All about the greens - Dale Thompson Golfing, The Home for Trucking Golfers

There is an art to reading greens, it usually starts from about 50 yards out, or if you're a Pro, the green layout booklet, showing the gradients, pin positions, hazards, sprinklers and so on.

We as amateurs do not get the luxury of a green layout book, perhaps a birdie book showing the hole layout and maybe a picture of the green, showing the undulations with direction arrows.

The most important action you must carry out prior to making any putt is to gauge the pace of the greens, this can only be done on the practice green, so take 5-10 mins getting used to the pace, drop a few balls on the green at different lengths and putt to the edge of the green. When the ball rests on the cut line of the fringe and green, you have the pace.

So here are a few helpful tips to reading greens:

Always walk to the green with your head up, taking in all that you see, especially if the green has been cut that day showing the cut of the grain.
Pace out the length of your putt before you mark the ball, take into account any slopes between your ball and the hole.
Check that there as been very little traffic around the hole and on your line, if so repair.
Clear any debris that may be on your line, this could take a while if you're looking at a long putt.
Stand behind the ball and focus on a basic line.
Crouch behind the ball and focus on the true line.
If you have time (we as amateurs very seldom do this) take a look from behind the hole and both sides.
Crouch behind the ball again and focus on a gate, 2 marks on your given line, that the ball will pass through before it starts to break.
Make a good solid putt, ensuring the ball passes between the 2 marks on your line.

Reading greens is an art form, but when you master it and the pace of the greens, those 20 footers will seems like tap in's.

Also, depending on the time of day the grain could also play a massive part on the roll of the ball, NEVER FORGET THE GRAIN!

By Dale Thompson

Hello world, my name is Dale, I'm a 56 year old trucker & avid golfer. I'm married to my wife Jackie, just coming up to 30 years. We have 3 awesome grown up kids and 2 beautiful grandchildren. I passed my class 1 HGV licence back in 1993 whilst on tour of duty in Northern Ireland, I joined the Army in 1989 and served just over 23 years for Queen and Country, in that time I spent 10 years in Germany, 4 years in NI, 2 years in Canada and the rest within the UK, I completed a tour in NI and 2 tours of Iraq. I eventually took redundancy from the Army in 2012, for my resettlement I attended and gain my diploma with the European Golf Teachers Federation at the Darenth Valley GC in Kent in Sept 2012. Getting a job as a golf instructor in the UK is very difficult, especially when you have no experience, so I took my first real job as a truck driver, I had many jobs on the agency but eventually settled down with XPO, they have recently changed name to GXO, I have been employed with the company now for over 10 years, however my heart would still like to teach golf. I have recently started to upload videos to my YouTube channel and my website has been released. My passion has always been golf and that is what I'm now building my online business around.

View all of Dale Thompson's posts.

There is an art to reading greens, it usually starts from about 50 yards out, or if you're a Pro, the green layout booklet, showing the gradients, pin positions, hazards, sprinklers and so on.

We as amateurs do not get the luxury of a green layout book, perhaps a birdie book showing the hole layout and maybe a picture of the green, showing the undulations with direction arrows.

So here are a few helpful tips to reading greens:

Always walk to the green with your head up, taking in all that you see, especially if the green has been cut that day showing the cut of the grain.

Pace out the length of your putt before you mark the ball, take into account any slopes between your ball and the hole.

Check that there as been very little traffic around the hole and on your line, if so repair.

Clear any debris that may be on your line, this could take a while if you're looking at a long putt.

Stand behind the ball and focus on a basic line.

Crouch behind the ball and focus on the true line.

If you have time (we as amateurs very seldom do this) take a look from behind the hole and both sides.

Crouch behind the ball again and focus on a gate, 2 marks on your given line, that the ball will pass through before it starts to break.

Make a good solid putt, ensuring the ball passes between the 2 marks on your line.

Reading greens is an art form, but when you master it and the pace of the greens, those 20 footers will seems like tap in's.

Also, depending on the time of day the grain could also play a massive part on the roll of the ball, NEVER FORGET THE GRAIN!

By Dale Thompson

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