Stimpmeter Readings
Professional golf is played on greens reading
around 10’. Speeds of 10 feet on the Stimpmeter are for tournament play
and are not generally suitable, nor sustainable, for normal club golf.
In summer conditions green speeds can be categorised as:
Fast – 8’6” or greater
Medium – Fast 7’0” – 8’5”
Medium – Slow 6’6” – 6’11”
Slow – 6’5″ or less
Links course are generally approaching the highest category with the
majority of other courses being in the middle categories. The quest for
ever faster greens can result in overstressing the turf resulting in
weak growth and domination of annual meadow grass.
The Stimpmeter is a 36-inch long, aluminum tool designed to make a
standard measurement of green speed. At one end is a ball release notch
that is designed so that a golf ball will always be released and start
to roll when the Stimpmeter is raised to an angle of approximately 20
degrees to horizontal.
A Stimpmeter reading is a distance measurement in feet and inches.
Green speed is determined by selecting a flat area of green, rolling a
ball in one direction then in the opposite direction and averaging the
two measurements.
There is no set distance on the Stimp to declare a green speed, 8.6 or greater is deemed fast so therefore 9.2 is also fast.
WGT declare only fast, not, as an example , this green is fast with a stimp of 8.9 so there will always be a variation within any given speed.