Golf Instruction Zone: How to Properly Read the Grain of the Green

Reading a green properly for your putt goes beyond judging its slope. Determining the direction of its grain is also critical to the process, and Ted Frick and Stefany King of the Classic Swing Golf School at Legends Golf Resort are here to show you how to do it properly in this video!

Hi, I’m Ted Frick and this is Stefany King. We’re both instructors at the Classic Swing Golf School located at the Legends Resort.

Today we’re going to talk to you about reading grain. I’m going to say well over 90 percent of all of the greens in Myrtle Beach now are a Bermuda grass or a hybrid of Bermuda. Y’all, we have grain. Now for just a moment, can we take the camera, just expose a little bit of this green because most of the people familiar with reading the shiny part and the dull part, what’s shiny, what’s dull? When you’re looking at your grain, no matter if you’re hitting a chip shot or putt, whatever shine is going to reflect down grain. It’s going to be faster and if it’s darker, especially with these sunglasses, it’s going to be into the grain.

All right, that might be important or a long putt, but let me tell you where we as teachers and players, and we’re both good players, where we pay attention to grain the most, and I can tell you running golf schools for 28 years and now Stef’s been with me over five, most people have no idea about this one tip, and this is huge.

We all look down into the cup and we must determine what side of the cup is browned or browning out because that’s the direction the grain is growing towards. This is so easy to read, and this is why sometimes you’ll play one hole and the speed might appear slow to you. Then you go to the next hole and it appears faster, and you’ll be like, well these greens are inconsistent. No, you’re hitting some putts on one green that are down grain and the next one into the grain.

So take a look at this putt. So, if we can look down to this cup, just if I had a ball placed right here and I read this to be a three-foot putt that’s straight, y’all, I’m telling you when the ball’s getting to the hole, it’s slowing down, the grain on this cup alone is going to pull that putt to the right. So therefore, where Stef’s standing, if I had a putt from this side of the hole, it’s going to be slick. If I had a putt from this side of the hole, it’s going to be slow. So where we pay attention to grain the most is at the cup, and that helps out so many of our students. Remember, whatever side is browning out, that’s the direction the grain is growing towards. I hope that tip helps you!