Frustrated by our Greens

Imurg

Imurg

The Grinder Of Pars (Semi Crocked)
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Mar 15, 2008
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Aylesbury Bucks
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Played the Midweek Medal today - not a disaster of Titanic proportions but maybe The Lusitania instead.
To be fair I didn't play well but I wasn't helped by our greens. They're just so tricky to judge.
One green will have, to most eyes, a 7-10 inch break on a 15 foot putt. Does it break? Does it hell. Another has no break, a flat 15 footer. At 12 inches from the hole it's in - misses by a foot.


A similar one to that last one happened on 18 today. A 20 footer, no visible break.
Aimed at the hole and it was tracking all the way to 3 feet then swerved and missed by 3 feet. CVG came and had a look and couldn't see any break either. Can you slice putts?

Just so frustrating....
 
Lucky you Ian, ours are just slow, full stop. They were tined a month ago and are starting to come round but bloody hell do you have to give them a thump. I think they are letting the grass grow a little longer than usual because of the tining and should be back good shortly....just in time for temp greens and lots of ice. :)
Be thankful yours are running! haha.
 
Should have gone to Specsavers. Actually Imurg with those eyes you probably did and Boots and D&A and got a multi prescription. To be fair though I've had putts on my course where I've read the break and it has got halfway to the hole and meandered away and I can't see a thing. I played with Hawkeye on Sunday and we replayed a short 4 footer he had on the 12th for birdie which he missed. He tried again first and it dived across the hole as it had done. I played it outside the hole and it stayed there. Tried it with pace and it managed to break. The point being that looking from behind the ball you'd swear there is no slope at all and its inside right all day long. Makes you appreciate just how good these pros are
 
brendy said:
Lucky you Ian, ours are just slow, full stop. They were tined a month ago and are starting to come round but bloody hell do you have to give them a thump. I think they are letting the grass grow a little longer than usual because of the tining and should be back good shortly....just in time for temp greens and lots of ice. :)
Be thankful yours are running! haha.
Click to expand...

Sums up the greens at my place perfectly as well.
 
Imurg said:
. Another has no break, a flat 15 footer. At 12 inches from the hole it's in - misses by a foot.
Click to expand...

Did it stop then?


Lucky for me ours are ok and will probably be good most of the winter. It generally is hard enough during the winter months without having to worry about inconsistant greens. Hope the problem is only short lived.
 
Well the greens at Royal Musselburgh used to be the best around with beautiful tight knit greens with a carpet like surface and all you done was stroke the ball.

This year’s been a disaster, still tight knit, but they have been coring them. When I mean core I’m talking about removing turf about 10mm in diameter going down about 40/50 mm. It was done this time last year, then before spring and it’s being done again soon. The main problem is, not enough dressing is put back onto the greens and we end up with cored holes that take ages to heal over, for want of a better word.

So, even mid summer, when the greens are cut daily, in the evening you could see the different growth rate around each core. You can put a tee down the hole and that was the end of summer. This resulted in a poor roll of the ball unless you played early morning. The grass is still beautiful but the greens are really spongy under foot and if they keep taking material out without replacing it then it can only get worse. If you play a medal late in the day you can easily see the footprints on the greens as the weight of the golfer is slowly displacing the cores. I’m no expert but this obsession with coring, now they have a machine to do it, is going to be the end of Royal Musselburgh if this continues. I can remember my old club when the cored the greens after a few days they put down a sand based type dressing that smothered the greens. This was worked into the cores and after a short while the greens were superb.

It’s that bad, it really is, and they are “head down fire away” continuing with this.
 
A problem this time of year is that greens tend to be a little longer and fluffier, this makes it difficult to feel the weight for the shot. The ball will take the break line more as it slows down and on a 20ft putt this will be the problem towards the end of it's roll.

