I’ve always been interested in how to read greens better. There are lots of tips on how to have a better swing, how to pitch and chip better, how to have a better putting stroke, but not many about how to read the green better.  You can have the best, purest putting stroke in the world and never make a putt if you aren’t good at reading the greens.

School of Golf’s Martin Hall and Sara Brown describe 4 keys to reading the green.

The keys are:

1. Find the uphills and downhills along the line.
2. Look at the putt from the side to help find the break.
3. Look at what’s going to happen around the hole (the putt should be moving slowly near the hole, so any breaks affect the ball more).
4. Think about the speed of the greens and the putt.  The faster the greens are, the more the putt will break.