Gadgets And Procedures That May (or May Not) Help In Golf Putting (part 2)

I don"t know whether or not you read the first part of this article but don"t worry because in any case you are ready to understand part 2.

Let"s see the solutions that are available to assist in green reading and that are useful in golf putting and in full accordance with golf rules.

a) Guessing the direction of the water flow. Very useful and allowed.

This is a very effective procedure I highly recommend. Observe carefully the ground close to the hole imagine someone poured a fair amount of water in the cup till it overflowed. The direction the water would take is the fall-line or line of maximum slope. How to make full use of it is out of the scope of this article but it is carefully explained in my ebook Golf Putting Lines.

b) Marcel White"s technique for green reading. Very useful and in total accordance with the rules. This is the one that has never been revealed before.

Let"s start with the easiest feature this technique can provide. You are on a sloping green but you are not sure about it being uphill or downhill because, as you move from one point to another, your perspective changes giving you misleading perceptions. Consequences can be devastating if you consider downhill a putt that actually is uphill, or vice-versa. Use this approach to solve the problem. Look for a spot that is roughly at the same distance from the hole and the ball and not very close to the ball-hole line. Standing on that point, you, the ball and the hole are forming a triangle, an isosceles triangle because two sides of it are equal.

Align yourself in order to let your shoulders parallel to the ball-hole line. Use both your forefingers to handle your putter and raise your arms, keeping them straight, till the putter"s shaft is horizontal in front of you and parallel to your shoulders. Now, your eyes and the club shaft define a plane in which any straight line parallel to the club shaft is horizontal. So, just move slowly both arms, keeping the putter horizontal, till you see it touching the hole. Now, the image of the club shaft you see on the ground will tell you if the ball is above or bellow the hole and how much.

I agree this is not as accurate as an electronic meter but the choice is between this technique and nothing allowed by golf rules. Besides we can take some steps to improve it.

First, do it while the pin is in the cup. It"s vertical and will help to see if the shaft is horizontal because both lines are perpendicular.

Second, you can train your eyes as much as you want because horizontal lines are everywhere to help you confirm your guesses. For instance, any house or building has horizontals on the top of doors, windows, walls, etc. Put yourself with your shoulders parallel to the wall and calibrate your horizontals.

And now an interesting question is perhaps crossing your minds: if you lined up with the ball and the hole, will this technique work to reveal the lateral break? Yes, it will!

So, get down, in line with the ball and the hole, and find two spots you can remember, on the grass, at each side of the ball and at similar distances from it. The two spots must define a second line that is perpendicular to the ball-hole line. You and those two points are now forming the isosceles triangle needed to use this technique. As before, the next step will be to raise the horizontal putter to discover which one of the spots is at a lower or higher level and how much. That is the lateral break. If you suspect of a double break repeat the entire process close to the hole. Just take care to avoid slowing the game.

As far as I know, this is the best and most reliable technique to improve your green reading without breaking the golf rules. With it you get a clearer picture of your putting zone in every situation. But don"t forget that your objective is to sink the next putt, not to get a topographic image of the green. Provided you know how to use all the information you gathered, a nice putt is on the way. Otherwise, it will have been a waste of time. So, if the results don"t show, I"m sure it"s time to read Golf Putting Lines Ebook and discover the pleasure of making good breaking putts. It was one of my objectives when I wrote it.

Marcel White