Putting on fast greens: the drills that work
Green speed is not a fixed property of a course. The same surface runs at very different speeds in April and August, and at eight in the morning and two in the afternoon.
In brief
- Ten minutes of long putts before every round, nothing shorter than fifteen yards.
- Keep the tempo and change only the length of the backswing.
- After coring, putt firmly through the break and expect some to wander.
- A fitting fixes the start line, not the length of a twelve-metre putt.
- Treat the second putt as its own shot, with the same routine.
On a fast green the stroke does not change: what changes is the length of the movement and the way you read the slope. Golfers who struggle when they move from slow greens to quick ones are not putting worse, they are putting with the same pace. These are the drills that fix it in three sessions.
What “fast” actually means
Green speed is measured with a stimpmeter, in feet: the distance a ball rolls off a standard ramp. A well-kept parkland green in summer might run at 9 or 10 feet; a championship setup runs at 11 or 12. The difference between those numbers, on a fifteen-foot putt, is enormous.
Most clubs know their number and will tell you if you ask at the pro shop. Ask before you play a competition, not after.
Adjusting the pace
The mistake is to hit the same stroke more softly, which produces a deceleration through impact and a putt pulled left. The fix is to shorten the backswing and accelerate exactly as before. Same tempo, shorter movement.
The ladder drill trains this faster than anything else. Place tees at ten, twenty and thirty feet. Putt to the first, then the second, then the third, then back down the ladder. You are not trying to hole anything: you are calibrating length of stroke against distance. Ten minutes of this before a round on unfamiliar greens is worth more than an hour of holing three-footers.
Reading the slope
On fast greens, break increases dramatically, because the ball spends longer travelling slowly near the hole, which is exactly when gravity does its work. A putt that broke six inches at 9 feet on the stimp may break a foot at 11.
Practical method: read the last third of the putt first. That is where most of the break happens. Then pick a spot a few inches in front of the ball on the intended start line and roll it over that spot, rather than aiming at a point near the hole.
The three drills to do before every round
- The ladder, ten minutes: three distances, up and down, focused on distance control alone.
- The gate, five minutes: two tees just wider than the putter head, a foot in front of the ball; roll putts through the gate to check the face is square at impact.
- Around the world, five minutes: six balls in a circle at four feet, holed in sequence, restarting after any miss. This is confidence, not technique.
Why British greens change through the season
Green speed is not a fixed property of a course, and treating it as one is how visitors three-putt. The same surface runs at very different speeds in April and in August, and at eight in the morning and at two in the afternoon.
In spring, greens are recovering, slower and more receptive, and putts stay short. By high summer, on a firm, dry course, the same stroke runs a long way further. On exposed links greens the difference is larger still, because wind dries the surface through the day.
Then there is the fortnight after hollow-coring, when greens are sanded, bumpy and slow. Putts hop, take less break and run out over sand. The right answer is to hit firmly through the break rather than dying the ball at the hole, and to accept that some well-struck putts will wander through no fault of yours.
The habit that beats every drill
Ten minutes on the practice green before every round, using nothing shorter than fifteen yards, is worth more than any amount of work on the stroke itself. You are not trying to hole anything; you are calibrating the length of the motion to today’s surface, and that is the only variable that matters on a long putt.
Do it as a ladder, three balls each at six, nine and twelve metres to the same hole, out and back. Keep the tempo the same and change only the length of the backswing, like a pendulum. A stroke whose length is controlled by hand speed collapses under pressure.
And check whether the practice green is cut and rolled like the course greens. On some clubs it is not, and ten minutes calibrating to the wrong speed is worse than not calibrating at all.
Equipment matters less than you are told
One number worth knowing: on a green running at 11 feet, a putt from 30 feet needs roughly the stroke you would use from 20 yards away on a slow winter green. Calibrate, do not guess.
Putter models change less than marketing suggests, but two adjustments genuinely help: the length, which should let your eyes sit over or just inside the ball, and the grip, which affects how much your hands can interfere. Both can be changed on your existing putter in a workshop, for a fraction of the price of a new one.
If you do want to compare models, hit them on a real roll surface rather than a shop carpet, and compare distance control rather than looks.
The second putt is a shot, not a formality
Most three-putts are a poor long putt followed by a missed short one, and the short one is missed because it is hit in irritation and without a routine.
Treat it as its own shot: mark it, read it, and use the same routine you used on the first tee. Ten extra seconds on the putt you should not have had converts the large majority of them.
And practise the short one with a consequence rather than in comfort. Ten in a row from a metre before you leave, starting again from zero on a miss, is mildly unpleasant and is exactly what makes practice transfer to the course.
On competition day
Arrive thirty minutes early and give the whole of that time to the ladder drill. Reading adjusts quickly; pace does not. If the greens are quicker than your home course, the first three holes will tell you by how much, and there is no reason to pay for that information with three-putts.
What a fitting can and cannot fix
A putter fitting fixes the start line, and therefore putts inside about three metres. It does not fix the length of a twelve-metre putt, because nothing about the club decides that: only the stroke does.
Two checks cost nothing. If the toe of the putter sits in the air at address, the face aims left; if the heel is up, it aims right. And a putter that balances face-up on your finger suits a straight stroke, while a hanging toe suits an arc.
Where to work on it
- Your club’s practice green, the only surface that runs at the speed you will play. Ask the greenkeeper for the day’s stimp reading.
- American Golf for a putter fitting, or your club professional to shorten a shaft and change a grip on the putter you already own.
- Golfbidder if you want to try a different head shape without paying new prices.
Nobody holes long putts on purpose. Leaving them close on purpose is a skill, and it is the cheapest gain in your season.
Panxis Golf has no commercial relationship with these retailers and earns nothing from your purchases.
Where this shows up on a course
Three courses from our directory where the round is decided on the green.
- Duff House Royal Golf Club: Founded in 1910 on the Duke of Fife’s land beside the River Deveron and redesigned by Alister MacKenzie in 1923: a par 68 whose large two-tiered greens are still his.
- Bedford & County Golf Club: Taylor and Hawtree above the Great Ouse, requisitioned for food production in the war and not whole again until 1952: fast greens on severe slopes, and no filler holes.
- Goring and Streatley Golf Club: Colt on chalk downland above the Goring Gap, firm all winter and hilly all round: quick greens, views over the Thames Valley, and a walk that reviewers warn about.
We have not played these courses; each page says what it is based on.
