RATTLE BOTTOM
For the rest of us, Faxon’s Instagram page is a prime re- source for more putting tips. On
VAPOUR TRAILS Putting on a dewy green is a teaching moment.
that account, Faxon shared some advice from when he was a caddie on how to read greens. He would watch his players before their rounds and carefully moni- tor the trails their golf balls made on the dew of the practice green. You can do it, too, if you have an early-morning tee time – and even just a few reps on a wet green can provide some great feedback that will improve your putting quickly. Here are two of the biggest things it can help with, Faxon explains: It helps you understand the break- speed relationship One of the trickiest things about read- ing greens is that there’s no right or wrong way to do it. How you read the break is dependent on the speed you hit the ball. If you think about it, every putt is a straight putt if you smack the ball hard enough. Jokes aside, a putt hit firmer will break less than one hit softer, so matching the break to your speed is the trick, he says. Examining the dew line can help you better understand this cause-and-effect relationship – and use it to your advantage. “I’d often practice hitting the same putt at different speeds – slow, medium, fast,” Faxon says. “It gets more flow into your stroke and allows you to putt with more freedom.” The dew line also clearly reveals how much break you need to play at various speeds, he says. It helps you visualise the entire line Many good putters talk about seeing the path the ball needs to take all the way from their spot to the cup. Some see a channel, others a fine line, Faxon says. The dew line is a literal representation of how this could look in your mind’s eye, so even if you’re playing later in the day, you can tap into the visual. It gets your mind away from swing mechanics, too. “That’s the image I still see every time I hit a putt,” Faxon says. “Use it to see if you can find the line and speed that fits your eye – and you’ll make more.”
Wake-Up Call Take advantage of an early tee time with Brad Faxon’s smart tip for reading greens BY LUKE KERR-DINEEN
EIGHT-TIME PGA TOUR winner Brad Faxon made a lot of putts over the course of his
career. He led the PGA Tour in putting average in three different seasons. Now in retirement, he’s helping other golfers make more. Faxon is a putting instruc- tor at Jupiter Hills Club in Florida and is often sought out by PGA Tour players for advice – most notably Rory McIlroy, a student of Faxon’s since 2018. Before the final round of the Masters in April, Faxon said he saw McIlroy’s 4-year-old daughter playing with a ball and club and suggested Rory learn from it and practice “putting like a child; get that child-like enthusiasm.” Whether or not McIlroy took that ad- vice to heart, he did putt well enough to become the sixth player in history to win the career grand slam with his victory at Augusta.
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2025
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