People love to ask if reading greens is a gift. I usually disappoint them. "It just takes practice," I'll say. That's true, but it isn't the whole truth.

By the time we're on the eighteenth hole, I've been collecting clues all day. The putt isn't a mystery — it's the last sentence in a story that's been unfolding for four hours.

I think people are a lot like that. When I was younger, I believed first impressions carried the most weight. Now I trust the small things instead. Little things reveal the grain.