The Breed formula can determine Stimpmeter readings on slopes.
Where A is the ascent and D is the descent, then:
2 (A X D) divided by A+D.
For example, roll 7 feet on the ascent and 14 feet on the descent :
2 (7 X 14) / 7 + 14
196/21
9.33 or a 9’4” stimp.
This works in metric too. I need to use it frequently because there are too few flat areas on my greens for level stimping, especially when the speeds go past 11 feet. .
A couple of pages back, SL_Solow made an excellent post with perceptive observations regarding the growth of golf over the past 90 years, and he’s quite correct that fast greens cost more to maintain than slow greens. In the past two years, we’ve added 50% labor costs to the maintenance of our greens with daily mowing and rolling to increase green speeds. We’re in a tight, stagnant growth market, in the suburbs of Paris, where there are a half dozen top clubs competing for members, and nothing draws them in better than fast greens. Whether you agree with them or not, it’s business.
For Mr. Wigget’s contention that “fast” greens are really “slow” greens, I beg to differ. What determines green speed is the amount of resistance or friction on the surface. True, the maximum speed of the ball is at the bottom of the stimpmeter, but the ball rolling on less resistance will decelerate more slowly than the ball on greater resistance. The ball on the surface with less friction will roll out further, yes, but it also maintains greater velocity than the other ball throughout the roll. After all, one has stopped after a certain distance while the other is still moving. I can get a notion if a green is rolling fast or not just by seeing the speed of the ball 3-4 feet after it came off the stimp.