5 Essential Tips for Putting on Fast Greens

Golfers seem to love fast greens. Despite the fact that playing on fast greens tends to be harder than playing on slow greens, most players talk in affectionate terms when discussing a course with quick greens.

Of course, if you are going to have a good time on a course with speedy putting surfaces, you need to be ready for the challenge. In this article, we’ll offer several tips to help you perform at your best under these conditions.

#1 Optimizing Your Feel

Fast greens require a great feel for the putter. If you struggle to feel the putter as it swings, and feel how the ball comes off the face, it will be hard to dial in your distance control. One of the best ways to improve feel is to use a lighter grip pressure.

Of course, you don’t just want to switch to a light grip pressure at the last minute when you realize the greens are going to be fast on that day. You should be working on your grip pressure in advance so you can be ready to hit good putts round after round, no matter what the green speeds may be.

If you think you currently hold the putter too tightly, get to work on using a lighter grip and your overall putting performance should improve.

#2 Play More Break

Simply put, you need to play more break on fast greens. This is something that gives countless golfers problems, as the average player just doesn’t give their putts enough room to move back toward the hole.

This is particularly troublesome on fast greens. If you don’t play enough break, you’ll need to hit the putt harder to hold the line – and a putt hit too hard on fast greens is going to race by and leave you with another tough putt coming back.

During your next round, take note of which side you miss each of your putts on. For example, if you missed 15 putts during the round (and made 18, for a total of 33), how many of those missed low as compared to high?

If you are missing low far more often than you are missing high, try playing more break in your next round.

Simply read your putts and then add a little extra borrow to give the ball room to turn back toward the cup. You might be surprised at how helpful this simple little tip can be.

#3 A Proper Warm-Up is Required

Here’s the thing – most golfers don’t warm up correctly before they play a round of golf. The average golfer heads immediately to the driving range after checking in at the pro shop, hurrying to hit as many balls as possible before their tee time rolls around. If there is time to stop at the putting green or chipping area, that’s great. But it is not a priority.

This is backward, unfortunately.

Getting to the putting green before your round should be a top priority for a number of reasons. For one thing, you need to get comfortable with your stroke and build up some confidence for the round ahead. Even more importantly, you need to learn the speed of the greens for the day.

On a course with fast greens, you’ll want to spend plenty of time getting comfortable with that speed before facing it on the course.

#4 Find the Low Side

Getting your ball under the hole is a basic fundamental of course management, but it takes on even greater importance when the course you are playing features fast greens.

It’s not that big of an issue to get above the hole when the greens are slow, as even your downhill putts won’t be too bad. But downhill putts on fast greens are hard to make because you have to be so cautious, and they open up the possibility of a three putt.

Positioning your ball for an uphill putt as often as possible means you’ll need to think one or two shots ahead for most of the round. When playing an approach shot into the green, check out the topography of the green area and figure out where you’d like to leave your ball.

Give yourself some margin for error on the low side and hopefully you’ll come away with an uphill putt more often than not.

You can even employ this strategy when chipping. If you are facing a tough chip shot where you aren’t sure that you’ll be able to get the ball within a couple of feet of the hole, pay attention to where you’d like to leave the ball for your upcoming putt.

Often, especially on fast greens, it’s better to putt uphill from five or six feet than downhill from three feet.

#5 Use the Toe

This last tip is not something you will want to use regularly throughout a round, but it can help out in extreme situations. For example, let’s say that a chip shot you meant to put on the low side of the hole wanders over to the high side and you are now faced with an extremely fast three-footer to save your par. Not only are you hoping to make the three-footer, but you also want to make sure it doesn’t run by and leave you with an even longer putt coming back.

One possible solution here is to line up your putt toward the toe of the putter face. By intentionally missing the sweet spot and hitting the toe instead, you will pass less energy from the putter to the ball. This way, you can make a little bigger stroke without hitting the putt too hard.

The trade-off here is it’s harder to hit your intended line when you don’t use the sweet spot. So, practice this method on the putting green from time to time to get comfortable with how it works.

There is something exciting about playing a round of golf on fast greens. Quick greens tend to roll true, so you will have an opportunity to make some putts – but you’ll also need to be careful with your speed control.

We hope the tips in this article help you roll in a few more during an upcoming round.