The Putting Green

3 putts or less is the goal. Professional players may look like they make everything on the greens but they miss too. Learning to get your first putt closer to the hole is the most important skill to master. This will save the most shots long term of any you can learn.

Know your distance to the hole

Distance control is important, therefore, you must know how far you are from the hole. Walking or pacing off the putts is recommended. Pacing off your putts also helps you feel the terrain and slopes that will affect the speed. When you practice your putting be sure to putt from different lengths to learn the feel to lag your first putts closer to the hole.

Know the high and low points

Finding the high and low points are keys to learning how to read the greens. If you find the fall lines which are straight in putts above or below the hole, you can really get a good chance at reading the green properly.

Stay or leave the ball below the hole

Learning to leave the ball below the hole makes putting easier. You can putt with more confidence and gravity helps slow the ball down sooner so the ball doesn’t get away from you as easily. Downhill putts require much more attention and demand your focus. If you are putting downhill, down grain and down wind you may not be able to even keep the ball on the green. Learning to play from below the hole is a must.

Putting green Rules

The most important rules that apply to the putting green are to repair your ball marks on the greens. We advise getting into the habit of trying to fix 2 ball marks per hole. If everyone adopts this attitude, there should never be 2 ball marks for people to fix. Get it? The other basic guideline is lift your feet to avoid dragging any spike marks and avoid walking in another player’s intended path of the putt.