The Ultimate Green Reading Lesson with Stephen Sweeney
Stephen Sweeney teaches GOLF's Jake Morrow how to read the greens and perfect his putting.
Video Transcript
I'm gonna tell the people that I golf with, like if I miss a putt low, like just- So that's double the break that you originally walked in here thinking it was.
Yeah.
That was first take, by the way.
Green reading.
This is gonna be You're gonna see some really funny stuff happen here, I think so.
Yeah.
Walk me, walk me through what we gotta start here.
All right.
Well, you know, I mentioned, to you off camera a few days ago why players miss on tour.
Mm-hmm.
And I think that we've covered two of the reasons: technical reasons and speed reasons.
The third being green reading reasons.
So I think you were pretty surprised by the percentage of why players miss- Yeah and where they lay.
Yeah.
We would sort of say that any putt where you can start within one degree of your start line, we don't really consider it a technical reason why the putt missed.
Okay.
Okay?
But speed and read, obviously when we s- go off of a straight putt, you know, on a straight putt, any speed that gets the ball to the hole and doesn't jump the hole- Yeah the ball will go in.
But now when we actually have break, if the speed changes and the read is not right, obviously there's a lot of mistakes we can make.
Yeah.
So it's a 50, 40, 10 rule.
Only 10% of putts from elite players at the PGA tour level are missed for technical reasons.
40% are missed because of the speed, and 50% missed because they have the wrong read in the first place.
So it still amazes me right now that how many players, after they've made a decision on the read and they're, you know, th- speed, they still have so many technical thoughts.
Yeah.
Because chances are, you know, there's a probably a 50/50 chance you messed up one of those two anyway, right?
Yeah.
That's the least of your issues, is the technical aspects over here.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So we're gonna test you here on a 13-foot putt.
It's about, you know, slightly or, you know, h- worse than a 40% make average on tour.
Okay.
What we're gonna do is we know the green is tilted now right to left of the platform, but I wanna see how you read it.
Okay.
And I want you to put this out wherever you feel like how much break you would play.
Okay.
Okay?
So we're, we're not gonna give you the answers.
I'm gonna make you work for this one here, okay?
I'm trying to go right over this little mark here.
Okay, cool.
So we're gonna put that on the ground where you're trying to roll the ball over.
Okay.
Okay?
Now, so as much as you're trying to roll the ball over that spot, I would still like a start line that you're gonna aim at, because there will be break from here to here.
Or do you feel like that's just where you would, you would aim the putt?
That's where I would aim the putt, yeah.
That's where you'd aim it.
Yeah.
Okay, that's fine.
All right, so you've, you've picked the spot that you want to aim at.
Yep.
I'm gonna select that on the, the Quintic overhead here.
So that's your, that's your start line.
Okay.
Okay?
What we wanna now see is, as a spot putter, can you start it on that line, and what's the result of the putt?
Okay.
Okay?
So let's go ahead and, and see how you do.
Okay.
So this is the first question I always ask every, every player that's like a decent standard.
Yeah.
Why do you think that missed?
Pace.
Okay.
Yeah.
So speed's the reason you're, you're Okay.
I think I didn't hit that nearly as hard as I needed to.
Okay.
Obviously the ball's short of the hole, so there's definitely not enough pace on the putt.
If we look at how far you missed the putt by, you missed it low, however we've started the putt two and a half degrees right of your intended start line.
So- Oh, like of my mark?
Yes.
Okay.
So you've actually started it, seven inches right of that.
Okay.
Or I- up by the hole would be seven inches.
Yeah.
So but two and a half degrees right.
Okay.
So that's why if you go back to the Quintic session we did on the putter fitting, we were sort of fascinated by getting this within one degree.
Then we get the putter right, everything else, and then we have a read that's two and a half degrees wrong.
Yeah.
So it's starting to reduce our chances immediately of making the putt.
Yes.
And the fact that we had a 13-foot putt, the ball only traveled 12.2 feet.
Yeah.
Okay?
So the first thing is, let's see what happens if we start the ball truly online and, and with enough speed to get to the hole.
Let's, let's see where it finishes.
So we're gonna just put a little laser down here for you.
If you, take the ball away for just one second, please.
