How to read putts

Reading putts is like 'touch' in that it can't be taught but it can be learnt.

Everyone's reading of a putt will be different, because everyone has a different putting stroke. I hit my putts with a bit of a hook (must be my only similarity with POD) and I've seen a lot of golfers who putt with a cut stroke - so for myself and someone with a putt stroke the reading of the same putt could be different by the width of the hole quite comfortably, but we may well both hole it.

In the same way, a putt for me that has break will tend to have 'full' break as I aim to be as close to dead weight as I can be with any putt over 5 or 6 feet. People who hammer each and every putt at the hole will have real problems if they putt on those lines.

You'll be able to find plenty of websites, books or magazine articles that promise to tell you how to read putts, but the only answer is to really try to reason why you think what you think (what factors are at play or is it genuinely just a gut feeling) and then be honest with the results - did it miss due to a bad stroke or due to a bad read, etc.