[Dan Chapman]

Pinehurst #2

[Ronald Montesano]

WTF, can we stop using acronyms and abbreviations?  Not everyone knows what TOC, GOAT, SOUP and any of the others reference.  OK, thanks for letting me vent (by the way, OK is an abbreviation for 'okay.')

My question is, best slopes, best condition, best potential?  Any Travis course has diabolical greens that would best be putted at a lower stimp speed.  Lookout Point in Ontario has some deadly moss.  I am on board for St. Andrews and will also mention that Jim Engh course in Michigan, what's it called, oh, right, Tullymore.  I loved those greens.  Also like Arcadia Bluffs, too.  Fun ones in Petoskey were the Bay Harbor greens from Arthur Hills.

When I did the Bandon tour, I had a blast on all three courses and look forward to the fourth.  Never having played a CB MacDonald course, I'll take faux. 

Finally, Fox Chapel in Pittsburgh.  That's it.

[Jeff Tang]

For the putting surfaces themselves Arcadia Bluffs has some of the consistently best greens I've putted on, very true, smooth, and fast.  Great slopes on those greens too make the approach shots and chips lots of fun out there.  Every time I've been there they have been excellent. 

Wild Horse may have been some of the fastest I've played on.  Rich Harvest Links West of Chicago also were really good, lots of run out on those putts.

[Ed Oden]

I would second NGLA (for the acronymically challenged, that stands for "National Golf Links of America").  Here are a few others that have not been mentioned:

Yeamans Hall - Certain times of the year they can be iffy.  But when they are right, they are the best bermuda surfaces I have seen.  And the contours are wild.  You could write a book on the first green alone.

Plainfield - Absolutely terrific.  I've never seen them less than perfect.

Grandfather - Like glass.  Subtle contours and mountain influences make reading greens a deceptively difficult proposition.

Ed

[Kevin Pallier]

Kingston Heath

Royal Dornoch

Nairn

[Tom_Doak]

I don't have a vote for myself, but I will repeat what Walter Woods told me 26 years ago at St. Andrews ... the finest greens he had ever seen were Merion's, prior to the US Open in 1981.  He was in awe of how firm and true they were, and how natural, a mottled mix of six different bentgrasses.  He told me anybody could maintain a monostand of one of those new bentgrasses and have them be pure ... until they died ... but it was a fine art to produce true greens on a healthy mixture of plants.

And the contours at Merion aren't bad, either.   

With that introduction, it's kind of sad to go back and see them today after they've been killed twice and replanted with some monostand of bent.

[tlavin]

Classic:  Shoreacres/LACC North
Modern: Lost Dunes

[Jay Flemma]

Oakmont is still in the lead by far, but nice to see merion and OH getting nods as well as NGLA and TOC.

[Andrew Mitchell]

Conditioning - Nairn
Fun - North Berwick

[Greg Murphy]

Peter,

My guess is incremental lower mowing heights over time led to flatter greens, not that flatter greens led to lower mowing heights.

I'd also guess that faced with the original question in this post, more than 9 of 10 golfers would immediately try to recall the best rolling greens (likely the fastest) they've played rather than the most fun or interesting based on contour. We are a bunch easily addicted to speed, and like other addictions, suffer for it in the long run. Speed kills fun ultimately, but try telling that to the truly addicted.

[Doug Ralston]

St Annes in North Vernon, IN.

Seriously, this course has a very mediocre layout, but the greens are really something to behold. On purpose; I think they did them as homage to Ross, and if you have not played Pinehurst #2, you likely haven't played many like this. Fortunately, they stimp only 6-7, I would guess. That makes them payable and a blast. Stimp 9-10 would make them not playable at all.

I am not recommending the course, but if you were near and needed a laugh, look at this.

Doug

[gookin]

It is nice to see the greens at Fox Chapel get a mention. Thank you Ron. Our greens are really improving thanks to a dramatic change in our maintenance practices provided by Jason Hurwitz. Combining subsurface drainage, drill & fill, normal core aerification, expanded approaches and twice a month top dressing has had dramatic impacts. All I can say is it is really fun to putt our greens. Credit goes to Seth and Jason.

[Ronald Montesano]

I had the great fortune to play Fox Chapel about four years ago and the birdie putt I had on the reverse Redan hole (6, I believe) was a terror.  It was a swinger from right side to center, with a green sloping hopelessly away from me.  I recall keeping it on the green and being somewhat happy with my three-putt.  I remember the Biarritz green as excellent, especially since I was the only one in the foursome to know and believe in a low runner that skipped from front to back...from 200 yards out!  Lots of fun to putt Fox Chapel (I should know, as I did it again and again and again!)

[Steve Kline]

While I am a HUGE fan of Pinehurst #2 they are not THE best greens anywhere. Comapred to other great sets of greens (TOC, PV, Oakmont) there's too much similarity for my tastes. In a sense everything is a version of an upside down saucer and many of the greens have relatively tame internal contours. Of course compared to most courses the greens are great.

[Lloyd_Cole]

Of the few I have I have played -
Conditioning - Nairn, Kingston Heath
Contouring - TOC, Royal Melbourne West

[Jay Flemma]

Hey Lloyd!  Nice to see another music indy guy in the house.  Nice pickup on Royal Melbourne as well.

[Mark Chaplin]

I maybe biased but Royal Cinque Ports has a pretty special set of greens.

Of those played;

TOC
RM West
PV
Black Sheep - I agree for modern greens they are very interesting
Chicago GC
North Berwick

[Julian Wise]

Old Course
Muirfield (Ohio)

[Jay Flemma]

Hey Julian, can you post soem pix of the Muirfield Greens?

[TEPaul]

Jay:

Me and Mark Peterson (Exec. Director of GAP and Pa Golf Assoc.) had a meeting at Oakmont a couple of weeks ago with the historian, super John Zimmer, the GM and serial tree murderer, Mark Studer. MarkP and I got out to Oakmont about 6:30 am and just fooled around on some of the greens for awhile. That grass (poa) was about as cool looking and putting a surface as I've ever seen anywhere. Particularly fooling around on #12 putting from front to the back pin was more fun than a truckload of monkeys.

In my opinion, #12 just may be one of the real premier par 5s in the world. About half the challenge begins when you get to the green.

[Jay Carstens]

Ben told me last summer that the greens at Sand Hills were the best he'd putted on in his life.

[Patrick Boyd]

Lookout Mountain. Never in my life have I been so slaughtered with subtlety....and the conditioning bordered on the ridiculous side of good.   Being on the wrong level of the double plateau was an ominous experience and had several innocuous looking putts that blew me away.

[Pete_Pittock]

I'd have to agree with Oakmont. Another honorable mention course in the sandbelt is Victoria.

[Joe Hancock]

Ben told me last summer that the greens at Sand Hills were the best he'd putted on in his life.

God told me the greens in Heaven are flawless......

Joe

[Jay Flemma]

Nice one Joe

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