Go to a hardware store and buy a three-foot long aluminum angle. This is a metal strip in the shape of a V that makes a great track for rolling a golf ball down. Draw a line across the strip every two inches with a felt pen. Take this strip to the practice green.

Find a gently breaking putt of about 12 feet and, resting one end of the strip in your hand, lay the other end on the green. Elevate the strip so the end you’re holding is about one foot off the ground. Aim the strip straight at the hole and put the ball on the strip on top of one of the pen marks, and let it go. It will, of course, curve away from the hole, but that’s what you want. You’re learning how much a putt that looks like this really does curve.

The next step is to get the ball in the hole. You can either adjust the aim of the strip to start the ball off in a different direction, or place the ball on a different spot on the strip so it rolls along the same line but at a different speed. In this way, you will learn how speed determines line.

The reason you want to roll the ball along a strip instead of putting it is to ensure that if you miss, it was your read, and not perhaps your stroke. Work with the strip every time you visit the practice green. No matter how good your mechanics are, they’re only as good as your read.

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