Forums

Speed of the Greens!!!!

• mel1950 2,887 Posts

  Tue, Jan 24 2012 12:40 PM

  I've just played a couple of games on STA and could not figure out the speed of the greens. It was on ordinary Stroke play which I haven't played for ages. The Green speed said very fast, But every-thing kept coming up short, no matter how much I adjusted.

  I thought the green speed it stated must be wrong so adjusted to tourney speed greens and the ball shot past by 4-5 feet. so I adjusted back to very fast and they started coming up 2 ft short again.

  Question: Is there any difference between tourney very fast and ordinary ranked stroke play very fast Because I can't figure it out. I am at Master level so you would think I could figure it my-self. :~))LOL

  MEL1950

  ps. The formula I use is : Distance to the hole + 2 divided by 0.7  0.8  0.9  dending on speed of green, + 1ft per inch incline/decline + 6 to 18 inches depending on break. Have I got it wrong???

• MioKontic 4,644 Posts

  Wed, Jan 25 2012 5:52 AM

  Firstly, not quite sure why you would adjust to Tournament speed greens when you were coming up short on Very Fast; if anything you should adjust to Fast.

  I'm sure you know, there are 2 different Tournament speeds, one for Tour Masters and one for Legends.  But to confuse things more, Legends can often get TM Tournament speed greens in tournaments, particularly Ready Go's.

  As far as I know, Very Fast is simply Very Fast regardless of whether it's practice, ranked or a tournament mode.

  With regards to your calcs, always adjust for elevation before doing the division!!!  And I'm not sure why you are adding to distance for break.

   

  EDIT:  Just read that you are still Master, so my 2nd paragraph regarding Tournament speed greens is irrelevant to you at the moment, unless you play RG's.

• pb1711 1,183 Posts

  Wed, Jan 25 2012 6:30 AM

  I actually have to agree, just played a RG on St A's and the greens felt like fast greens even though they were tourny. At first I thought I was just going mad but then I was hitting them the same speed as the distance stated, ie. 8ft, hitting it 8ft as oppose to taking some off for tourny green speeds.

  Maybe WGT need to get their greens keeper to mow the lawn there. :-)

• RSmall42 28 Posts

  Wed, Jan 25 2012 6:40 AM

  I was playing Oakmont a few times last night and there were a few instances where putts came up about 2 feet short for me also. Not every green - but it happened more than a couple times.

  These putts were nothing special - no long range, or multi-undulations or such. Pretty much standard 10-12 feet or so. I recall one 10ft in particular where I worried I might have given it too much - it stopped at 7.8 feet!

   

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Wed, Jan 25 2012 6:56 AM

  mel1950:

  ps. The formula I use is : Distance to the hole + 2 divided by 0.7  0.8  0.9  dending on speed of green, + 1ft per inch incline/decline + 6 to 18 inches depending on break. Have I got it wrong???

  I don't use formulas to putt (avatar moves) so I am going to assume your .7  .8  .9  corrections are for VF, TM Tournament and Legend Tournament greens. If that's the case, the difference between Master VF greens (your default setting for single play) and TM Tournament speeds is bigger than what you're using. The difference between TM and Legend speeds is not as big as it is between Master and TM.

  Masters playing on Legend speed greens generally say 1/3 less power gets them close. TMs playing on that same speed don't see nearly that much difference. It sounds like when you "adjusted for Tournament speed" you made the adjustment you would normally make if playing on Legend speed. That would explain why it went so far past.

  If you play a lot of AS outside your tier, like with TMs and Legends, you're doing more putting on the faster speeds than your own and have probably gotten used to them. Now you go back to your default speed and it seems like you have to smack the crap out of the ball to get it close. I see that myself when I play on VF greens.

  I would rethink the corrections you use in your formula, particularly the difference between Master and TM speeds. Genorb  is really good with the numbers, it might behoove you to look him up.  GL

  On figuring out what speed you're on......

  With avatar moves I find it easy to move to different speeds but if you don't use them this might help. If the first putt comes up short and you're not sure if the speed is what you think it is, add 2 feet to the next putt. 2 feet won't send the ball rocketing past the hole if you're wrong. If that one comes up short add another 2 feet to the next one or use it to confirm the speed and adjust the rest of the round accordingly. With avatar moves the difference between TM and Legend speeds is a move cancel. With VF greens it's using the next higher scale.

• mel1950 2,887 Posts

  Wed, Jan 25 2012 7:14 AM

  Thanks for your help guys,

  Jim, I used to use the avatar movements but moved to using a formula. It was a good experiment but I think I might change back to the movements. Its a case of try it and see if you like it but Numbers are probably confusing me a bit and the coming up short was most probably my own miscalculations.

  At 61 you tend to loose the edge with formula's. LOL:~))

  Back to basics I think.

  Cheers all and enjoy your Golfing.

  MEL

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Wed, Jan 25 2012 7:21 AM

  mel1950:

  At 61 you tend to loose the edge with formula's. LOL:~))

  LMAO. Oh no you don't-61's too young to be playing that card. At 60 myself it keeps the mind sharp!  

  One of the nice things about using avatar moves is that you eventually develop a serious feel for the distances on your putter and the calculations become simple addition and subtraction, done at a glance. With much smaller, slower back swings it's very easy to ding more, too. This is why I condone sticking with a putter and learning it, whichever one it is and whatever method you use. The longer you do it, the easier it gets.