Slow greens

[C-Tech]

Overseeding here in Tucson is almost completed, but the greens are still not being cut back to normal height. They are all running slow except for the bent that doesn't get overseeded.

I left 5 or 6 putts a foot short today, dead in the heart of the hole.

How does green speed affect your putting? I actually putt better on fast greens as long as they are not like linoleum.

 

[JB]

I too like fast greens. The faster the better for my game. I have been learning to really try and practice on the putting green for a good 10 minutes to get the speed down for the course. Assuming the practice green is like the course. In our area, it seems most are.

 

[C-Tech]

I too like fast greens. The faster the better for my game. I have been learning to really try and practice on the putting green for a good 10 minutes to get the speed down for the course. Assuming the practice green is like the course. In our area, it seems most are.

That was a problem today. I spent about 30 minutes on the practice green before going to the first tee just getting the speed right. Once I got on the first green, it was half the speed of the practice green. That just drives me nuts.

 

[Craig Mac]

hit it harder...

 

[907golfer12]

I'm like C-Tech and JB, the faster the green the better I putt. I don't know why that is, but it is what it is.

 

[Badger_Golfer]

I too prefer fast greens. I used to play on inexpensive courses that had really shaggy, really slow greens and it took me a long time to adjust to the faster greens of the nicer courses that I play on now.
The speed of greens effect my putting because you have to adjust to the speed of the greens. Even if you read the break perfectly, if you dont have the right speed you arent going to sink putts.

 

[provisional]

I prefer faster greens because they have fewer surface imperfections on them. Plus I believe since a faster green is smoother, they are easier to read, than a shaggy, slower green. I am putting on re-seeded greens now which are quite slow. Of course fast is relative. I don't know how I would putt, or would like putting on a Master's Tournament green. I have tried practice putting on my garage, concrete floor before. That is a nerve wracking experience. :clapp:

 

[pjcedog]

I have had my best and my worst putting days on stimp 12 greens. Generally speaking slow greens help a poor putter, if you are a good putter fast greens are no problem. The biggest problem with really fast greens if you are a decent putter is getting the ball to stop where you want on approach shots, chips and pitches.

 

[C-Tech]

Every year before the US Open, my old home course would start a few weeks before to set our course up as close as they could to the Open. They would grow in the rough, cut the fairways closer, and particularly, double cut and roll our bent greens. They would get extremely fast. On most of the greens, this was not a problem, but on a few with pretty sharp slopes, you could easily run the ball completely off the green down the slope. Leaving the ball below the hole became our mantra because downhill putts were downright dangerous.

 

[solidkjames]

Every year before the US Open, my old home course would start a few weeks before to set our course up as close as they could to the Open. They would grow in the rough, cut the fairways closer, and particularly, double cut and roll our bent greens. They would get extremely fast. On most of the greens, this was not a problem, but on a few with pretty sharp slopes, you could easily run the ball completely off the green down the slope. Leaving the ball below the hole became our mantra because downhill putts were downright dangerous.

We hired a new superintendent this summer after having the same guy for over 12 years. Our new guy brought the rough in about 20 yards on average per hole and he has our greens running lightening fast. He said he was able to manage the moisture and top dressing enough to lower them from a .180 cut down to a .140 cut. On most every hole with slope if you get past the hole you can forget about par. It's almost overkill because our course has very small greens and narrow fairways. Having sloped fast greens is making scoring about impossible on a bad day and hard on a good one.

 

[C-Tech]

We hired a new superintendent this summer after having the same guy for over 12 years. Our new guy brought the rough in about 20 yards on average per hole and he has our greens running lightening fast. He said he was able to manage the moisture and top dressing enough to lower them from a .180 cut down to a .140 cut. On most every hole with slope if you get past the hole you can forget about par. It's almost overkill because our course has very small greens and narrow fairways. Having sloped fast greens is making scoring about impossible on a bad day and hard on a good one.