So that's right on our, right on our start line.
Okay.
Okay?
Now if I put another ball just further down the laser here, we know that that's the most right you can start the ball.
Okay.
Okay?
Because it should break before it gets there.
So I'm w- I'm gonna control your start direction.
Okay.
So why don't you go ahead and hit the putt, and, see where it finishes.
Son of a bitch.
All right.
So definitely better speed.
It forced you to hit it harder.
You started that within .98 of a degree of where we wanted.
Okay.
Okay?
So let's just again see if we hit that even firmer, or how firm do we need to hit it on this line to get it to go in the hole?
Yeah, 'cause now I'm like, now I'm at an uncomfortable pace for me.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, like we're like I feel like I- This is how it's starting to go five, six feet by the hole, okay?
Yeah.
All right.
So again, if we look at- So the read, so the read is significantly inside what the read- Absolutely should be.
'Cause, 'cause if we look at where you started that putt now, you started it .34, of a degree right of where you wanted to- Okay which is one inch by the hole.
Okay?
That's one inch- Yeah that far away.
And the ball speed at the hole was plenty fast enough to, to capture it and go in.
So we know that the read's low, and that's where, even with someone like a drippy putter like you, we tend to find most people read putts just way too low.
Okay.
Okay?
So we know that the putt is looking like it's up close to that hole, when, when we've read it proper or where we're putting it right now.
Yeah.
Okay?
We definitely need to move our mark here, and we probably need to get from aiming here to about five inches further up.
Okay?
So now we've actually got what I think is a more appropriate read.
There you go.
Okay?
So now we wanna start it back on our target line again.
That was first take, by the way.
Bang.
Okay.
So just to note, we started this putt now still way right of where you think it started.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay?
The actual read to make it at that speed is just inside the, the right cup.
Okay.
So if we take a slight sort of look back at where your first read was, your first read, even though you're putting over a spot- Yeah your first read was about here.
Jeez.
Okay?
We've moved it up here.
And it's still not far enough.
So the only thing I would say being critical of that putt, it was maybe a little bit on the slow side.
Yeah.
That's obviously how you like to make them.
Yeah.
But hit one again for me on this line and be just a little bit more aggressive with the speed, but make sure that it starts on that, on that start line.
So again, about, yeah, one and a half degrees right, but the ball speed at the hole, much, much better.
Yeah.
So really our read is that far up.
Like I There's just no shot I would've ever said that.
Okay.
So scary part is this is only a 2% slope.
Yeah.
And, you know, USGA at a US Open will put a pin on up to a 4% slope.
Jeez.
So if you think of a 13-foot putt, especially, you know, down here in South Florida, a lot of courses have caddies.
The amount of times that I, you know, ask a caddy for a read and they're like, "Yeah, ball outside right, ball outside left."
Yeah.
I mean, it's, it's never a ball outside right.
Yeah.
Okay?
Not from this distance.
Yeah.
You know, this runs at a 13.
Yeah.
So a really interesting stat for you is that whatever you overread a putt by, okay?
So let's assume we overread it by a foot.
The ball will only miss 50% of that distance on the high side.
So you only miss it by six inches.
Okay.
If you overread a f- a pu- putt by three feet, it's only gonna be a foot and a half above the hole.
The scary part is that if I read a putt one foot low, it's gonna be 3X that amount low.
Oh, jeez.
Okay.
Okay?
So, so missing low makes the miss get worse.
Get worse.
Like, as it goes through the length of the putt, it just continues to get worse.
It gets dramatically worse- Okay very quickly.
Two reasons are, number one, the ball is going uphill for a shorter period of time, and number two, as it gathers speed to go towards the hole, it now starts to go downhill a lot earlier, and then it gets away from us.
So, you know, if we look at basic geometry, this 13-foot putt here, when we putt it on the highest possible line, will actually travel like 14-plus feet.
Yeah.
And the more break we play, the longer the putt gets.
The longer it's going uphill, the slower it actually makes the putt.
And then gravity at the very end lets it be drippy and brings it back to the hole.
If we start to take this putt on, on a more straight line, well, we have to increase the speed- Yeah unnecessarily to keep the ball on that line.
Yeah.
