Is putting mostly about green reading?

[DaveGoodrich]

I'm not sure how this relates to the OPs contention that this thread is off track.  Nevertheless...

 

Seems like there are a few skills that "add up" to making a putt, each dependent on the previous skill:

 

Before we make a stroke, we have :

 

1.) Green reading (fundamental perception of the green topography and speed)

2.) Internalizing a speed/distance "feel" based on that read (developing an internal sense that the hole is "that far")

3.) Start line selection (based on #1, incorporating #2)

 

All of those tend to be lumped together as "green reading," but really they are distinct skills.   Except for shortish, straightish putts, poor perception of the green topography and speed will lead to "incorrect" intentions for #'s 2 and 3.  So, IMO, #1 is foundational.   Once we get past #3, we have to execute our intended line and speed, and as others have said, the ability to hit our intended distance is more important that the ability to hit our intended line.   On longer, but nearly straight putts, where the break is subtle and hard to perceive, I literally think to myself "just hit it the right speed, you can't be far off then."  

 

 

 

 

 

[Nickb333]

On 5/22/2025 at 7:21 AM, Noodler said:

 

Instinct Putting - finding this method improved my distance control so much, putting became my primary strength in my game.  I actually stumbled onto this technique during some putting practice.  I then found out that not only was this a "thing", but there was a doctoral paper and books written about it.  I had tried every method under the sun to manage my distance control up to that point, but looking at the hole for the entire stroke opened up my natural distance control instinct.  If you don't have 8 hours/day to practice your putting, instinct putting can be a game changer for many golfers.

I would like to thank you for the post and link. I read a bit of the book so far. While I certainly can’t look at the hole on long putts, what I adopted has worked very well so far. I kept my usual walk in from behind, pick out an apex point, and line up accordingly. The change I made was taking a long look at the hole after I am set. Focusing on which part of the hole I envision the ball will fall into. I made a lot of putts today with no other adjustments to my stance or stroke. Just a long look at the hole. 

[SNIPERBBB]

9 hours ago, Nickb333 said:

I would like to thank you for the post and link. I read a bit of the book so far. While I certainly can’t look at the hole on long putts, what I adopted has worked very well so far. I kept my usual walk in from behind, pick out an apex point, and line up accordingly. The change I made was taking a long look at the hole after I am set. Focusing on which part of the hole I envision the ball will fall into. I made a lot of putts today with no other adjustments to my stance or stroke. Just a long look at the hole. 

lookup Monte's Voodoo putting

[SNIPERBBB]

There's some days you just see the lines and you don't need to read the putts.  When you have those days, or sometimes just a few holes of the round, it's gonna be a good putting day.

 

 

My most memorable version of this was last year at our interclub version of the Ryder cup. 2 days 4 rounds.  Last round singles I hardly read a putt all day. Won 4 &3... unfortunately the guy I beat best me in best ball and scramble the day before and the rest of the team didn't have much luck.

[Noodler]

15 hours ago, Nickb333 said:

I would like to thank you for the post and link. I read a bit of the book so far. While I certainly can’t look at the hole on long putts, what I adopted has worked very well so far. I kept my usual walk in from behind, pick out an apex point, and line up accordingly. The change I made was taking a long look at the hole after I am set. Focusing on which part of the hole I envision the ball will fall into. I made a lot of putts today with no other adjustments to my stance or stroke. Just a long look at the hole. 

 

I believe that this is what most of the pros are probably doing.  They're very good at "memorizing" the distance and line, and keeping it in their mind while they're taking the stroke focusing on the ball.  I just suck at doing it that way.  I need to use that "instinct" that we have, to judge the distance while throwing a ball, and that requires looking at the hole.

[bortass]

This is my go to source of putting wisdom:

 

[NosajNeelik]

I haven’t read the thread so not sure if it’s gone way off topic as usual but I believe you must have a fundamentally sound stroke that starts the ball on your intended line or no abound of green reading skills matter. Also I think speed is way more important that line because it affects your line more than the other way around although some people might think of it that line dictates speed. I don’t. 

[Nels55]

57 minutes ago, NosajNeelik said:

I haven’t read the thread so not sure if it’s gone way off topic as usual but I believe you must have a fundamentally sound stroke that starts the ball on your intended line or no abound of green reading skills matter. Also I think speed is way more important that line because it affects your line more than the other way around although some people might think of it that line dictates speed. I don’t. 

Your post does indeed have very little to do with the topic.  Pros are assumed to have the ability to start the ball on their chosen line.  The OP was about a pros ability to repeatedly make putts once they see a ball roll.  Speed vs. line was a manufactured debate.  I don't believe that anyone here has tried to argue that reading the line is more important then getting the speed right.

[PedronNiall]

12 hours ago, Nels55 said:

I don't believe that anyone here has tried to argue that reading the line is more important then getting the speed right.

 

You missed a lot of posts in this thread if that's your takeaway. 

[GoGoErky]

Just now, PedronNiall said:

 

You missed a lot of posts in this thread if that's your takeaway. 

A good number of them if this is the opinion

[Nels55]

13 minutes ago, PedronNiall said:

 

You missed a lot of posts in this thread if that's your takeaway. 

Refrence?

[PedronNiall]

11 minutes ago, Nels55 said:

Refrence?

 

I'm not going to go quote them for you one by one. There are many, at least one of which is on this last page, where people said the data is wrong and read is more important than distance control. It's also the contention of this thread to begin with. 

