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Do you know your course's green speed?

c0ncept

c0ncept

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I tend to call the pro shop before I play a round of golf to find out how the greens are running so that I can know what to expect. Curious if anyone else keeps updated on what the green speed is on the courses that they play.

Do you call ahead? Do you just use a practice green before your round to gauge it?
 
I doubt the pro shop employees have a clue how fast the greens are running on many of the courses around here. Most probably have no idea what a stimpmeter is.
 
I have never even the super stimp any of the greens ever at the place I work. My home course is a muni with slowish greens but this year they are the fastest they have been ever or so I have been told. Gun to my head I would say they stimp 7.5-8.5 normally and 9.5 for tournaments. My other course has greens that are very close to the edge. When they are fast you are going to run the ball 20 feet by from above the hole if you don't make it. The USGA flipped out on them for a pub links qualifier as they could not find a single acceptable location to cut the hole in on one of the greens. I was told they run like 11.5-12.5 during the big few big tournaments. I have seen a ton of comedy like 8 putts and 5 putts from 18 inches there.


As for the answer hopefully the practice green runs the same speed as the course. While I don't always know the number I can "feel" it pretty easily.
 
My course just started to use the stimp meter this year, it probably averaged around 8. I never call ahead, and if I have time I'll always hit the practice green before to test it out.
 
Does anyone have a stimp meter? Would be fun to buy
 
I have no idea.


I try to putt at least 10 balls to get an idea before the round.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
ntanygd760 said:
Does anyone have a stimp meter? Would be fun to buy
Click to expand...

I just looked it up. Don't think you can really buy an official stimpmeter, but they don't look too difficult to make your own. I'm headed over to Lowe's in a bit to pick up a piece of cove moulding to make my own. I'm curious as to the speed on some of the greens I play often.
 
I carry my own stimpmeter in my bag just for this purpose!

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My course doesn’t do this but my guess is on normal days it runs around 8-9. And on tournaments it runs around 11-12. They can get the greens pretty fast if it has been dry and they roll them.
 
I have no idea. They aren't especially fast and that's a good thing since they tend to have a lot of undulation to them
 
OGputtnfool said:
I just looked it up. Don't think you can really buy an official stimpmeter, but they don't look too difficult to make your own. I'm headed over to Lowe's in a bit to pick up a piece of cove moulding to make my own. I'm curious as to the speed on some of the greens I play often.
Click to expand...

The notch and getting the ball to roll off at the same speed is the tough part. I looked for one a while back and found nothing like you.

Now the stimp you build build will be accurate to itself but might not stimp the same as an official one.

If you know aimpoint you can take a digital level and reverse engineer the number.
 
I arrive a bit early before a round and test the speed of the practice green which gives me an indication of how fast the greens might be running at that moment. But then as we actually begin playing the round something magically happens that I can't explain as the sun gets higher in the sky and the temperature begins to rise which in turn makes the greens gradually become faster as they begin to dry out.
 
I never ask. I spend about 10 minutes on the putting green befoee my round.

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ntanygd760 said:
The notch and getting the ball to roll off at the same speed is the tough part. I looked for one a while back and found nothing like you.

Now the stimp you build build will be accurate to itself but might not stimp the same as an official one.

If you know aimpoint you can take a digital level and reverse engineer the number.
Click to expand...
As long as the ball drops at 20°, it should be good to go.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Slow at all times except for around the time of the big tournaments in the spring and fall. So about 2 weeks a year that they are rolling with nice speed.
 
About a 6 today; a little hairy!
 
Never and I'll putt prior maybe 2% of the time. Seriously.

I hope to figure it out based upon appearance, if I can visually see grain, feel under my feet, ball-mark or lack thereof, etc.

Basically, that first putt being a shorty is muy bueno for the guess factor.
 
My home club tries to keep theirs around 10. I think for the most part it’s accurate.
 
So, I picked up a piece of moulding yesterday. Gotta figure out how to get the notch cut in it now. Figure that since autumn and winter will be killing the playing season, for the most part, for a while, I can take my time with it. I'll likely measure the speed of the rug in the house first.
 
Just played 12 holes before I got ran off due to weather at the local course with the fastest greens (by far). I'd guess they roll at a 12 or so, at least today. 12 is lightening fast compared to what we normally play. I'd guess those to be around 5-6. You need a sledgehammer to get to the hole from 40 feet on the low side on them.

Not so today. These ones were not severely undulating. They're just normal greens that are light years faster than most around here. Following the norm I was always above the stupid hole but in 12 holes I didn't have any 3 putts. That's my only win today.
I had a couple that I was 10ft above the hole that I saved with a 15 footer going back up the hill, the line is really easy to see when you already rolled it by once.

It was an ugly round but I can't blame the greens (other than the GW from the FW on 2 that I hit to about 2ft that released to 20ft by). I'm not used to greens that don't hold my moon balls but I'm also not used to greens that roll truly fast. Once I figured out the speed life was easier. I made at least 5-6 10+ ft putts up the hill after gently rolling it by.

I've gotta get my distances figured out with my irons. It's just stupid to be constantly long. Every hole seemed to be into the wind today, and I still hit everything long. Probably because I've finally learned to hit a knockdown type of shot, but I have a long way to go to be a decent golfer.

Golf is so stinking hard.
 
have never bothered to learn what stimp means much less care what they are running. I test it on the putting green, then the first couple holes to get a feel for it. When I cannot get a feel, I have a drill for length of stroke and how far it goes. Works well enough that this past Saturday we got to Skamania in plenty of time to practice...but the pro shop suggested if we went right now we would be ahead of a group of 3 and 2 (he said, "we told them no fivesomes but I have a sneaking suspicion once they are out of site of the proshop they will join up and we have no marshal today)...so we went out with no warmup. My partner and I had no 3-jacks on the day...which does not sound impressive until you realize he often misses a 6' by 12' as he is afraid of being short so pounds it well past. So that leaves most of the lagging to me. Knowing stimp doesn't help me...but knowing "if I take my putter to the outside heel and bring it back that far, it will roll x distance" gives me a look almost every time
 
Running 11 yesterday. The best they have rolled all year. Love it
 
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