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When You Really Need To Bust One From The Tee

Golf Professionals have to be admired in their ability to assess and putt consistently well on a different course and in some cases a different country each week.

When trying to read a green the key point is to determine the slope of the green. once you know the general slope of a green you can determine which direction the ball will fall away from the hole.

The amount of break you should allow in a putt, purely depends upon the amount of slope on the green and the speed with which you hit the putt.

The more slope the more your ball will break. the less slope the less your ball will break.

The harder you hit the putt the less the ball will break the softer you hit the putt the more the ball will break.

Many golf professionals hit their short putts firmly and aim for little break. However, the problem with this type of method is if you miss you will have a long putt coming back.

I prefer to hit my putts softer and allow for a little more break.

The key to being a good reader of greens is to have a good imagination. Imagination is very important when playing a course where the greens have a lot of slope and are very fast. I remember seeing some old footage of Augusta where a player was aiming at close to 90 degrees away from the hole and still missed the putt on the bottom side of the hole. This certainly requires imagination.

If you have a practice putting green at your course that has a few slopes in it. Great, practice your putting there. If you haven't try to locate where there is such a practice green and make an effort to do some practice there. It will pay off.