I was going to call this post ' Screw you, Master!' just so you get an understanding of where this may lead. Currently in multi-player mode the green speed is dictated by the highest tiered golfer.. i.e. Pro's fast, Masters - Very fast etc.
However, this system is unfair, especially for non masters who have to keep re-adjusting shots depending on their fellow golfers tier. Oh the masters have it so easy, same speed every time, yet they are a fickle bunch. The game takes too long to load .. they leave. They make a bogey at the first hole ... they leave. They find a bunker at the second hole ... they leave.
The upshot of this is that the rest of us, all pro's for example, end up playing with greens designated for masters, while the masters' EGO (for want of a better word) has told them to quit and run away to save face. God forbid they have a worse round than a pro or even worse an amateur on THEIR green conditions.
What is even funnier, you will like this.. or may be you wont, is that I have said to masters after I have made a misjudgement with a putt, that 'it is taking me time to re-adjust to the difference in green speed'. Get this, one cheeky blighter said ' You should try the slow greens they are horrendous'. As you can imagine I was gob smacked, well actually I literally wet myself with laughter, a Master ... someone who has 'Mastered' a particular skill or talent saying that. Yeah, right ... well mastered, yet foxed by a slow green... so funny.
Before I go on, I will add that this is a generalisation. I know many masters are not like that, so no need to jump to any defence, after all I didn't go with my original title.There are a number of pro's who do just that too ( but really they are shadow masters, they want to be masters but they just have not got it .. yet ).
The upshot though is that the master was not wrong, changes in green conditions can have an impact on ones game. Its not the masters fault that he struggles on slow greens when he is used to very fast ones, it's just that he has forgotten what they are like, as unless he enters a tournament he may never have to experience a slow green again.
There is an argument for fixing the green speed to whoever started the game it is. So if an amateur starts it is at his pace, i.e. slow.
However, you may be surprised to hear, I am not in favour of that. I would like it more random. Much more random. After all a course will change from day to day as the weather changes. Let the speed change between rounds so it can be fast or slow or very fast. Oh, what heck! Lets mix it up even more, so that fast one time is slightly faster or slower than a fast the next. Lets mix it up,make it more real.
Then when someone who has reached the tier of master really has achieved something ... and they can truly call themselves as such and hold their head up high and wear their medals and trophies with pride.
I know what some of you are thinking, well surely that will just mean that those quitting masters will quit even more in search of their favoured green speed. Perhaps it will. But you can factor that into the tiers, you don't just rely on an average, you have to play a percentage of rounds at different speed too. It wont stop the ego-centric golfer quitting but it will make it more fun for those that remain as we are now used to differing conditions, we may not have mastered them as yet, but give it time. At least it stops us from being complacent, which must be a good thing.
It's time for change... you know you want it : )