Fast Greens....

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Fish

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Is there becoming an obsession to have fast greens at our clubs?

Don't get me wrong, I do like and tend to do better with consistent faster greens but yesterday at my club they were the fastest greens I've ever played on and I've played some great courses but these were off the scale and quite simply, too fast!

Comfortably 12+ all last week but then its been rumoured they were double rolled for yesterday and had to be pushing 13 on the old stimpmeter :eek:

Now I've read how many people love a good long drive but most would give up some distance for accuracy and staying on the fairways, could the same be said about greens, would you be happy to have less speed and just good consistent true greens irrelevant of the stimp?

Our greens our consistent and true, but they were scary fast and putting back after a narrow miss was sometimes as bad or longer than the 1st putt leading to 3-putts, and if it caught the lip it propelled itself faster and attempted to leave the green :eek:

So, how fast is fast, how fast is acceptable and how fast is just too much for club golfers?
 
Nothing wrong with very fast greens for me as long as theyre consistent (i grew up at a course with lightening greens), whats wrong is when clubs change the pace of them for big comps as it appears to have been done for your club champs.

That said I think for the majority amateurs what you are describing above is too quick and probably limits the enjoyment some what

Actually been a different approach at ours this year, they left them a little slower this year, the extra bit of grass on them has made them far more consistent over the summer to date

Give me true and consistent greens everyday over artificially quick greens for the odd occasion
 
I'm a "Greenkeeper" by trade and to be honest with you green speed has always been a bit of a "bone of contention" some people like em fast and other not so fast but pushing 13 is a bit beyond silly for "Amature goofers" really they should be around the 10 mark but be consistent and true, I'll take a guess at your "keepers" have all but skinned the damn things which if your course is anything like most "Amature golf clubs" with see the greens burn out well before the end of the season !...:thup:
 
Ours are currently running at 10.5 or 11 (varies depending on the weather, they post the stimp on the noticeboard each morning).

This is plenty fast enough for even a competent club golfer imho.

I played a local (decent) muni in a society day last week. The greens were about 30% slower, though still ran OK, and putting was just so relaxing. In fact it made the day much more enjoyable for the range of standards which were there than it would have been at my own place.

I think that about 10 would be more than plenty for most. Fast greens = slow play and bad tempers !
 
Not a fan of hugely fast greens, better to be true and consistent across them all.

Btw. Do your courses generally publish stimp readings? On their website, or in the pro shop? How often?
 
I'm in favour off making the course at it's best for big comps such as the club champs.
Pegs far back greens speeded up and tricky pins long and heavy rough.
Obviously they'll be a spell of building up to this and easing off to more normal conditions but very fast greens all the time will only slow rounds down.
 
The faster the green, the flatter it needs to be otherwise 3 and 4 putts will become the norm.
Some greens I've played on in the past have been too quick for the slopes they have.
A pin position at the bottom of a slope, and when you get on that slope the ball will roll 10 feet past the pin unless it drops, is no fun and becomes a slog.
We are amateurs after all.
10 is plenty fast enough - and they need to be true otherwise you're wasting your time.
 
I think they are making that speed up or not testing correctly
 
Check out the European Tour website for the AAM Scottish Open and it tells you that they are @ 10'2 ... That's when wind does come in to play and on a links course, 11+ means trouble at 't mill.
 
Walton Heath had them running at 12.9-13 for a week in June last year! And 12-12.5 for a week or more either side of that too. Greens performed brilliantly, with no late season issues. Did preclude certain pin positions though!

I've played on even faster - in France (Arras) the weekend before what is now the Evian Open. Putted off the practice green from the middle, but they were absolutely true and I drained a 40 footer from the fringe on the 1st that gave me confidence!

Around 10.5 seems to be the top for club players on most courses, even in Club Champs. Any/much more and the nerves start to destroy confidence and warp the test!

And it all depends on the slopes of the greens too. I can remember the 1st year at Craigielaw when the greens were rockets (the first year of use normally is) and while pins were normally on flattish areas, the 'buried elephant' nature of many of the upturned saucer greens was 'interesting'!
 
Not a huge fan of mega fast greens. Give me something quick but true. Anywhere near 10.5-11 more than enough for most club golfers and as Face breaker alluded to, less chance of losing the greens for the rest of the season
 
Ours have been quite fast all year, the new greenkeeper has gotten them into the best condition I've seen them in the 8 years I've been at the club. They are quick and true, and can be a real challenge at times. We had a message from the new greenkeeper at the start of the season telling us they would be fantastic mid season, but he also noted that as our greens are quite small, it would be silly to make them too fast as it would ruin peoples enjoyment. Nearly everyone at the club has been praising them, raving about how good they are, until yesterday. We had the July medal, and when I came in there were a number of people moaning about them, especially our 16th. the pin position was front right on a slope running back off the front of the green, which runs down a 10ft hill back into a dip, with a bunker. I know of one putting for par from 3ft, running off the green into the bunker and taking an 8, and another taking a 14 on same hole, one of my own partners had to putt from the back of the green and wound up off the front in the bunker and picking up at that point. It was a very tough pin to play to, no where to land in front of the pin, everything past it was a down hill putt on glass. Whilst I like the speed of the greens, what our greenie said at the beginning of the year became quite obvious yesterday. Fast greens are good, but they need to be playable...

On a side note, our juniors played away yesterday in a club comp, and played on some of the worst greens we've seen in a long while. They were like a thick 20 year old lounge carpet........ taking three and four leaps in the air on every putt, and having to hit a 4 footer harder than a 20 footer at home, and still coming up short... it all boils down to what you are used to...needless to say, the home team won :-)
 
need_my_wedge said:
Ours have been quite fast all year, the new greenkeeper has gotten them into the best condition I've seen them in the 8 years I've been at the club. They are quick and true, and can be a real challenge at times. We had a message from the new greenkeeper at the start of the season telling us they would be fantastic mid season, but he also noted that as our greens are quite small, it would be silly to make them too fast as it would ruin peoples enjoyment. Nearly everyone at the club has been praising them, raving about how good they are, until yesterday. We had the July medal, and when I came in there were a number of people moaning about them, especially our 16th. the pin position was front right on a slope running back off the front of the green, which runs down a 10ft hill back into a dip, with a bunker. I know of one putting for par from 3ft, running off the green into the bunker and taking an 8, and another taking a 14 on same hole, one of my own partners had to putt from the back of the green and wound up off the front in the bunker and picking up at that point. It was a very tough pin to play to, no where to land in front of the pin, everything past it was a down hill putt on glass. Whilst I like the speed of the greens, what our greenie said at the beginning of the year became quite obvious yesterday. Fast greens are good, but they need to be playable...

On a side note, our juniors played away yesterday in a club comp, and played on some of the worst greens we've seen in a long while. They were like a thick 20 year old lounge carpet........ taking three and four leaps in the air on every putt, and having to hit a 4 footer harder than a 20 footer at home, and still coming up short... it all boils down to what you are used to...needless to say, the home team won :-)
Click to expand...

Im gonna guess at Beadlow Manor?
 
Love fast greens, faster the better but they have to be on a course that is built to have fast greens, not some rough gaff with greens sloping at 30°
 
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