Consistency is #1 to me, I can adjust to anything as long as it's not ridiculously fast or slow. Given consistency, I'd prefer them fast but not too fast. It's no fun putting on greens that are like ice on top of glass.
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Well thought out reply. Typically, when posed with green speed questions, most of us only take into account the putting aspect.Two way street for me. I prefer putting on quicker greens, but I find my approach/chip proximity is a lot tighter on slower greens. Likely because I can stop the ball much more easily. I probably score better overall on slower greens.
Agreed. It's ball position relative to pin position. But ultimately faster greens make this more difficult than slower greens. Slower greens no need for correct ball position.Well pin placement plays a pretty big role too. The slopes and speeds can be made nearly irrelevant or practically unfair to even pros based on where the pins are located, and that's the main thing that works against pros and amateurs. Even little munis make pins much tougher than normal for something as simple as a scramble usually. Putts within 8ft of the hole might be peachy, but hitting and holding that area, or putting into it from most other green locations might be a complete nightmare made significantly worse by speed. Two players can play the same lightning fast greens and have completely different opinions on how difficult they were based on where their putts came from. With really fast, challenging greens it's the position game that determines fates more than putting skill sometimes.
I play regularly on a course where greens are around 13 on the stimp and can assure you this causes slow play issues because the folks who are lousy golfers regularly 3 and 4 putt on these .... as opposed to say speeds of 9-10. And fast/slick greens also cause average players issues with holding the putting surfaces with approach shots = and this is another contributor to slower play.
My answer is “it depends.” The courses I play most frequently are on the benches of a pretty good sized mountain range. On some of them, if they let the greens get quick, you have no chance of two putting if you are above the hole. The last round I played, I was hole high and 30 feet from the pin. I made my putt and watched the ball keep rolling down the slope, coming to rest 80 feet from the hole. I four putted. I honestly do not remember the last time I four putted. On those types of greens, the superintendent needs to slow them down. On fairly level greens, I like them to be very fast.
many people might prefer fast greens but they fail to declare they aren't good enough to handle them -- their approach shots rarely hold and they three putt way too often...but as long as they're having fun ?