Dialing in your speed on the green is key to three-putting.
GOLF.com
Welcome to Play Smart, GOLF.com’s regular game improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
One of the main ingredients in good positioning is the right speed. If you can roll the putt at the right speed, it increases the effective hole size and gives you a better chance of making putts.
The right speed is not only helpful to do putts, though. Once you hit your speed, it cuts down on three putts and helps keep big numbers off the card.
If you watch a great putter on the greens, you will see their speed is normal a lot good. They don’t have to grind their second putt because they leave their first roll inside the gimme area. This should be something that every golfer wants.
For more on how to dial in our speed on the greens, we turn to mid-am golfer and Bridges Cup participant Taylor Wood.
How to dial your speed on the greens
Adjusting your speed on the green is important, but it’s not always an easy task. With different courses with different green speeds, you have to adjust every time you join a new area. And if you want your game to move, you need to get your speed from the green things painted everywhere you play.
Taylor Wood knows this fact well. As an elite mid-am golfer, he plays in tournaments across the country – and every time he tees off somewhere, he makes a point to experience the speed of the green.
How do you do this? It all starts with establishing a foundation.
“I keep it simple and think about my home [course] speed,” said Wood.
Every time Wood arrives at a new course, he starts by putting as he would at home. Many times, the pace of the new vegetables is not the same as the pace of his home course, but with that foundation in mind, he can make the necessary adjustments.
One of the exercises he likes to do to get a feel for the speed is to put something in his bag – like a glove – on a random green spot. He then rolls a few putts towards it with the goal of getting the balls to stop as close to it as possible.
“I will hit putts where I am not focused on making the putt,” he said. “I’m really taking my feel from home, bringing it here and hitting putts to understand how to reshape.”
If you’re playing a new course, it might be wise to take a page from Wood’s book. Before you go, go to the practice green and roll putts with the sole purpose of getting a feel for the speed. If you can do that, you’ll miss three putts early in the round and get off to a fast start.
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