Free Walking with Jack by Don J. Snyder Page B

lesson in reading putts, with Pete saying, “I’m going to tell you everything you need to know.”
    In the first place it was not going to be only a matter of me learning the terrain of the 18 greens on the Old Course. On any given day I might be sent to caddie on any one of the other three courses that lay alongside the Old Course—the New, the Jubilee, or the Eden—or up on the cliff to the new Castle Course when it opened. So that means 90 greens to learn. And on any given day the hole will be cut in one of 7 pin positions on each green, meaning I will need to learn how the ball rolls from 630 locations.
    Pete’s advice was to focus my mind on the essential truths about reading putts. First, the pros read their own putts and only rarely ask their caddies’ opinion. Why? Because only the golfer knows
how hard
he will be rolling the ball toward the hole. If he dies the ball into the hole, then it will break dramatically along the contour of the green. But if he rolls it with authority, it will go through some of the break on a straight path. But for us, we are almost always asked by our golfers to read every putt. Meaning it is at best an imprecise science. I will make mistakes. I will misread putts. The important thing is to admit it when I’m wrong. Too many caddies who read the break incorrectly then tell their golfer, “Well, you pushed it,” or “You pulled it.” It’s better to be honest and admit your mistake and tell the golfer you’ll get that stroke back for him if you can. It is allabout trust between the golfer and his caddie. Break the trust and you’ll never get it back.
    And there’s more to remember. If most of the break is at the beginning of the putt, remember that because the ball is almost always moving faster at the beginning, you don’t want to read in all the break. That’s important.
    Next. When the ball rolls uphill, it loses steam and takes more break. Conversely, when it’s rolling downhill, it picks up pace and rushes through some of the break. When the greens are wet and the ball slows down, you have to factor this in. And you do all this in no more than thirty seconds and then deliver the verdict to your golfer in no more than five seconds. If you take longer than this, you are slowing things down out on the course, and this is something a caddie must never do.
    Note to myself: One thing Pete said that I really have to remember is to start reading my golfer’s putt long before I reach the green. As soon as I can see his ball on the green from the distance as I’m walking toward it, I must use this perspective to view the contour of the green between his ball and the hole. Never waste this time, because you usually get a better read from the distance as you approach the ball than you ever get standing right on top of it. And do not read anything into the putt that isn’t there. Trust yourself. Eighty percent of the time your first read is the most accurate. Once you start changing your mind, you are in trouble.
    And one more thing. If you look at the putt from behind the ball and it breaks one way, and then you look at the putt from below the hole and it looks completely different, treat it as a straight putt. Same is true with a double-breaking putt. Find the straight line through both breaks.
    ———
    Holy Moses. A lot to remember. And here’s the most important thing of all. Try to get your golfer onto the green in a place where he is
not
putting downhill. Uphill putts are infinitely easier.
    So, before I left the Old Course today, I paid my £100 to the assistant caddie master. I am to report for my first class in forty-eight hours. Which gives me all day tomorrow to practice putting and reading putts on my own. I’m going to test everything I learned today from Pete.

      MARCH 27, 2008     
    It is just after 2:00 in the afternoon, and I am writing this one letter at a time into the memo file on my BlackBerry inside the clubhouse at the practice center