Best greens(smoothest & fastest) you have ever played

[Tim Leahy]

I am watching Euro Tour from Abu Dhabi and the greens look immaculate. What are the best conditioned greens for smoothness and speed that you have ever played? How about a public and a private course.
For me on a public course it was a course north of Sacto in Marysville, CA called Plumas Lake. For years they were known for great greens until the course was flooded and they never came back.
For private LACC North in the 80's were outstanding. I played a college match there and had 2 four putts.
Another private with great greens was Del Rio CC in Modesto south of Sacto. Very flat but perfect condition and fast as lightning.

[Steve Kline]

Carlton Woods during their Mid-Am invitational. I happened to play with one of the members and he putted it off the green and darn near into the water on one hole.

[Ben Stephens]

Kytaja - Northwest course in Finland whilst playing in Euro Deaf Golf Champs - they were 13 to 14 on the stimp with barely any grass and was so smooth


http://kytajagolf.fi/en/


It has two Thomas McBroom designed courses the other one is Southeast course which is more old fashioned Donald Ross like design whereas the Northwest was more like a Trent Jones design from memory


One of the best golf clubs i have been too and the driving range is massive!

[Joe Sponcia]

Old Chatham for a mid-am.  Best bermuda (and I don't love bermuda) I've ever putted on.  Amazing bathroom, right-sized clubhouse.  Lots of great Rees templates with bunkers flanking both sides of the landing areas

[Jaeger Kovich]

Streamsong red and blue - opening weekend. Nobody had played em, marked em up, etc. oh my god! Was 4 jack City!


The valley club - as a guest I happen to be allowed to play during the qualifying round of the men’s club championship around 2013-14. It was their first big event after a regrassing project or something like that and oh my god! ... putted like a demon!


Creek - the days leading up to the closing/restoration... knowing they were gonna be regrassed the water was turned off and oh my death is fast!

[A.G._Crockett]

The Farm in Dalton, Georgia.  Champion Bermuda that run around 13 for daily member play, and are slowed down for tournaments and outings.  I'm not kidding or overestimating.

[Ira Fishman]

A.G.


Not sure Hope Valley greens get to a 13 but they are pretty terrifying when above the hole.


Best I played was Congressional about a month before the 2011 Open.  They had re-done the greens for the tournament and they were just getting up to tournament condition.  Ball never wavered from the line.


For public, Pine Needles.  The greens at Primland pretty darn great too--course gets very little play.


Ira

[Joe Hancock]

I wish the thread title had emphasized firmness as a “best” attribute, but alas....


I would personally rate my own opinion of a “best” green in this order:


1) Firmness
2) Reasonable speed for the design
3) Smoothness
4) Everything else


Last) Color

[Tommy Williamsen]

There are bunches of courses that can claim to have the best greens. Cypress Point, Shinny, Oakmont are some of the best I have played. They are the usual suspects. Less know course are The Quarry at La Quinta were perfect. They had no blemishes. Sedgefield CC has the best Champion greens around. It seems supers have figured out how to make great greens.

[Terry Lavin]

Nationally, Oakmont. Locally, Butler National but should note that I played Chicago Golf the week of the Ryder Cup and greens rolling at 15. Pain suffering and hilarity!

[Jeff Evagues]

I got to play Oakmont a few times so that's an easy one.  I was able to play Sebonack  two times a few years ago and thought they were right behind Oakmont, it looked like they could have the Open there the next week. Also played TPC Scottsdale the day after the tournament once and my first thought was no wonder the guys make so many putts - it was hard to not hit a perfect putt.

[Michael Wolf]

Believe it or not the fastest greens on the PGA Tour most years are at the CC of Jackson in Mississippi. Cool fall weather plus not much slope allows them to dial up the speeds as much as possible, and they do.

[Eric Smith]

Public: Forest Dunes, when Jim Bluck was there. Oh my.


Private: Sand Hills on a closing weekend with a lot of wind helping speed things up. So much fun.


The very best greens I’ve ever played on are at St Andrews. They weren’t necessarily the fastest, though they certainly can be(!), but as Uncle Joe mentioned, there are other considerations besides smoothness and speed when discussing the best greens.

[Thomas Dai]

Thus is surely not only terribly subjective but also open to day to day, seasonal, maintenance variences etc. For example, a visit during a period immediately after the greens have been spiked/tined or top dressed etc will likely produce a very different opinion than if someone happened to play the course when the greens are at their optimum.
Firmness and quality of roll are key to me. As to speed, well it’s surely not only slope dependent but also seasonal and grass type, weather/wind dependent and maybe even member/customer dependent as well?

Atb

[Mike Hendren]

Memphis CC hands down.   The former super there, Rod Lingle was among those who pioneered Champion Bermuda.

Bogey

[John Kirk]

I'll echo Tim Leahy.  Back in the day, Plumas Lake was worth a trip to play the fast, smooth greens for a very reasonable price.  Nice place, with mature oaks in the heart of the valley.  It used to be ranked in Golf Digest's top 10 public courses, a long time ago.

I've played greens that rolled at 15 a couple times.  A couple of times at Kinloch in Virginia, and once at Sand Hills. Overall, it's fun.  I found that you get yourself in trouble by putting the uphill ones too hard.  They roll out much further than expected, and then you're playing defense from 6 feet above the hole.

[Matt_Cohn]

For a normal member play day, Myers Park in Charlotte, NC. My first time putting on one of the very new types of bermuda (IDK which kind). With a bit of sanding, they were 13 and absolutely dead smooth. I'm told they had run at 14 the day before, also for regular member play.

[Mark Pearce]

A thread title conflating speed and trueness with "best" in relation to greens makes me shake my head sadly.

[Bill Crane]

Incredibly, I was at Chechessee Creek club around the 3rd week of January 2017 and the greens were rolling at 13.5 (per Assts in the Pro Shop), smooth and firm.  They were really fast - even after 20+ minutes of practice putting prior to the round it took over nine holes to get used to.
My nieces husband who is a caddie at The Ocean Course, Kiawah putted off the front of three greens that round.
The dormant Bermuda from the re-grassing done a few years ago was astonishing.  With cool weather, especially at night,  drawing the moisture out of the sand based greens really had a profound effect at that time of year.    And they were really smooth and at that speed that time of year seemed to have no discernible grain.
Actually, these were the closest I had seen to greens at Merion when they are really healthy during good weather periods and can be FAST with some serious continue.

[John Foley]

Oakmont & The Ocean Course @ Kiawah. I really thing timing played a big part in both these. Oakmont was the fall before the 2007 US  Open. Very little growing, fall was dry and they were firm fast & smooth.


With Kiawah it was similar dry fall day where the course was very firm and smooth.


Keep looking for places to match them and haven't seen the. This past year Winged Foot West & Mammoth Dunes were both incredibly good conditions but not close to the others.

[Paul Jones]

Oakmont.

[Jon Wiggett]

Best greens (smoothest and fastest). Tim, I certainly would not gauge any green's quality by either of those measures. The only measure that counts from a golfing point of view trueness (consistency) of result in line and length. On that basis for me it would have to be either Ganton or Lindrick.

[Jeff Schley]

LACC this year.
Butler National back in 2001.

[Tyler Kearns]

Best greens I've putted on, with an emphasis on firm, smooth and true surfaces would be Wine Valley and Sand Hills.


Tyler

[Pete_Pittock]

Sagebrush. Tara Iti.