Take a look at the line from behind the ball then walk to the hole on the low side of the line, looking at the way the green breaks. Stand behind the line and look at the way it breaks again, walk back to the ball and pick out your line of putt. If its a long putt then take into acount the amount of break near the hole and be prepared to putt the ball so it will roll past the hole by around 14 inches, this will negate most of the break near the hole and not leave you with too much of a return if it misses.
 
bobmac has a vid of three similar putts doing three different things. sometimes its just luck. would try to find it but using an iphone and typing this is hard enough ;)
 
SocketRocket said:
A problem this time of year is that greens tend to be a little longer and fluffier, this makes it difficult to feel the weight for the shot. The ball will take the break line more as it slows down and on a 20ft putt this will be the problem towards the end of it's roll.

Take a look at the line from behind the ball then walk to the hole on the low side of the line, looking at the way the green breaks. Stand behind the line and look at the way it breaks again, walk back to the ball and pick out your line of putt. If its a long putt then take into acount the amount of break near the hole and be prepared to putt the ball so it will roll past the hole by around 14 inches, this will negate most of the break near the hole and not leave you with too much of a return if it misses.
Click to expand...

Mmm...I had 30 putts in my round of 74 last sunday....I take it you dont miss many.
 
SocketRocket must love a cut & paste from internet instruction sites!!

I've gone past fustration with our greens, they are better now than they were in the best of the summer. So narked off with that happening and progressively getting worse year on year that I've binned the membership there and taken up the offer at a different club.
 
Robobum said:
SocketRocket must love a cut & paste from internet instruction sites!!
Click to expand...

You may be misjudging SocketRocket. Here is his response to another thread in which his ability to give advice was challenged:

"I am someone who has spent many years studying golf. I am a Chartered Engineer who has studied the kinematics of movement, ballistics of golf ball flight and I am now 60+ and still playing near scratch.

I give advice when I think I can help and I have helped many people. I did not take up golf as a career but that does not mean I dont have a sound understanding of the subject. The best thing is to read what I suggest, I tend to back it up with evidence where I can. If it's not for you then ignore me, thats your perogative.

I have to say, I have been posting here for a short time and the attitudes of some of the members are quite hostile to someone new. My shoulders a fairly broad though, I am happy to have a discussion and learn from others where I can. I have to say that Bob on this site is someone who contributes a lot to others and will debate a subject correctly. He is a credit. "
 
I'm not misjudging or challenging. However the advice can be found (verbatum) in every golf magazine in rotation and many internet instruction sites.

And, btw, it was a light hearted comment.

Hmm perhaps this site has changed....a lot.
 
Robobum said:
I'm not misjudging or challenging. However the advice can be found (verbatum) in every golf magazine in rotation and many internet instruction sites.

And, btw, it was a light hearted comment.

Hmm perhaps this site has changed....a lot.
Click to expand...

Sorry - I may have misjudged you.
 
I think this started as green condition..not how to putt better. Thats where my sarcasm comes in. The big problem on my greens....you can line them up as good as you like but as soon as the ball starts to bounce, several times, all that goes out the window.
 
Imurg said:
Played the Midweek Medal today - not a disaster of Titanic proportions but maybe The Lusitania instead.
To be fair I didn't play well but I wasn't helped by our greens. They're just so tricky to judge.
One green will have, to most eyes, a 7-10 inch break on a 15 foot putt. Does it break? Does it hell. Another has no break, a flat 15 footer. At 12 inches from the hole it's in - misses by a foot.


A similar one to that last one happened on 18 today. A 20 footer, no visible break.
Aimed at the hole and it was tracking all the way to 3 feet then swerved and missed by 3 feet. CVG came and had a look and couldn't see any break either. Can you slice putts?

Just so frustrating....
Click to expand...

Great
 
Robobum said:
I've gone past fustration with our greens, they are better now than they were in the best of the summer.
Click to expand...


This sums up our greens this year.

Our club was known to have some of the best greens in this area.... Not sure whats happend the past couple of years, but they have been pretty poor.
 
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