Putting Coach's Drill Fixes the Most Common Green-Reading Mistake

Most amateur putting misses trace back to how golfers read greens, not how they stroke the ball, according to GOLF Top 100 Teacher and PGA Tour putting consultant Stephen Sweeney.

What's the most common green-reading mistake?

Sweeney says golfers generally read greens one of two ways: visually, by eye, or by feel, using their feet to sense the slope underfoot. Either way, he says the common error comes next — golfers focus on the apex of a putt's arc, the furthest point the ball swings off the direct line to the hole, and aim their putt there.

By the time the ball actually reaches that point, though, it has already started curving back toward the hole, so aiming at the apex causes golfers to misread the putt low and leave it short of the break it needed.

"People generally don't play enough break," Sweeney says.

What's the fix?

Instead of fixating on the apex, Sweeney has golfers stand behind the ball and visualize the entire curved path the ball needs to take to the hole, then divide that path into thirds, marking each third with a ball mark.

From there, golfers roll putts and try to track the ball over each of the three marks on its way into the cup. A putt that rolls over all three marks and falls confirms the read and the stroke matched; missing a mark or the hole signals an error in either the read or the speed. Sweeney says he gives his Tour players five putts a day using the drill and has them score themselves out of five based on whether they read the break correctly.

The drill works on the practice green with any number of balls and takes no special equipment beyond a few ball markers, making it a quick addition to a pre-round warmup or a practice session focused on reading break rather than stroke mechanics.