 

Looking for "I think" should help you to find many of them if you need a pointer. 

[Nels55]

27 minutes ago, PedronNiall said:

 

I'm not going to go quote them for you one by one. There are many, at least one of which is on this last page, where people said the data is wrong and read is more important than distance control. It's also the contention of this thread to begin with. 

 

Looking for "I think" should help you to find many of them if you need a pointer. 

I read every post in this thread and no one said that line is more important then speed.

[PedronNiall]

16 hours ago, Nels55 said:

I don't believe that anyone here has tried to argue that reading the line is more important then getting the speed right.

 

On 5/27/2025 at 3:52 PM, DaveGoodrich said:

Before we make a stroke, we have :

 

1.) Green reading (fundamental perception of the green topography and speed)

2.) Internalizing a speed/distance "feel" based on that read (developing an internal sense that the hole is "that far")

3.) Start line selection (based on #1, incorporating #2)

 

All of those tend to be lumped together as "green reading," but really they are distinct skills.   Except for shortish, straightish putts, poor perception of the green topography and speed will lead to "incorrect" intentions for #'s 2 and 3.  So, IMO, #1 is foundational. 

 

2 hours ago, Nels55 said:

I read every post in this thread and no one said that line is more important then speed.

 

That's all I'm going to do for you. If you don't see that and the others who literally said distance control isn't the most important thing that's on you, I'm not going to go through every single post and break it down. You somehow missed the entire first page of the OP arguing distance control isn't the most important item every time iacas posted items detailing how it is, including showing a breakdown of which elements of putting have the largest allowable margins of error before a miss occurs. 

[Nels55]

3 hours ago, PedronNiall said:

 

 

 

That's all I'm going to do for you. If you don't see that and the others who literally said distance control isn't the most important thing that's on you, I'm not going to go through every single post and break it down. You somehow missed the entire first page of the OP arguing distance control isn't the most important item every time iacas posted items detailing how it is, including showing a breakdown of which elements of putting have the largest allowable margins of error before a miss occurs. 

@DaveGoodrich did not say that line is more important then speed.

[GoGoErky]

1 hour ago, Nels55 said:

@DaveGoodrich did not say that line is more important then speed.

he did and just like the op and others saying speed isn’t important is missing what is being talked about when we said speed is more important as noted below by Erik in bold.

 

 

On 5/27/2025 at 10:06 AM, iacas said:

 

No, we're talking about the ability to hit it that speed, not making it part of the read. It's a different thing.

 

 

I don't think we did. And the first word of my reply — the first word of the reply you got — was "yes, most of the reason they miss is the read" but that's because a read that's off a tenth of a percent can result in a make or a miss. And though the "read" may be the initial biggest reason… there are others, too: randomness/luck. You can roll a Perfect Putter from 12' and not make 20-25% pretty easily. And again it's the largest reason, but only in that shorter range… even on the PGA Tour, the thing that leads to them being better at putting in general is distance control. The other two are close behind.

 

 

You're making assumptions.

 

And, to be blunt, the example wasn't very good. Someone hitting a bunch of 7I in a row are going to do a better job of hitting them than if they wait 10 minutes between them. So a Tour player hitting the same putt repeatedly is going to do better, too. It'd also be true if they worked around the hole hitting 12' putts even though the read would vary every time. They'd get used to hitting 12' putts and would do better at it.

 

 

[NosajNeelik]

20 hours ago, Nels55 said:

Your post does indeed have very little to do with the topic.  Pros are assumed to have the ability to start the ball on their chosen line.  The OP was about a pros ability to repeatedly make putts once they see a ball roll.  Speed vs. line was a manufactured debate.  I don't believe that anyone here has tried to argue that reading the line is more important then getting the speed right.

Why would you assume that? Pros struggle with putting as well and it’s mostly because they move their lower body and don’t hit the putt on the intended line. 

[DaveGoodrich]

20 hours ago, GoGoErky said:

21 hours ago, Nels55 said:

@DaveGoodrich did not say that line is more important then speed.

he did and just like the op and others saying speed isn’t important is missing what is being talked about when we said speed is more important as noted below by Erik in bold.

 

 

I did not.  I said good green reading tells you the needed speed, which determines the line. I also agreed with others that the ability to hit your intended distance is more important than hitting your intended line.  Not sure how anyone would interpret either of those points as me saying "speed isn't important."

[sundaypins]

On 5/20/2025 at 7:04 PM, DLiver said:

I consider that to be a key part of the read: line/speed. Faxon practices making putts of a certain length on three different lines, using three different speeds. It is a great drill.

 

Yes, a great drill for touch.  The fourth line in has the ball trickling back down into the hole from an uphill miss on the high side.  Could be luck, could be skill.   Only thing remaining after that is understanding proper orientations.🤣

 

 

[ShowMe]

Assuming you can putt the ball straight then, yes, putting is mostly about green reading.

[ShortGolfer]

With balance issues I found I was "cheating" by using the flagstick to find vertical.  Which threw off my putts when it wasn't!  I now pull the flag stick to avoid being misled by a tilted flagstick.

 

My putting has always been better when I pin hunt and aim to put the ball ten feet below the hole in a location that will take out the break.

My SW has been a strength of my game so why not put  it in the bunker if it gives me an easier pitch to that "sweet spot" on the green?

New England courses can be nasty when you hit the ball over the green.

Edited July 12 by ShortGolfer