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Notice Of US open Green Speed

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Fri, Jun 21 2013 11:55 AM (9 replies)

petewrex

10 Posts

Sun, Jun 9 2013 12:17 PM

WGT,

Last year, the first round of the virtual US Open had tournament speed the first round, then slow speed the second round. One point, and one question:

Point: In my opinion, changing the green speed in the middle of a tournament is not very realistic. In professional golf tournaments, such as the US Open, the green speed is fairly consistent throughout (barring weather conditions like rain or intense sun).

Question: If the green speed is going to change this year, then when will that information be announced, and what speeds will there be in each round? It would only be fair to tell the competitors what conditions that they will be playing in.

Thank you

Pete

2,840 Posts

Sun, Jun 9 2013 12:59 PM

petewrex:

WGT,

Last year, the first round of the virtual US Open had tournament speed the first round, then slow speed the second round. One point, and one question:

Point: In my opinion, changing the green speed in the middle of a tournament is not very realistic. In professional golf tournaments, such as the US Open, the green speed is fairly consistent throughout (barring weather conditions like rain or intense sun).

Question: If the green speed is going to change this year, then when will that information be announced, and what speeds will there be in each round? It would only be fair to tell the competitors what conditions that they will be playing in.

Thank you

Pete

Green speeds change quite a bit during the course of a day on any green. The morning times are always going to be a little slower and run more true to the line. As the day heats up the greens become faster. Also as more players walk across the greens you start to get more bumps and marks on the green. This is one of the reasons why there is such a controversy over metal spikes. Playing conditions can also change. Calm in the morning 20 mph winds in the afternoon. I don't think changing green speeds from one round to the next is a big deal. It would be unfair if each hole had a different speed.

I don't foresee any announcements before hand on the green speeds.

- WGTdbloshoe

suncity28

1,266 Posts

Sun, Jun 9 2013 1:47 PM

petewrex:
Point: In my opinion, changing the green speed in the middle of a tournament is not very realistic

Well as wgt has stated above conditions of greens change morning and tend to get faster as the day warms up

Ponit 2: lets say you play a 2 round tournament in real life and you happen to tee of at the same time on both days. (or close to the same time)

A: the green speed is never the same as the day before (many factors earlyier or later cutting of the green, May have had rain or coldier conditions over night, May have had windy conditions during the afternoon and dryied the greens out.

petewrex:
Question: If the green speed is going to change this year, then when will that information be announced, and what speeds will there be in each round? It would only be fair to tell the competitors what conditions that they will be playing in.

In most tournaments you never know what the conditions are going to be like until you get out on course.

But in regards to this game, Once you sign up for the grand finial (if you have made the cut) info is there in front of you wind & green speedsfor that round & also when round 2 is ready to play info is easy to check. Also you can ask your friends what the conditions are like. There are many ways to find this information out before hitting the tee of button.

Also it is a good thing not to know exactly what green speeds there is going to be until the tournament starts.

petewrex

10 Posts

Sun, Jun 9 2013 2:30 PM

Thank you WGT dbloshoe.

While I can't say any of the points you made are inaccurate, which in my opinion they aren't, I would like to focus on WGT's definition of "quite a bit". I have no problem with playing conditions changing throughout any multi-round tournament. What I do have a problem with is green speed changing from a 14 on the stimpmeter (like championship greens) to a 6 on the stimpmeter (like very slow greens). Barring10,000 rounds of golf being played on a course during a torrential downpour, the green speed will not change as dramatically as it did during last year's virtual Open.

You need not reply, and thanks again.

Pete

petewrex

10 Posts

Sun, Jun 9 2013 2:42 PM

Suncity,

See my reply to WGT above (when it gets posted). I am a golfer, and know how conditions can change on a course. I also already knew about the green speed information that will get posted pre-round, but thank you for your gesture.

Also, all professional golfers have a pretty tight range of green speeds that they can anticipate on seeing from one venue to the next. That is all I am looking for, a window that I can anticipate. For instance, every professional knows that Augusta National and Oakmont will have lightning fast greens every time they play there, and they also know that the links courses for the British Open will tend to have a bit slower greens....and that speed is fairly stable throughout the tournament.

And finally, you may not want to know and practice on a putting green before a tournament, but seeing as I haven't putted on greens slower than tourney more than a dozen times in the last year, it is substantially more difficult for me to putt on slower greens than fast ones.

Pete