How is the membership taking to the changes? I know every year when our course super did his "Open" thing, almost all the older members just raised cain while the rest embraced the change. It was only temporary after all and gave us a glimpse at what the pros see.

 

[solidkjames]

How is the membership taking to the changes? I know every year when our course super did his "Open" thing, almost all the older members just raised cain while the rest embraced the change. It was only temporary after all and gave us a glimpse at what the pros see.

For the most part we love it. The guy is really changing the golf course for the better, however, the guy putting out pin placements is making me angry at least 6 holes a round ! I've suggested that they take a putter out with them in the mornings and find areas that you can actually make putts around more than 25% of the hole. I mean when you have a 4 ft putt that turns into a 10 footer on the other side of the hole after putting just hard enough to get the ball rolling, it's a bad place to put the flag. I'm not paid to play golf and I don't want to be challenged like I'm playing Augusta National on Sunday, if you know what I mean?

 

[C-Tech]

For the most part we love it. The guy is really changing the golf course for the better, however, the guy putting out pin placements is making me angry at least 6 holes a round ! I've suggested that they take a putter out with them in the mornings and find areas that you can actually make putts around more than 25% of the hole. I mean when you have a 4 ft putt that turns into a 10 footer on the other side of the hole after putting just hard enough to get the ball rolling, it's a bad place to put the flag. I'm not paid to play golf and I don't want to be challenged like I'm playing Augusta National on Sunday, if you know what I mean?

We had a few impossible hole placements at my old course, too. Worst was front left on #15. Anything above that hole was at least a 3 putt. A buddy of mine was having a career round (2 over to that point) when he left it 3ft short of the green on 15. He chipped up 4 times only to have it roll back down to his feet. He finally got one to stick and putted it in, but his round was wrecked by one hole.

 

[thedue]

We had a few impossible hole placements at my old course, too. Worst was front left on #15. Anything above that hole was at least a 3 putt. A buddy of mine was having a career round (2 over to that point) when he left it 3ft short of the green on 15. He chipped up 4 times only to have it roll back down to his feet. He finally got one to stick and putted it in, but his round was wrecked by one hole.

We had a hole like that on a course I belonged to in Missouri some years ago. The 9th hole was flat faced on one side and fairly steep. Once in a while they'd get that sucker so fast you couldn't place the ball with your hand next to the hole and get it to stay. We would actually have to position our ball below the hole, on the fringe and see how many putts it took to get it in. Up, down, up, down... crazy.

 

[solidkjames]

Our 18th hole, which is very elevated the last 100 yards from the fairway, used to have a false front and back about 10 years ago if you hit a pw up the hill from 100 yards and it hit up front or too far back the ball would roll all the way down the hill and back to where you were standing. 100 yards of backspin :banana:! They built up the front of the green but its still too steep for as fast as our greens are rolling.

 

[JPsuff]

I really dislike slow greens.

If I have to muscle the ball to the hole, then they're too slow. On the other hand, if all I have to do is barely tap the ball and let the green do the rest, then my fate is in the hands of the greenskeeper and other people's good or bad habits (fixing ball marks, spike marks, footprints, etc.).

I prefer greens that stimp between around 9 to maybe 11 or so. Once they get any faster, things become more about survival than skill and that's ridiculous.

I've played very well-kept greens that ran much faster than 11 and while they were very close to that "tipping point" of absurdity, they were still able to be "played". They were tough, but they were fair and they held a shot. The only problem is that such greens are rare in the world of public golf where what passes for "fast" is actually more like "burnt", which is something completely different.

To me, a good green allows me to use both my putter and the green itself to make a putt. As long as those two qualities are present, then I don't really care how fast or slow they are.



-JP

 

[C-Tech]

Along these same lines, I don't like it when the practice green is running a lot slower or faster than the greens on the course. I don't understand why they can't be cut at the same time and at the same height. Sunday, I left a ton of putts short because I spent 30 minutes on the practice green getting the speed down before I got to the course.