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Modern green speeds


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I found this article to be very interesting.  Basically, greens are much faster now than 40 or 50 years ago.  One number that really stands out is 9.8, the speed of Oakmont's greens in 1976.  I like greens a little fast, but I have no feel for the stimp reading of the greens I normally play.  What seems fast to me may be very slow by modern standards.

http://read.nxtbook.com/global_golf_post/global_golf_post/20210816/steinbreder_greenspeeds.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=READ NOW&utm_campaign=dm-081621

14 of the following:

Ping G430 Max 10.5 degree

Callaway 2023 Big Bertha 3 wood set to 17 degrees

Cobra F9 Speedback 7/8 wood set at 23.5 degrees

Callaway Epic Max 11 wood

Ping Eye 2 BeCu 2-SW

Mizuno 923 JPX HM HL 6-GW

Hogan sand wedge 56 degree bent to 53

Maltby M Series+ 54 degree

Ping Glide 3.0 Eye2 58 degree

Ping Glide 3.0 60 degree

Evnroll ER2

Ping Sigma 2 Anser

Cheap Top Flite mallet putter from Dick's, currently holding down first place in the bag

TaylorMade Mini Spider

Bridgestone XS

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My home course posts a sheet on the front counter that includes details for the day (pin positions, weather, etc.) that includes green speed, but it's about the only place I play where that number is public. Their target is 11, and I don't think I've ever seen it outside of the range 10.5 to 11.4. They're also the fastest of the courses I frequent (public course player here). At a muni where I used to be in a league, the greens are so sloped that the target was 4-5. (I got to play a tournament with the head greenskeeper once, and I learned a lot during that round, including that target.) Because of the slopes, most people think those greens are extremely fast, and have no idea that the stimp number is actually that slow. (It's also why, in another time on a different site, my screen name was "My Greens Stimp at 2".) I worked for a brief time after retirement at a private club, and the greens committee was always pushing the super for faster greens, and he always pushed back that their slopes couldn't handle it. (I don't think he ever measured a number, he just rolled balls and eyeballed it.) Near the end of the season they have a "Greenskeeper's Revenge" tournament, where in addition to putting obstacles around and leaving unmown strips in the center of a few greens, he would cut the different greens to different speeds. On the most sloped greens he'd make them the fastest. Those greens saw more five putts than two putts. Everyone knew it was for fun and took it in stride, but he made it a point to tell the committee that those speeds were what they wanted all of the time. That still didn't convince everyone.

Moose, my cat, is Siamese

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My local senior group is playing a course next week that has the slowest greens I have ever played but they have a huge amount of slope. If they cut them at the speeds of most greens around here every down hill putt would roll off the green. 

I played the Old Course a number of years ago. The night before I played I got to talking with a guy who had played it earlier and couldn’t stop complaining about the slow greens. He acted like it had ruined his experience. When I played the next day, I thought the speed perfectly matched the contours of the greens. Different strokes…

14 of the following:

Ping G430 Max 10.5 degree

Callaway 2023 Big Bertha 3 wood set to 17 degrees

Cobra F9 Speedback 7/8 wood set at 23.5 degrees

Callaway Epic Max 11 wood

Ping Eye 2 BeCu 2-SW

Mizuno 923 JPX HM HL 6-GW

Hogan sand wedge 56 degree bent to 53

Maltby M Series+ 54 degree

Ping Glide 3.0 Eye2 58 degree

Ping Glide 3.0 60 degree

Evnroll ER2

Ping Sigma 2 Anser

Cheap Top Flite mallet putter from Dick's, currently holding down first place in the bag

TaylorMade Mini Spider

Bridgestone XS

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Share on other sites

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