Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
As a junior golfer growing up in west Texas, playing in the wind was an everyday occurrence. No matter the time of day or time of year, the winds were always whipping.
I’m not exactly a Tour pro, but this did lead to a couple of things to my development. No. 1, I became a low-ball hitter. And No. 2, I learned how to putt in the wind.
The latter often gets forgotten. How much could the wind really do to your rolling golf ball?! But when the wind is blowing hard enough, it can certainly have an effect on how it rolls — particularly on quicker greens. This isn’t something you hear about much in golf instruction, but if you want to develop into a complete player, it’s crucial you learn how to putt in the wind.
For a better idea on how much of an impact wind can have in your putts, check out the video from GOLF Top 100 Teacher Cameron McCormick below.
As you can see in the video above, when the wind is blowing across your line, it can easily throw your ball off its line. In the experiment McCormick runs in the video, a gust of 20 mph can throw an 8-foot putt substantially off its line. On an otherwise flat putt, that much wind can blow the ball off its line so much that it doesn’t even catch the hole.
So, what can you do to make sure you don’t let the wind affect you too much on the greens? The first thing is understanding that it does have an effect on how your ball rolls. So, if you’ve got a putt with some wind blowing, factor which direction it is blowing into your reads. It may be subtle, but it should certainly be part of your calculation.
Once you begin to understand how the wind affects your ball on the greens, you can make the necessary adjustments to make more putts — no matter what elements you play in.
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