But once that putt starts to enter the downhill phase, then the ball starts to get away from us dramatically.
And, you know, this is not an exact science.
You know, I'm, I'm a big fan of AimPoint.
I don't use it with everyone, but for people that don't use AimPoint- One of the best tips I ever got in my life was from an eight handicap in, in Germany.
Okay.
And he was a, is a dentist and, he actually told me, he said, "The way that I read greens is whatever I see, I play double."
Okay.
And I, I actually have tried it and I've- Yeah I've taught that way with a lot of amateurs, and it's amazing that for the general amateur, if you play double the break that you see, you probably will be closer more times than you'll be further away going the other way.
Yeah.
So just for some fun here, if we take your r- initial read and we were to double it, which would be the outside of this hole, okay?
I want you to hit a putt on the line to the outside of that hole, okay?
Okay.
And what we're just gonna look at, give you that line right there, okay?
So start your ball on that line, and let's just see how far away from the hole it finishes after you've hit your putt.
So that's double the break that you originally walked in here thinking it was.
Yeah.
It just, it like, that solves such a common issue.
Yeah.
I mean, I like, I, it's, that happens to me all the time where, I mean, hell, yesterday, like when we went and played I did that so many times where I was a little short or coming up on a breaking putt, and it just, you get there and you're like, "Okay, it's not that bad," but then it just kinda keeps falling off you and it's like, oh, well, now it is bad.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
So I mean, we're looking at, you know, close to three feet of break now on a 13-footer, and that's keeping it on the controllable side of being able to two putt.
Yeah, 'cause even the really heavy-handed one it's, is at- 20 inches 18 inches behind the ball.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you're gonna be a lot closer on your misses by doubling the amount of break- Yeah and just playing that as, you know, if, if you're not gonna get into AimPoint or some of these other techniques of how to read greens- Yeah just that as a general rule of thumb for most people- Yeah it's definitely gonna help you from stop three putt.
Sure.
Damn.
One more time?
It just makes the I can't get over how much better the miss is.
The miss is great now.
Yeah.
The miss is, you know, no, I don't care how stingy your buddies are, they're gonna give you that one, right?
'Cause then, yeah.
So now we can match the speed.
We, we make the putt.
But look at the, yeah, but look at the difference in the miss.
Like, that's, I did not do that on purpose, I'm just not a good putter.
But that's, like, the difference in that miss though is crazy because like, yeah, they were both, you know, it happens whatever, we're 13 feet away.
Absolutely.
But from 20 feet, from 25 feet- Yeah that gets, you know, that's ig- even more accentuated.
Gets ex- exponentially worse, for sure.
See, it was all on purpose.
I was just using examples.
High, low.
Then we had to make one.
Yeah.
So you can really see, I mean, again, that's a 13-foot putt.
It had to travel 14 feet to actually go in on a 13-foot putt.
So I think a lot of people don't realize that to hit these putts on breaking putts, you gotta putt up the hill- Yeah which obviously is a longer distance, right?
Yeah.
So if you're gonna green read, most basic simple tip I can give everyone, play double what you think.
Double it.
All right?
Obviously there's AimPoint, there's things like that that we can get into, but I think for general green reading, that's the best thing.
I love it.
Now, if we go uphill and downhill, maybe we talk about it in the next segment, but just how much different the green reading is on that up and downhill.
Yeah, absolutely.
No, it's very cool.
Like, I think that's a very clear distinction of like the proper way to miss.
'Cause I think for, for the average golfer, even for, you know, the normal scratch golfer, like learning how to miss appropriately is a huge scorecard changer, right?
It's a game of misses.
Yeah.
It's not a game of perfection, right?
Yeah.
So.
So it's a, it's a huge difference to know, like I will, I'm gonna tell the people that I golf with, like if I miss a putt low, like just, you know, like- something bad has to happen if I miss a putt low now because there's absolutely zero excuse or reason to ever miss low.
Yeah.
Like, 'cause even if you miss, even if you missed high and slow- Yeah the miss was still way better- Yeah than low and fast, basically.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Wow.
Absolutely.
Well, that was really cool.
That was very eye-opening.
Thank you.
All right.
Appreciate that.
Yeah.
All right, that's it.
