Putting Breaks

Say I could putt straight, I could determine the rolling speed, say I could repetitively execute the same putting stroke, say I am willing to spend hours and hours to practice putting, but how could I determine the slope on the green? How am I able to “practice” how to read breaks? Determining slope or break on the green is more a personal intuition and experience from the combined judgments from rolling speed, grains, putting strokes and etc.

First, putt straight directly aiming to the pole / hole with the correct speed, if there is a right-to-left break, the ball will break away to the left.

Second, virtually measure how much the break is by determining the distance from the ball that comes to a stop to the hole. This distance should be how much the break is, thus on the next putt, I should aim to the right with such measured distance

Third, putt by aiming to the right with the distance measured using the same stroke from the first putt. Fine tuned the stroke or breaks if the ball does not drop into the hole

Fourth, read the green again by squatting down, from 20 feet away or from the other side of the hole, “train” the brain to recognize the break and slope-reading.

Wondering if you know . . .

1. There are only three parts to the golf club – the head, the shaft, and the grip – it isn’t a complex equipment, but if you have the wrong head, shaft or grip the equipment will be near impossible for you to play the game.
2. Your driver swing speed will determine you driver loft and shaft flex.
3. Your 5 iron swing speed will determine the flex of the shafts in your iron.
4. Every golfer looking at a driver in a golf store looks at the head first and then holds the club by the grip and waggles the club. However, he or she rarely looks at the most important part – the shaft. (Check it our next time you are in a golf store.)
5. The correct driver for you is not the one you can hit the farthest. It is the one you can hit with consistency farthest.
6. Loft is your friend.
7. The shaft is the engine of the club. Arguably, it is 55% importance of the club, the head is 40% and the grip 5%. Why doesn’t anyone look more at the shaft?
8. The average length of a driver on the PGA tour is 44.5”.
9. The golf industry has no standard flexes. What is a stiff flex for one shaft manufacturer is can be a regular flex for another.
10. Most – not all, clubheads are made in a few foundries in mainland China. So what is the difference between Titleist and TaylorMade? It is probably manufactured in different province.
11. Have not seen any Original Equipment Maker (OEM) that makes their own shafts. They are jobbed out to shaft companies, sometimes multiple companies for the same shaft.
12. The golf industry has no standard length for golf clubs. A poor man’s custom set of clubs includes a set of clubs where all the clubs are cut ½” apart, the grips are all the same, the swing weight is the same through out the irons and through out the woods, and the loft and lie are correct.
13. Lie is one of the most important physical attributes of your irons. If the lie is wrong, that is either flat or upright; your shots will go left or right, more in the wedges and less in the long irons. Why doesn’t anyone look more at the lie angle?
14. Do you know that a 10.5° driver is only 10.5° at the “sweet spot?” It can be as much as 13° at the top of the face and 9° at the bottom – that is because of the roundness of the head from top to bottom. The horizontal “roundness” of a club, from side to side, is called bulge. If you want to hit your 10.5° driver at 10.5°, you better hit it at the sweet spot.
15. Did you know the “sweet spot” is exactly a spot on the face of a club? It is not an “area”. You cannot increase the size of the “sweet spot.” You can increase the hitting area – but not the sweet spot.
16. Nearly all clubs heads are made with plus or minus 1 degree in loft and that very same driver compare to number #20 may really be a 10.5° or 12.5° club. Nearly all OEM irons are made with plus or minus 1 SW difference, 3 iron could be a D1 while PW is D3.
    

-- in reference to California Custom Clubs