Putting and chipping

[VoteWhitey4Prez]

So I went out to the range again tonight. So I decided to just practice with my putter and wedge. My rationale is that it doesn't cost money to buy balls for the driving range and secondly, it seems a lot more straight forward than hitting the ball a long distance.

At any rate, I was out there with my rusty old putter trying to see what I could do. I nailed one really good shot, the rest of them were pretty bad. I tried out chipping the ball onto the green too. I'd say my ratio of good shots to bad ones to stupid ones was 30%/60%/10%.

My question is, how do you reccommend reading the green for little hills and stuff? Most of my shots got off track because of some kind of hill or valley. Is it something that you just have to get a feel for or is there sort of a method?

[BStone]

It depends on what pace you like to play the ball, the faster you roll/chip it, the less break you need to play, the slower you roll the ball, the more break you need to play. It is something that you will need to develop a feel for over time, different greens will also play at different speeds, so this also has an effect on how the ball will react to breaks.

[Adam Pettman]

As Tmag explained its all about experience and learning over time.

[ualtim]

As far reading greens goes, visualize how water would run down the hills on the green and that is the infulence the green will have on your ball. More infulence if the grass is shorter, less if the grass is longer.

Its a simplistic view as there are other influences, but it a good start. Beyond that, you have to spend the time on the greens learning how your ball will follow the contours with your stroke. Time spent on the greens is time well spent.

[ezra76]

Ualtim has the same advice I give. I told twofast a few weeks ago when he asked "picture a huge bucket of water, or paint, or even ball bearings, whatever fit's your imagination, being dumped onto the green. Where would it all start rolling to."

I think the 1st thing is to realize whether you are putting up or downhill. Then bring the break into play. Try to pay attention to what your playing partner's putts do as well.