole. Put yourself about three or four feet from
the cup and start using the board or training aid as an automatic
putting machine for aim and stroke path. Don't do it from farther
away, as a correct backstroke for a longer putt requires the heel to
leave the board.
My final and most important comment on putting is
that you've got to believe you can make it. How many people have you
played with who have said, "I can't putt," And if they say, "they
can't putt," then they can't putt. This I guarantee you. The people
who can really putt are the people who believe that they can make
everything.
One of the greatest of all time was Labron Harris,
Sr. I played with Labron at Pinehurst some years ago. I'd heard about
the magnificent way he could hole those putts, and I decided I had to
see this man play. Maybe I could pick up his secret. So we played,
and I watched his technique very closely. I watched his stroke; I
looked at his grip and his setup. There was nothing special about
it&endash;just basic, straightforward fundamentals. The only thing
special about this man was that he believed he could make every
single putt he stood over. He saw every putt go into the hole before
he hit it. He had superconfidence, the ultimate principle in golf's
ultimate stroke.
Gary Wiren is a PGA Master Instructor and a Ph.D.
He operates "Golf Around the World" in Lake Park, Florida. The
company conducts golf seminars, schools and personal visits, and
sells golf teaching aids, books and videotapes. Call 561-625-1928 or
800-824-4279 for information.
Garyw@floridagolfing.com
