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The FLPR or Fall Line Putt Reader is a color-coded training aid designed to help you find the Fall Line through the hole.
Once you can identify the true downward direction of the slope through the hole, you will have a much better idea which way your ball will break as it slows down in its approach.
A lot of thought has gone into the design of the Fall Line Putt Reader:
The Fall Line Putt Reader is easy to use when you follow these three simple steps. Its main application is for putts in the range of four to five feet where there is a single slope.
These are the putts that you want to make, and that cause you disappointment and frustration when you get the read of the break wrong.
On longer putts outside of five feet there may be more than one slope as in the case of a double breaker. However, as the ball slows down it is the slope nearest the hole that is the most important.
Step One
Position the FLPR alongside the hole so that is situated between the hole and your ball. The 6 arrow should face your ball and the 12 arrow the hole. Unless your ball is exactly on the local Fall Line through the hole the bubble will be either left or right of a straight line from the 12 to the 6.
Step Two
Rotate the FLPR until the bubble is centred over the straight line from the 12 to the 6. This now represents the Fall Line or the true downward direction of the slope through the hole.
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Fall Line |
Step Three
If you are mapping the green for various hole locations draw a small arrow on your green map to represent the Fall Line. The degree of slope can be marked next to the arrow.
If you are merely practicing your putting, mark the high side of the hole with a ball marker and the low side of the hole with another. It helps to use different colored ball markers.
Results
Once you know the Fall Line, then all balls that are positioned on the Right (RED) side of the Fall Line will break right to left. Similarly all balls that are positioned on the Left (YELLOW) side of the Fall Line will break left to right. All other putts are either straight uphill or straight downhill.
The amount of the break will depend on the degree of the slope and the speed of the ball as it approaches the hole. The steeper the slope, the more the ball will break. On the other hand the faster the ball-speed, the less the ball will break.
Part of the skill of putting is matching the arrival speed of your ball at the hole with your read of the break.
As you come to appreciate the significance of the Fall Line at the hole using the Fall Line Putt Reader, you will be able to anticipate how your ball will react with the green surface and the direction it will break. This will add to your putting confidence and your ability to make more makeable putts.