WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO PRACTICE GREEN READING IN PUTTING?

The best and most fun way to practice green reading is to blend the competitive elements of match play with the fundamental challenges of reading greens, picking your line, aiming, and controlling your speed. Top 100 Golf Instructor and short-game guru Dave Pelz (author of Putting Bible) and his son Eddie Pelz share a way to really spice up your green reading putting practice. It’s a sort of “Texas Death Match” green reading practice game.

With putting representing almost half the strokes of a typical golf round, it sure pays to practice putting at least that much! And turning your putting practice into a competitive mini game helps inspire you to work on reading greens, your putting mechanics and managing your emotions.

Texas Death Match Putting Drill

The core tenet of the Texas Death Match Putting Drill is the competitor that gets their putt in the hole or closest to a specific target wins a point.  The drill yields the highest value when you:

1. Putt against an opponent
2. Pick the absolute toughest putts you can find on the practice putting green. (You learn the most when playing the hardest shots)
3. Measure, as best you can, a spot seventeen inches past the hole on a perfect line where the ball would stop if you put a cover over the hole.

This game is a variation of closest to the pin games, but in this case - closest to 17 inches past the cup - unless you hole the putt. Yes, you would love to hole the putts, but the contest is the closest ball to that specific point - 17 inches behind the hole. Because you are picking really difficult putts, there shouldn’t be many aces. You can coin flip for the first shot. Whoever wins the first hole will go first on the second. Whoever wins the second hole leads on the third and so on. Play 9 or 18 holes.  The player with the highest points wins the drill.