Green Reading

Let’s not sugar coat this, putting is really hard. The great Ben Hogan famously despised putting. As one of the greatest ball strikers of all time, it was his putting that always held him back. He even went so far as to suggest making putting count as less than a normal stoke (16). Unfortunately for him, (and us) putting remains a large part of the game, accounting for up to 41% of stokes during a round (2). While there are legitimate changes coming to the golf ball, there are no proposals to change putting.

How do we get better at putting? 

We will never master putting, no one will. Even tour pros aren’t really THAT good at putting, only making 50% of 8 foot putts, and 15% from 20 feet (18). They are much better than amateurs though. The average 90’s golfer will only make 27% and 6% of putts from the same distances (18).  While watching golf on TV will lead you to believe golfers should make 90% of putts within 15 feet, this simply is not true. Putting is hard for everyone and will remain hard for everyone but that huge gap between pros and amateurs shows that there is room from improvement and any edge we can find will go a long way to improve our scores.

We don’t have to be the best, just better than our fellow playing partners.  Remember the joke about the 2 men running from a bear? You don’t have to outrun the bear, just the other guy. This should be our approach to putting. We will never “beat the game” at putting and we don’t have to. We just need to be better than our opponents, or at least, better than we used to be.

Important variables in putting

The great bio mechanist famous for his golf research, Sasho Mackenzie, said the 2 most important variables in putting are green reading and speed control (15). He states that from 12 feet, green reading determines 50% of our ability to make the putt (15).  The bad news, amateurs are not good at green reading. We are actually really bad at it. We consistently play too little break. Dave Pelz has said that amateurs only play about 1/3 of the true break of a putt (14). With putts that break 6 inches or more, amateurs miss on the low side 84% of the time (13). There are 2 main reasons this happens. Hasegawa et al. (5) found that amateurs not only underestimate the amount a putt will break but also choose too aggressive of a start line for the putt.

When comparing professionals verse amateurs for breaking putts, their study found that professionals consistently chose a higher start line and hit the putt with less speed than amateurs. This trend continued even when both groups were allowed to learn from previous putts. Amateurs did not make as large of adjustments with this new information as pros did. The study concluded that amateurs not only underestimate the effects of slope on the putt direction but also chose strategies that were too aggressive (i.e., too low of a start line with too much speed) (5).  Changing strategies is easy, but how do we improve green reading?

Why we are bad at green reading

Like almost everything, to improve at green reading we must first realize why we are bad at it. People, in general, are bad at evaluating the steepness of slopes (12). Our perception of slopes is affected by several factors which are presented below:

·      Our body position in relation to the slope (11)

   - Standing at the top of the slope but CLOSE to where the slope begins makes it

appear more shallow

   - Standing at the top of the slope but FAR from where the slope begins makes it

appear more steep

·      Standing at the bottom vs top of the slope (12)

·      Our physiological state; rested vs fatigued (9)

   - In a fatigued state, slope will appear more steep

·      Our psychological state; anxiety and fear affect perceptions (5)

That is a lot of things working against us, no wonder we are so bad at green reading.  Green reading is all about accurately determining the amount of slope on the green and calculating how much said slope will influence the ball. If we are not able to determine the amount of slope with any reliability, then we don’t stand much of change at holing putts. Simply put, we need to have a way to determine slope more reliably.  

How to improve green reading

There are countless ways to read greens. We have all played with enough people to understand that there is not one correct way to read a green. Some get down on the ground like Camillo Villegas, some just stand behind the ball for half a second and putt. Kids, who are often touted as some of the best putters, don’t even seem to read the green at all.  There is no one right way, but research has found some characteristics that divide the elite golfers from the amateurs.

It is important to note that there is at least one wrong way to read greens. In 2005, Sasho Mackenzie did a study showing the Plumb-Bob technique does not work (17). Please don’t do that.  For Plumb-Bob to be accurate, the slope needs to be consistent from the point you are standing behind the ball, under the ball, between the ball and the hole, and under the hole. Some greens are actually built with consistent slope like that, so for those greens, the Plumb-Bob method will work but most are not built that way. Using a method that is only accurate of a small percentage of greens is no way to putt.

What should we do?

