Best Way to Read Greens in Golf

Greens aren’t always flat and you need to understand the slope. You need to judge not only whether you need to borrow to the left or borrow to the right on a side slope but also whether you are putting uphill or downhill.

In order to read the green, look for the overall slope. Look for the overall lie of the land. If you have walked downhill to the green the green is probably also downhill. If the whole fairway slopes from one side to the other, then the green probably follows the same angle. When you are playing on a course you don’t know, try to get to the green slightly before your playing partners and have time to walk quickly round to the back of it to get the feeling of the overall slope. The odds are that your putt will follow the overall slope and lie of the land.

The world is round, but when we look at the small section within our vision it looks reasonably flat. Much the same applies to the green. If you bend down and start looking at too small a section, you can confuse yourself. Most players read a green better by taking an overall view of it than by looking at too small an area. Certainly the part nearest the hole is the most important. The ball is slowing up then and will take up more break. But always keep the overall slope of the green in mind.

It is usually easy to see if you are going uphill, but it can be difficult to see a downslope. Many players hit the ball too hard and will then say ‘I didn’t realize I was going downhill’. If you walk onto a green that appears dead flat, take care. It may be downhill – particularly if the fairway approaching it was downhill.

Modern courses are usually built with the back of the green higher than the front of the green. On this ‘normal’ green, all putts from the front are uphill, putts from the back downhill.

Those putts taken from the right of the green are always right to left and putts from the left of the green are left to right. With this piece of information in mind you can usually tear a sidehill putt quite simply.

The difficult putts are those from above the hole. ‘Am I on the right to left section? Have I crossed the line and am I on the left to right section?’ The most difficult putt is the one almost directly above the hole. The ball will travel fast and it is easy to hit it to the wrong side. If in doubt, always hit the ball straight.

Old-fashioned greens – built before 1940 – often sloped from higher at the front to lower at the back. If they appear dead flat, take care. The green may in fact be sloping away from you.