its just a excuse used when pro's make a mistake. just play your normal game
Exactly, play your normal positive game.Gary Player used to say he loves playign fast greens when playing fast greens, then when playing slow green he used to say I love playing slow greens.
Its all about being positive.
While you are absolutely right in one sense, not adjusting for playing on Bermuda grass is just plain stupid, as the difference between it and other grasses is huge.
I was born and raised in Bermuda and used to be a caddy every summer at my course growing up. Trying to get the British and American tourists to believe you when you told them a putt was going to break up the slope was challenging to say the least!!
The main difference of Bermuda grass is, as others have said, on the greens. The direction of the grain (grain being the direction that the grass is growing) can have a bigger effect on the line of a putt than the slopes and contours.
What you need to do is first work out the direction of the grain, and then adjust accordingly. Often you can tell the direction of the grain by standing in the middle of the green and looking around in each direction towards the edges. In some directions the green will look darker and spikier and that means you are looking into the grain. In other directions the green will look a lighter colour and shinier and that means you are looking "down grain".
In Bermuda the grain almost always goes towards the Ocean (or other times, towards the lowest point in the nearby area, where the water would drain towards when it rains). The grass also grows towards the sun, meaning that in areas where the pull towards the Ocean is weaker (usually greens that are farther from the water) the grain can actually change throughout the day, depending on where the sun is in the sky.
Once you know the direction of the grain you can then adjust your reading of your putting lines accordingly. As a general guide:
Putts straight into the grain will be a lot slower and even the tiniest of left to right or right to left break will become more pronounced (especially nearer to the hole when the ball slows down)
Putts straight down grain will be a lot, lot faster and will often not break at all, even when they look like they should.
Putts across the grain will just move more in the direction fo the grain. So a right to left sloping putt with the grain going across the line to the right may well be a straight putt.
Like others have said chipping is also affected hugely by the grain. If you are chipping straight into the grain the ball will check up and stop very quickly, whereas down grain it can be difficult to get and check on the ball at all.
Also if you are chipping from the fringe or something like that and the grain on the fringe itself is down grain for your chip, then you can just chip the ball normally, however if you are chipping of the fringe with the grain against you, the club can very easily get snagged and you can very easily stub this chip way short of your target.
What I used to do when chipping into the grain was grip the club a bit tighter and put a more aggressive strike into the chip with almost no follow through, like you are kind of stabbing at the ball. It doesnt look pretty but it gets the job done!!
My adice would be to give yourself a little time on the practice green, work out the direction of the grain and then practice chipping and putting into and against the grain. Also, if you do have a caddy, make sure you listen to him, even when what hes saying sounds ridiculous!!
Wow, just realised how much I've written... bit sad but hope it helps you adjust to Bermuda greens anyways, and if it does I want a cut of your golf trip winnings!
