How to adjust to fast greens

While playing a quick nine yesterday afternoon, I realized how much different it is to play during the winter. The lies are tighter and the greens are much quicker. Here are the adjustments I make to compensate.

1. Soft Hands
Whenever I give a putting lesson, I show the student how tight I hold my putter by holding their arm with the same pressure. The student is always surprised how lightly I hold their arm. Fast greens require attention to speed. The softer my hands, the better I can control speed.

2. Play more break
As I watch amateurs putt, they never seem to play enough break. As the greens get faster, the more the putt will break. Yesterday I had a 6 ft. putt and I played 12 inches of break. Get on the practice green and hit some putts. Pay close attention to how your ball reacts to slope.

3. Play your putts to die at the hole
A putt which runs a foot by the hole in summer, may run 5 or more feet past in the winter. Now we pay attention to stopping the ball as close to the hole as possible. You can practice this on the putting green by hitting putts from outside of 10 feet and seeing how close you can get to the hole without going in. Sounds crazy to try not to make a putt, but it will really help you control your speed.
On really fast putts, I will choose a spot short of the hole and try to stop the ball on that spot. This really helps those who tend to hit putts past the hole. On really slow putts, this spot moves beyond the hole.

4. Plan ahead
Every shot I hit, I'm always thinking of where I want to play my next shot from. There are times when it's better to be 30 feet short than 4 foot long. When greens are fast. you want to be below the hole as often as possible. Earlier I told you about a 6 foot putt with 12 inches of break. I didn't tell you I was trying to be short of the hole and didn't execute.

Hope you find this helpful.

Mike Hurley