There are few things more frustrating than constantly burning edges and feeling like you left numerous shots on the greens. But the truth is, if you don't start the ball on line, you can hit good putts until you're blue in the face and they won't drop. In the video and article below, Golf Monthly Top 50 coach and PGA Professional Alex Elliott explains how you can improve your green reading with a simple drill.
Green Reading Drill
One of the hardest skills in golf is learning to read a putt. I get asked all the time by golfers I coach to help them improve in this area of the game and as such, I've devised a really simple method that will help players of all levels.
For a right-hander, left-to-right putts tend to prove really difficult. I know they strike fear into me sometimes. I used to find it really hard to start the ball where I wanted to, and even when I did, I'd have misread the break.
If this sounds like something that happens to you, take two coins with you next time you're going to practice putting green. Look at a putt from all angles until you feel like you've got a good idea of the line and then plot the journey using the two coins.
What that does is gives you two intermediate points you think the ball needs to track over in order to find the bottom of the cup and provides a great way of visualising how a putt breaks. Don't worry if you don't get it right first time. The idea is you learn from what you did and build this visualisation into your pre-shot routine.
If you can team this with a good pace putting drill, you should be able to avoid 3-putts and maybe even hole the odd tram-liner!
For me, this is the best way to read greens as it builds a strong picture of a putt when you're out on the course and will therefore improve your chances of starting the ball where you want to. All you've got to do then is match the pace and you're onto a winner.