Campbell et al. (2) did a study with 45 pro and amateur golfers tracking their eyes during green reading from 6 different positions around the hole. Positions were the standard positions you would think of: behind the ball standing and crouching, behind the hole standing and crouching, on the low side of the slope ½ way between the ball and hole, and finally on the high side of the slope ½ way between the ball and the hole. They found that the professionals took in significantly more information from 3 of these positions than the amateurs: standing behind the ball, standing behind the hole, and ½ way between the ball and hole on the low side. These appear to be the most important areas to spend time when reading putts. This does make sense from what we learned earlier. We perceive slopes poorly so using multiple vantage points would be the best course of action. For green reading these seem to be the best ones.  Further results in this study showed that the pros looked at different things than amateurs did from these spots.

They went on to show that professionals had significantly less eye fixations but for significantly longer periods of time (2). (If you have not read our Quite Eye article yet, now would be a good time). These eye fixations are part of a technique called Quite Eye. We have talked before how Quite Eye is a way for our brain to process information more accurately. When our eyes are constantly scanning the environment, the green in this example, we are sending huge amounts of information to our brain. If we never stop our eyes, our brain doesn’t process this information. We just send it more and more data, but it never has time to be processed. The slope we were scanning, the grain in the grass, the distance from the ball to the hole, moisture on the surface, green imperfections, etc., none of it gets processed unless we can stop our eyes and give our brain time to work.

The professionals in this study showed more efficient use of Quite Eye when reading greens. The information they took in got processed! The earlier Quite Eye article touched on using Quiet Eye when over the ball and executing a stroke. Quiet Eye on the ball during the putting stroke can save you almost 2 strokes per round! Further research on green reading shows it is hugely important for helping determine green contours too.  We found 5 different studies that showed the use of Quite Eye while reading greens made a significant impact on determining an accurate aiming point (2,5, 10, 12, 13).

What does the research say?

The articles referenced above all showed more efficient gaze patterns when reading greens for professionals versus amateurs. Professionals consistently had less areas they fixed their eyes on but for longer periods of time.  Professionals exhibited longer fixations on the target (hole in this case) and a greater number of fixations at the “task relevant area”. “Task relevant area” being around the hole, the 2 feet leading up to the hole on the intended line, and at the ball. Golfers in this study spend over 50% of their green reading time looking at the area directly around the hole (2).  It was found that in general, the areas that you fixate on, have an increased likelihood that your ball will end there (10).  So, spending the majority of your time fixating your eyes on the hole seems like a good idea. Of course, this changes slightly for straight versus breaking putts.

For breaking putts, the number of Quiet Eye fixations increased and the areas of focus changed as well. (10) Fixation for breaking putts showed more focus on the high side of the hole where the ball would enter from. The authors of (12) also noted a significant change in fixations in relation to slope noting that “accurate putting on a sloped green critically depends on fixating at the point at which the ball will enter the hole.” (12).  They noted the most obvious adaptation to breaking putts was a change in the specific part of the hole participants fixated on. As the slope increased, the area of fixation moved more to the high side of the hole. Research has also shown that increasing fixations on the slope itself should be included in the green reading process to better help assess the degree of slope. (2)

What about AimPoint?

AimPoint has seemed to take over the PGA tour in recent years with more and more players using it every year. According to the AimPoint website, over 200 touring professionals are now using aimpoint. They also say that over 75,000 amateurs are using it. Please note, the author of this article is not one of those 75,000 golfers and has not taken an AimPoint course. While our knowledge on the topic is limited, we will attempt to glaze over the highlights as we understand them.

To really boil it down to the bare basics, AimPoint requires you use your feet to sense the slope instead of just your eyes. After sensing the amount of slope, in % grade (1-4% slope), you factor in distance of the putt and the green speed to determine where to aim your putt.  That’s when you see people holding up anywhere between 1-4 fingers usually and this determines how much break you will play. As AimPoint says, “1. Feel the slope.  2. Aim your putt. 3. Make everything.”   It seems easy! We hope it’s that easy! If you use AimPoint and it’s working, excellent. Keep it up!  Unfortunately, we were not able to find any peer reviewed research studies looking at AimPoint, or even at sensing slope with your feet. We were really hoping to find some so we could recommend which way is better, eyes or feet.

