INSTRUCTION
Links Lessons
By George Connor, PGA
Ease off that accelerator
to master speed on greens
T
his is the time of the year most greens reach summertime condition.
They’ve gotten smooth and fast. In the spring greens get aerated and top dressed
with sand. They are bumpy and slow. Once the greens heal from the aeration
they may still be slow due to poa annua grass sprouting every afternoon. As the
heat of summer approaches, though, the poa goes dormant and the greens be-
come fun! To score, you will have to learn to adjust to changing green speeds.
Here are two tips that will help you adjust to slow or fast greens. Under-
stand, first of all, that the terms “fast green” and “slow greens” can be confus-
ing. On fast greens, you will want slow putter velocity at impact to produce a
ball that rolls slowly. On slow greens you will
want to create relatively high putter velocity to
get a ball to roll faster. Go ahead and read that
last bit again. You understand it, although it
sounds odd.
1. Put on the brakes. A great way for
most players to generate more velocity to the
ball is to put the brakes on the putter right after
impact. It seems like the opposite effect would
occur but letting the putter crash into the ball
and then stopping the putter 8 or 10 inches af-
ter impact will actually cause more energy to
be transferred into the ball. This is converse
to what I see a lot of people doing with a short
backswing and a huge follow through. In this case the golfer will struggle to con-
sistently get enough energy into the ball and on slow greens will forever struggle
to get the ball to the hole.
2. The rule of thumbs. On fast greens you will have to slow the putter down.
Making a smooth stroke at a slow speed can be challenging. An easy way to make
this happen would be to reduce the tension in your grip and even take the thumbs
30 | CSGA Links // July 2018
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