What is your process to test green speeds before a round or when practicing?

I will spend a small amount of time on a practice green before a round, but never too long as I tend to find the majority of practice greens are never anything like the actual course greens and I am more of a 'feel' putter

When I play a course with this issue I'll take 2 or 3 quick putts on the first green on a line not near my ball and not towards the hole.

Give it a little tappy, tap tap taparoo!
 
I can't help on this one unfortunately. I'm completely a feel putter. I get out on the practice green, and roll some 3-footers, both uphill and downhill. Then I'll roll some long lag putts, both uphill and downhill. That's generally all I need.

You might have more feel than you think you do. If I put a ball in your hand and asked you to roll it by hand to hole 20-feet away, would you have to have a measurement of how far to take your arm back? You are a gravity and momentum expert. Try just trusting your instincts. Or try the "goldilocks" method on your practice swings. Make a practice swing that's clearly too soft. Then make one that's clearly too hard. Then it should be easy to make one that feels "just right."

What he said. With a minor exception. I always do some 3' putting last, so I can see a lot of putts drop just before starting my round.
 
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I almost never hit the practice green before my rounds. I wait until my first putt on the first hole either blows by or stops halfway and start adjusting from there.
 
I usually just try to find a lot of various length putts from uphill, sidehill, downhill, etc. I then just get a feel for how hard I have to hit each putt from the various positions. I usually only spend about 10-15 minutes before the round on the putting green, just get a feel for the speed of the green and then I'm ready to go.

The worst thing though is when the practice green rolls at a much different pace than the greens out on the course. Takes a couple holes to adjust then.
 
I generally just take a bunch of varying length putts to get the speed down. I find that looking at the hole helps me adjust quicker. After I feel like I've got a feel for it, I play a handful of targets exactly as I'd play them on the course. Go through my whole routine on each putt, and keep putting until I hole out, with my goal being nothing over two putts. I feel like this gives me a pretty good idea of how they'll roll on the course.

I started doing this too. Kind of expanding on with Hawk's idea:
I putt to the fringe from a distance a handful of times usually. I've never really had much of an issue. Maybe the greens around here are close enough in speed that it usually doesn't matter.

I found that picking a spot, mark, leaf, etc. and rolling putts to that helps me to focus more, and if the greens are busy, I can get more practice without running into/waiting for others.​
 
Besides obviously hitting to specific spots on the practice green, I always will push my hand back and forth on each green behind the ball to see exactly which way the grain is facing. I'm not even sure if this is legal, but it helps when you play late in the day and can't really see the shine on a green (which indicates down grain) or dullness (which indicates into the grain).
 
I found that picking a spot, mark, leaf, etc. and rolling putts to that helps me to focus more, and if the greens are busy, I can get more practice without running into/waiting for others.

When the practice green is busy, I will often just stick a tee in the ground off to one side where I'm not in anyone's way and use that for my target.

Having a smaller target actually helps to promote better precision. One course I play has three holes cut in one section of the practice green which are only 2" in diameter. When you get comfortable hitting a target that small with short putts (6 feet and in), the holes on the course seem huge.
 
Long putts are at the end of ending putting warm up. I work on 3',5' & 10' putts prior to moving to long putts. But before all that I will toss a few balls on the green and watch how they roll out. This gives me an idea of speed green I am dealing with, slow or fast. The actually feel for the pace comes from my first few putts
 
Besides obviously hitting to specific spots on the practice green, I always will push my hand back and forth on each green behind the ball to see exactly which way the grain is facing. I'm not even sure if this is legal, but it helps when you play late in the day and can't really see the shine on a green (which indicates down grain) or dullness (which indicates into the grain).

Ya, definitely a 2 stroke penalty each time you do it :( http://www.usga.org/Rule-Books/Rules-of-Golf/Rule-16/#16-1d and the related decisions say you are not allowed to test the putting surface.
 
When I play a course with this issue I'll take 2 or 3 quick putts on the first green on a line not near my ball and not towards the hole.

Fine for a casual round, but be sure you don't do it in a tournament. That would constitute testing the surface.
 
Fine for a casual round, but be sure you don't do it in a tournament. That would constitute testing the surface.

Yeah, purely done in casual rounds.
 
Fine for a casual round, but be sure you don't do it in a tournament. That would constitute testing the surface.

The exception is that you can test the green between the playing of two holes on the green of the hole you just finished. So if you putt out on #1 and your playing partners are putting out, you can touch the surface, roll putts, etc before you head to the next tee.

In regards to warming up or measuring speed, I like to roll a few on the practice green for speed and then just rely on feel. Too many systems leads to mistakes and relying on intuition always works better for me.
 
I like to hit a few putts 3-4 and then take a few chips and watch them run out as well on the practice green.
 
Hit a lot of 4 foot putts, above, below, left break, right break. Then hit a few 25+ feet putts. This get me to think about just getting in a 4 foot radius because i (should) feel automatic from there.
 
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