Since there is no research determining the best option, we will attempt to transfer some of the things we learned earlier in the article to show how AimPoint might be working. First, AimPoint requires you to use Quiet Eye. When holding up your fingers to find your aim point, you are intensely focusing on one spot near the hole. We know the ball is more likely to end up where we are focusing our eyes. With AimPoint, we are focusing our eyes near the hole. Not only near the hole but on the high side of the slope. Perfect!!

The second great thing AimPoint does? Practice. Yep, we are talking about practice. Almost every single article we could find talking about AimPoint or reading reviews of people who have taken an AimPoint lesson all said they recommend practice.  It is recommended you get a level that reads in % grade to calibrate yourself. This is awesome! The more we can practice reading slopes the better. We have learned how bad we are at it. Practicing reading slopes is a fantastic idea, not only for AimPoint users but for everyone.  All golfers would benefit immensely from taking a level out to the practice green and checking if what you feel, or see, is correct. That would undoubtedly make us all better green readers.

While the research on sensing slope with your feet is still not available, AimPoint does a couple great things that research has shown is beneficial, the use of Quite Eye and practicing sensing slope with accurate feedback. So, while we cannot take a definitive stance on AimPoint, we don’t see any harm in trying it.

Summary

·      We are bad at putting

·      We are bad at interpreting slopes

·      Amateurs not only play too little break but also choose too aggressive of a strategy

- Pros pick a higher start line and hit breaking putts with less speed than amateurs.

·      3 best positions to read greens from

  - Behind the ball

  - Behind the hole

    - ½ way between the ball and hole on the low side of the slope

·      Use Quiet Eye during green reading, fixating on relevant areas

  - Around the hole

-  2 feet leading up to the hole on the intended line

- On the slope

- The exact spot of the hole you want the ball to enter the hole

·      No available research on AimPoint but may be effective due to use of:

 - Quite Eye

-  Emphasis on Practice

References

1 MacKenzie, S. J., & Sprigings, E. J. (2005). Evaluation of the plumb-bob method for reading greens in putting. Journal of sports sciences, 23(1), 81–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640410410001730232

2 Campbell, M. J., & Moran, A. P. (2014). There is more to green reading than meets the eye! Exploring the gaze behaviours of expert golfers on a virtual golf putting task. Cognitive processing, 15(3), 363–372. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-014-0608-2

5 Hasegawa, Y., Okada, A., & Fujii, K. (2021). Skill Differences in a Discrete Motor Task Emerging From the Environmental Perception Phase. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 697914. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.697914

9 Linkenauger, S. A., & Rose Readman, M. (2020). Influence of Perceptual-Motor Calibration on the Perception of Geographical Slope. Perception, 49(6), 688–692. https://doi.org/10.1177/0301006620918099

10 Ziv, G., & Lidor, R. (2019). Gaze Behavior in Golf Putting – A Review. International Journal of Golf Science, 7(2).

11 Li, Z., & Durgin, F. H. (2009). Downhill slopes look shallower from the edge. Journal of vision, 9(11), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1167/9.11.6

12 Van Lier, W., Van Der Damp, J., & Savelsbergh, G. (2008). Gaze in Golf Putting: Effects of Slope. International Journal of Sport Psychology.  38:1-18

13 Carey, L., Jackson, R. Fairweather, M. Causer, J., & Williams A. (2017). Perceptual-cognitive expertise in golf putting. In M. Toms (Ed.) Routledge International Handbook of Golf Science, Routledge, 173-182.

14 DeBroff, Brian. (2018). The Role of Vision in the Science and Art of the Putting Stroke in the Sport of Golf. Advances in Ophthalmology & Visual System. 8. 10.15406/aovs.2018.08.00292.

15 MacKenzie, S. (2015). Met PGA 2015 Spring Educational Forum.

16 Leitch, W. (2019). School of Rock: The irritating art of learning how to be a good putter. Golf.com.

17 MacKenzie, S. J., & Sprigings, E. J. (2005). Evaluation of the plumb-bob method for reading greens in putting. Journal of sports sciences, 23(1), 81–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640410410001730232

18 Broadie, M. (2014). Every Shot Counts. Gotham Books. New York, New York.