Golf Tips Handbook: Your Free Guide Awaits

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Padraig Harrington has been around for decades. A three-time major winner, including both The Open Championship and the PGA Championship in a sensational 2008 season, Harrington has holed clutch putts on some of the biggest stages in the game. At the 2008 PGA Championship alone, he drained a 12-foot, an 8-foot, and a 15-foot putt on the final three holes to claim the title.

In fact, during that final round, he one-putted 14 times and only needed 11 putts on the back nine. So, it is not a shocker if we say putting is his strong suit. The Irishman’s ability to read greens under pressure is one to be observed, and he recently gave a quick masterclass on putting to Dan Rapaport in a casual nine-hole outing.  His advice was simple, yet you’d realize how much of a difference it would make in improving your green reading. Let’s take a look:

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1. Pay Attention to the ‘Tones’ of the Green

Harrington’s first tip is very straightforward. He advises looking at the colors of green, specifically pointing to the shades of green. Most putting greens you’d notice are never just one shade. They vary between light and dark shades of green. “If we look up that way, it’s dark. That means it’s uphill. And if we look that way, it’s pale. That means it’s downhill… The dark colors, that’s slow, uphill, and the pale is downhill fast,” Harrington told Rapaport.

Obviously, it’s crucial that you have good sunlight to be able to see the distinction clearly. So, in places where it’s overcast or during the winter, especially in Ireland or Britain, it might be tougher to do that.

This easy trick allows players to understand how a putt will break and also how much it will break. So, if you see a lighter shade of green falling in the way of your putt, you’d automatically know that the ball will be quick to run off and will pick up pace. And the opposite goes for when you see a darker shade.

2. Observe the Wear & Tear Around the Hole

The second tip Padraig Harrington gives is to observe if there are any visible changes around the cup. “Once the hole is burnt or broken, that means everything’s breaking towards the center of that… Look at the old replaced hole. You can see how it’s burnt on one side. So, everything’s breaking down to the center of that,” he said.

In simpler terms, what Harrington is trying to say is that the worn side of the cup usually sits on the low side of the slope. He is basically saying that the condition of the hole itself can tell you which way the green is sloping. That’s where the ball is most likely to break away, so aim on the opposite side.

The “low side” of the hole, the direction the ball will naturally roll toward, gets worn out and frayed during the day. That’s because the grass roots on that side are growing into the cup. When the hole-cutting machine trims the cup, it cuts through those roots, leaving them loose and messy. That’s why that side looks ragged.

On the “high side,” the roots grow away from the hole, so they don’t get sliced. That side stays clean and smooth. So, if you see the hole fraying on one side, that’s the low side, and the putt will break towards that direction. Harrington’s advice is that you should aim away from the frayed edge because that’s the direction the ball wants to go in.

Through these tips, Harrington’s message is that the best way to improve your putting and read the greens easily isn’t through complex formulas. It’s only through simple observation. There’s no crazy technique here, or no specific aiming point. These tips are simple and quick and can be picked up very easily, with almost no practice.

And that’s the point Padraig Harrington keeps coming back to — trust your eyes, trust what the green is showing you, and keep the process uncomplicated. When you go back to the basics, reading greens becomes far less intimidating and far more effective.