Stopping the balls on hard greens

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jhills89

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After some tips!

in the winter my approach is near perfect. My wedges go into orbit and come down and just sit!

Now we are in the summer months and my greens are hard and real fast. if you hit the green your not staying on It and 90% of the holes there is trouble just before the greens so you cant hit it short and let it roll!

Anyone else have this at there club and have any tips...
 
jhills89 said:
After some tips!

in the winter my approach is near perfect. My wedges go into orbit and come down and just sit!

Now we are in the summer months and my greens are hard and real fast. if you hit the green your not staying on It and 90% of the holes there is trouble just before the greens so you cant hit it short and let it roll!

Anyone else have this at there club and have any tips...
Click to expand...

Yeah completely understand but in winter the greens are far softer and roll a lot less.
I would recommend 2 things.
1) use a softer ball - this will help the ball stick to the green. Also a newer ball always helps.
2) Make sure you're hitting from the fairway. This will always help the ball spin/stick as there is less grass between the ball and club face. If hitting from the rough I'd aim for the biggest part of the green and allow for roll.

hope it helps :)
 
In my opinion, greens shouldn't be so hard that a well struck iron shot won't hold on.

However, sounds like your's are, so as others have said, using a new, softer ball and trying to hit approach shots from the fairway (who doesn't though?!) seems like the only thing you can do.
 
Its not just hard greens but our fairways need significant quantities of rain to soften them up as well. Taking a divot is a bit of a 50/50 lottery on whether you'll catch it sweet or whether you'll 'bounce' into it.
 
There are holes at my course that it's almost impossible to hold if you pitch it anywhere near the green. Downhill approach, greens sloping away from you and usually down wind. The only solution for those is to play a couple of clubs less and let it roll in from 20-30 yards short. Means I'm sometimes hitting pitching wedge from 170 but it's the only thing that works.

Maybe try a number of shots to find the best area to pitch the ball to stand a chance of holding the green.
 
garyinderry said:
The scots and irish scrach their heads at this.

It's a differnt game in england.
Click to expand...

Presumably that's the links golfers in Ireland and Scotland, rather than those that play elsewhere?

Links golf allows a ball to be run into a green typically. Parkland typically does not due to placement of bunkers etc. In my opinion, as I noted above, where the front of the green is well protected, the green keepers should make sure that the green is soft enough that a well struck iron shot from the fairway will hold on.
 
jhills89 said:
I'm using the titliest Velocity Now. Sometimes the Trusoft if its just practise
Click to expand...

The Velocity is quite a hard ball so won't get much spin, the Trusoft is much much softer and will give you much more control. The Trusoft has been getting some great reviews and a very well priced ball, why do you only use it for practice and use the Velocity for other times?
 
Canary_Yellow said:
Presumably that's the links golfers in Ireland and Scotland, rather than those that play elsewhere?

Links golf allows a ball to be run into a green typically. Parkland typically does not due to placement of bunkers etc. In my opinion, as I noted above, where the front of the green is well protected, the green keepers should make sure that the green is soft enough that a well struck iron shot from the fairway will hold on.
Click to expand...

The ball will sit down quite sharply on links that it has rained all night on. Thats every two days on average in northern ireland. Im sure scotland is similar.

In england its crazy how dry the parkland courses get.
 
OP - out of interest, if you hit a full wedge would it stop, or, a good strike with a mid-iron into the wind?

If not I imagine there are issues with the greens themselves; have they been tined, scarified, sanded etc to remove thatch and let the greens breathe.

I played a "corporate" course last year, where they don't tend to do those things as they can't afford not to get green fees in - the greens were actually bouncy as a result (not just hard).
 
Coffey said:
The Velocity is quite a hard ball so won't get much spin, the Trusoft is much much softer and will give you much more control. The Trusoft has been getting some great reviews and a very well priced ball, why do you only use it for practice and use the Velocity for other times?
Click to expand...

Just what the course pro adviced me to use. I got on well with the tru soft balls. Have 3 dozen velocity left so may be a case of switching over to the tru soft balls again. They are cheaper as well
 
JamesR said:
OP - out of interest, if you hit a full wedge would it stop, or, a good strike with a mid-iron into the wind?

If not I imagine there are issues with the greens themselves; have they been tined, scarified, sanded etc to remove thatch and let the greens breathe.

I played a "corporate" course last year, where they don't tend to do those things as they can't afford not to get green fees in - the greens were actually bouncy as a result (not just hard).
Click to expand...

The greens here are immaculate. probably the best I have played in Essex, however they are just so quick and the bounce when the ball hits them is unreal. and if you even try and roll the ball on when you get a chance they are tricky greens and the ball will just roll off the green with the slope
 
garyinderry said:
The ball will sit down quite sharply on links that it has rained all night on. Thats every two days on average in northern ireland. Im sure scotland is similar.

In england its crazy how dry the parkland courses get.
Click to expand...

Ah I see! Yes, it's been very dry in the South East of England (possibly other parts to but I can't comment on those as I'm not there!) for the last few weeks. It certainly makes things tougher for green keepers.
 
They may be immaculate on the surface but I'm referring to just below the surface.
 
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