Golf Course Greens
 

This is for those who may wish to give excuses about the terrible conditions of the greens on so many courses. La Nina, winter weather, dry conditions, whatever. This week, I played Silver Spring Shores up in Ocala. Same weather, same conditions, same high level of play, and the greens are in immaculate shape. See picture. Golf course managers in The Villages, please take note.

And oh, BTW, the cost for 18 holes was $39.

So true. Silver Springs Shores and Lake Diamond both have had 18 perfect greens all winterlong. The Villages needs to find out the identity of their greenskeepers and hire them. Greens fees are half or less than those of The Villages "championship" courses. They provide you with a cart at those prices, and both designs are far more interesting than the courses in The Villages, IMO.

As long as there are customers who will pay top price for poor quality goods, why would the seller change tack?
Until enough golfers vote with their feet, conditions will continue as they are, and have been for a very long time.
Every peak season for as long as I can remember, poor course conditions are TOTV 'top story.'
If you employ lawn care companies at the lowest bid to maintain the courses, again, why would anything change.
Can't be affecting house sales, or again, the situation would change.
In the meantime, suck it up, cut-and-paste same responses next year!

All true. Living on Palmer Laurel valley overlooking the greens and tees everyday they have been in excellent condition. Yes it was renovated last year. But the same weather as all the other courses around here. Whoever is taking care of the executive courses north of 466A needs to be replaced. I wonder with so many executive courses closing and having been locked out twice this year from Playing will I get a refund on some of my amenity fees? I just can’t believe that weather is the issue. There are fungicides for wet conditions. There are blowers for wet conditions. There are aerators for wet conditions and dry conditions. Please be sure to use them when required. Now it’s too late for many courses. So sad. 😭

And there you have it, a truer answer has never been posted.

On a semi-positive note.

I played Mallory Hill last night, at 4:19 (by myself). Played Carolina to Virginia (18 holes), in 1:57.

The greens on Caroline were OK. Running about 8.5-9.0
The greens on Virginia were very thin, but putting fairly well, at about the same speed.
The greens were significantly better than they've been for the last few months.

I had (8) 1 putts & 28 putts in total.

I don't really care what color the green is or whether I'm putting on grass, paint or dirt, as long as the greens run smooth and consistent.

Of course, the best way to get that result, is quality maintenance of the grass.

Putting
 

Do you give putting lessons??

Yeah, I'll give putting lessons, in exchange for "hitting greens in regulation" lessons. 28 Putts and a score of 76, isn't exactly stellar.

& trust me, my putting comes and goes and when it "goes" ... it's long gone!

Sympathy
 

"28 Putts and a score of 76, isn't exactly stellar."

My deepest sympathies.

That graph would suggest that it's been a while since it's gone. :-)

I guess I've been consistent through the years. This is the last 10 years (1091 rounds) since I read Dave Stockton's book, Unconscious Putting and learned to putt, by looking at the hole, not the ball.

Yips
 

Was putting with my eyes closed when I gave the game up 25 years ago over the putting and chipping yips. The claw grip worked miracles on the putting, but only recently did YouTube and a ridiculous amount of experimentation and practice start giving me hope with the chipping and pitching. Simply "knowing" a lot ain't enough. . .

Ahhh! Just noticed the second graph! Those *are* amazingly similar, though I have no basis for comparison. Maybe everybody has their own "consistency baseline"?

I *do* love to play with the numbers, though. Our launch monitor includes the "club data". . .

Courses north of 466A needs new personnel? Best exec courses in TV are near Nancy Lopez and are north of 466A

I read a story once. I just tried to Google it, but couldn't find it.

Bobby Locke is generally considered the great putter to ever live (personally, I think George Lowe was, but I never actually saw Locke putt). Locke "hooked" all his putts and was a known "experimenter".

At The Open Championship one year, Locke was putting with his eyes closed .... until he missed a ball on the putting green. Somewhat embarasing, I suppose.

Moonscape
 

Getting to the greens is OK on most courses, it’s the moonscape terrain for putting that makes the game bad. The greens are toast. The executive courses between 466 and 44 are basically unplayable.

Hooking putts
 

Just found and watched this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWF2mToHOi0 Mesmerizing. Looks like he was "hooking" both his putts *and* his chips. Have seen several big names on YouTube of late doing and talking about the same with both pitches and bunker shots. Fascinating subject.

The "new" ball flight rules do seem to help explain some of it, at least with the putter. Path and "face" both affect the starting direction of the ball flight, but with a mid iron about 85% of that (starting) direction is due to the face angle. As the face angle approaches the vertical, as with a putter, it gets closer to 100%, and there's not a whole lot of aerodynamics happening when the ball is traveling slowly on the ground, so the side-spin has little effect on direction.

Anecdotally, if I yank it inside on the back-swing on a long putt, a miracle seems to happen. An unintended side effect has been that the contact "feels" perfect (which otherwise *never* happens) and the ball tends to travel along the intended line. Haven't played with it lately, but after seeing that Locke video I shall look back into it, but had also noticed that going "wristy" seemed to add to the "feel" for the distance when doing that "arcing to the inside" on the back-swing. That has *certainly* never happened for me otherwise. Time for another look. . .

Googling "George Low putting videos" has sent me down some interesting rabbit holes. :-)

Had not heard about that Locke whiff. Wow. I feel no less embarrassment, however, for all the times I've toe-shanked (with my eyes *open*) it on practice putting strokes. :-(