I admit it, I am an average golfer. I’ve had a hard time reading greens, so I developed a product to help golfers do just that. Since introducing the BreakMaster Digital Green Reader, I have talked about green reading with literally hundreds of PGA Tour pros, PGA Tour Caddies, and Pros and Caddies on the LPGA, Champions Tour, Nationwide Tour, as well as many golf instructors from national renown in major golf academies and universities.

What I learned from these golf pros is that average golfers aren’t the only ones who have a hard time reading greens. all golfers have difficulty reading greens. This is especially true for the pros, because for Tour pros the problem isn’t just about putting a putt, it’s about making money putting a putt.

Due to my research, I have also done something that, as far as I can imagine, has never been done before in the more than 200 years of golf history: I applied some basic science to reading greens. To be specific … I measured the greens and mapped them to a Green Book (more on that later in this article).

All of this led me to a basic conclusion: Green reading with the naked eye and any of the other senses is basically a flawed proposition.. Compare this with distance measurement. Golfers don’t measure the distance to the green just by looking at it. No, golfers rely on yard markers or sprinkler measurements and, more recently, laser range finders or GPS devices. Now if we use such measurement tools to judge distance, why would we rely on our eyes and other senses to measure something as critical as the slope of a green?

The answer is … we shouldn’t. After all, if you hit all the greens in regulation, 50% of your shots will still be on the green. If you can improve your putting by improving your green reading, wouldn’t it improve your score? Of course you would.

And no one knows that better than the pros on the PGA Tour. So how do the Tour Pros resolve the breakup? Well, first of all, understand this basic fact: Tour pros don’t read greens by looking, plumbing, imagining throwing water on the green, walking the green, feeling the grain, or any of the other mythologies of green reading.

For years, Tour pros have taken their Caddies out onto the greens in the days leading up to tournaments and roll golf balls on the green to find out how they break. Next, they made greens maps that gave them an idea of ​​how greens break near expected hole positions. During practice rounds and the tournament, Professionals and their Caddies consult these Greens Maps (this is, of course, legal) to decide how to adjust the aiming line of their putt to compensate for the break. Until recently, Green Maps have been pretty rough. But they were at least an indication (through proven testing, rolling golf balls) of how greens would break.

More recently, Caddies would measure the slope on the greens with a tool called Smart Level. This was a good next step in the green reading, but the smart levels only show the breakout in one direction; you have to rotate them in different ways to find the exact break direction, and that’s not easy. Also, because Smart Levels are designed for woodworking, not golf, they are quite uncomfortable to wear on the golf course.

The BreakMaster digital green reader is the first highly accurate means of measuring breakage on the green. Because it was designed for golfers, it is also very convenient for playing on the golf course. The BreakMaster displays the two most critical factors of the breakout: the Direction of the breakout (also known as the dip line, the downward direction) and the Amount of Breakout (severity of the downhill slope) which we measure in degrees.

Tour Pros and Tour Caddies got the concept straight away. For the first time in golf history, they had an accurate means of measuring breakage. Now your Green Maps are more sophisticated and much more accurate. If you look at the greens map for a Pro Tour (available on our website, used by PGA Tour professionals at a recent PGA tournament), you will see that the green break is much more difficult than it might have been. . The break can change (in direction and quantity) quite a bit over the entire green. That is why the ancient method of reading greens with the naked eye is not just a myth, it is completely false. In fact, there are many breakout directions and breakout amounts on a green. Each can affect the delivery of a putt, and each can be accurately measured and mapped. By understanding breaking in this way, you can really improve your putting.

Now the question you are probably asking yourself is: is it legal? Well yes and no. No, it is currently not legal to use a measuring device like the BreakMaster during tournament competition (but remember, until a couple of years ago, it was also not legal to use a GPS device or laser ranger finder). But it is certainly legal to use the BreakMaster during a practice round and take notes on a green map, and this is exactly what the pros do. I know, you’re saying, “But what happens when I see the pros walking down the green or stooping and looking at the hole before putting?” To this I say that the pros are only visually reassuring themselves of what their research (their Caddies measuring and mapping the greens before the tournament) has already shown them. Here’s a posted quote from someone you’ve probably heard of …

“My caddy, Stevie Williams, and I have laid out the greens on every course we have played. That knowledge is essential for a tour player because we basically play the same courses every year. I recommend similar due diligence on the courses. He plays a lot. Take notes on hole placement, paying attention to breaks and grain direction. You’ll feel more comfortable on the greens and make more putts. “

Tiger Woods, “Lesson Tee”, Golf Digest, April 2008

So now you understand the myth that PGA Tour pros read greens using their senses. There is really only one way to read greens and do it accurately: measure them. Anything else is just guessing, and guessing is often wrong. At my company, we have a word for wrong guesses about the green: strokes.

Visit our website for more information on green reading. This is the first of many green reading myths that we will deal with.