Fast, dry greens: how to putt and chip on Australian summer surfaces
Shorter stroke, same tempo, less loft and an earlier landing spot: the adjustments firm summer turf demands.
Australian summer surfaces are firm, fast and unforgiving of a golfer who plays them like winter surfaces. The greens run quicker than they look, the approaches release rather than stop, and the chip that checked in August rolls out in January. Here is how to score on them.
What “fast” means, and how to find out
Green speed is measured with a stimpmeter, in feet. A well-kept public course in winter might run around 9; the same greens in high summer, cut and rolled, can push past 11. The difference on a five-metre putt is enormous.
Most superintendents know the day’s number and pro shops will tell you if you ask. Ask before a competition, not afterwards.
Putting: shorter stroke, same tempo
The mistake is to make the same stroke more softly, which decelerates the putter and pulls the ball. The correct adjustment is a shorter backswing with identical tempo and acceleration.
The ladder drill trains it fastest: tees at three, six and nine metres, putting to each in turn and back down. You are not trying to hole anything; you are calibrating stroke length against distance. Ten minutes of this before a round on unfamiliar greens is worth an hour of short putts.
Reading fast greens
Break increases sharply as speed rises, because the ball spends longer travelling slowly near the hole, which is when gravity works. A putt that broke 15 centimetres in winter can break twice that in January.
Read the last third of the putt first, then pick a spot a few centimetres ahead of the ball on the start line and roll it over that spot.
Chipping on firm ground
Firm turf and tight lies punish the wedge that arrives steeply. Two changes make chipping reliable on Australian summer surfaces.
- Use less loft. An 8-iron running shot is easier and more predictable than a lob wedge from a tight lie.
- Land it earlier. Pick a landing spot a third of the way to the hole and let the ground do the rest.
The lob wedge is for the shots that genuinely need it, which on firm summer greens are far fewer than most golfers believe.
Approach play: land it short
On firm greens, the ball checks less and releases more. An approach that pitched at the flag in winter will finish ten metres past in summer. Aim for the front third of the green and let it run, especially with mid and long irons.
The same applies to the fairways: your drive will run further, so the club off the tee may change on tight holes.
The three drills before every round
- The ladder, ten minutes: three distances, up and back, distance control only.
- Landing spots, five minutes: chip to a towel placed a third of the way to the hole, with an 8-iron.
- Short circle, five minutes: six balls at a metre and a half, holed in sequence, restart on a miss.
Where to work on it
- Your course’s practice green, which is the only surface running at the speed you will play, and free with a green fee.
- A teaching professional for one session on the running chip, which transfers immediately to firm ground.
- The pro shop, for the day’s stimp reading before a competition.
Nothing here requires new equipment. It requires twenty minutes before the round instead of five.
