As the world’s best players prepare to play at Augusta, here are two top tips we thought would help you “master” the challenge next time you are faced with fast greens:
- Allow for more break on fast greens
- Don’t change your rhythm, swing path or impact point on the putterface: simply make a shorter backstroke. You will adapt to this quickly if you calibrated yourself ahead of time on the practice putting green: ideally it should be the same speed as the rest of the greens on the course.
The very few times I had to play on super quick greens, I had good luck putting downhill on my concrete garage floor. The dimples on the ball are the only thing that stopped the ball. That way when I hit warm-up putts I was needing to hit a little harder and I wasn’t scared by the “super-fast” greens because I had just been putting on one that was even faster. I made no effort to adjust my stroke. I just hit to the target until I had the right distance.
I love the word “ideally.” At Augusta I’m sure it is ideal. Our local muni courses? Good luck with that.