The secret to reading grain, according to one of the Tour's best putters

So, how does Snedeker contend with grain?

“I think grain is a really difficult thing to quantify,” Snedeker said. There’s no formula for it, no metric that tells you how many inches of break to add per feet of putt when the grain is growing left or right.

“You kind of have to have more of a feel,” Snedeker said. And developing feel takes time and practice, “getting out on the greens and getting comfortable with them,” Snedeker continued. “It’s one of those things, like, hey, if you see a putt is pretty straight and the grain is going to the right, hey, man, let’s play this thing inside left just because the grain might pull it a little bit.”

The bottom line is that cross-grain putts can be frustrating head-scratchers, no matter how experienced or skilled you are. Some days, you’ve got the feel. Some days, you don’t.

“If you’re off a little bit, you are going to be hitting a lot of right-edge or left-edge putts and driving yourself crazy,” Snedeker said.

To preserve his sanity and his score, Snedeker doesn’t get too granular with grain, at least not when it comes to its influence on break. He finds it more productive to focus on pace.

“The biggest account is more into grain, down grain,” he said. “Into the grain is going to be really slow. Down grain is going to be really fast. Those are the things you really pay attention to.”

And if all else fails, you go back to razzing your partner. “We’re not shy about giving each other a needle out here,” Snedeker said. “So I think having a partner where you have somebody you’re comfortable with, can kind of give you a need and have some fun with it about how bad a shot they hit that day.”

Mitchell agreed.

“Hopefully, he doesn’t putt like me, and hopefully I don’t drive it like him and we’ll be in good shape,” he said.

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