Why are uphill putts easier

As time increases, the potential for break increases with it. A golf ball that rolls for 10 seconds will break more than one that rolls for 2 seconds which is why longer putts generally break more than shorter putts. Next time you are out on a green, roll a ball down a severe slope and then up that same slope.

If you time how long the ball rolls for, you will see that the downhill putt will roll for a much longer than the uphill putt. Because of this, downhill putts have much more potential for break and are therefore more difficult to make. This second answer is less obvious and we will have to use expected breaks from our AimPoint chart to prove. I think we all recognize that fast greens break more than slow greens for the same slope. And a downhill breaking putt is similar to a fast green whereas an uphill breaking putt is similar to a slow green, therefore downhill breaking putts will break more than uphill breaking putts.

The reason for this is that a slow green or uphill putt requires that the ball must be hit harder, thus it starts off faster and slows down faster than a putt of the same distance on a fast green or downhill putt , which must be hit more softly and it slows down more slowly, and thus takes more time to reach the hole.

The longer a putt takes to reach the hole the more time gravity — pulling it downhill -- will have to act. The ball will take on a path similar to a parabolic curve, breaking more at the end than at the beginning. This is due to gravitational forces and the phenomenon known as precession. The slower the ball travels the more it will break. Fast fact: Uphill putts are easier than downhillers. In fact, eight-foot uphill putts are sunk five percent more often than eight-foot downhill putts, on average.

The steeper the slope, the more the uphill-downhill difference is magnified. Harder still are big, breaking, sidehill-downhill putts.

On steep slopes, eight-foot sidehill-downhillers are sunk almost 20 percent less frequently than their uphill-sidehill counterparts. While the type of putt makes a difference, the primary factor that determines the difficulty of any putt is overall distance. Ball Speed plays an important part in shaping the roll. The speed that the ball travels across the green can be roughly divided into three phases.

Knowing what happens in each phase can help you understand how your ball will break. You can't control the slope of the green , nor how close the grass has been cut on any particular day, but you can control how hard or soft you stroke your ball.

Depending on whether your putt is level, uphill or downhill, the duration of each phase will differ. However, on all putts your ball will accelerate away on contact with your putter, then appear to be rolling at a constant speed, before the friction of the grass finally slows it down.