What makes greens great?

[Ira Fishman]

Tom Doak on the RTJ thread stated that Oakland Hills greens were/are some of the finest in the world. That prompted me to think and ask again about what makes greens great. I have really enjoyed the greens at several courses, but they vary from each other so I could not tell you what are the common elements that make them great. And our home course which is nothing special has greens very different from a place like Southern Pines yet they seem quite good to me because even without pronounced contours (which I truly like), they provide real challenge (lots of slope, run offs that are not obvious in different directions, short/medium putts that fool long time members).


So how does one know how to judge greens to be great…or not? Specific examples welcome.


Thanks.

[Michael Whitaker]

Tom Doak penned an article for New York's Metropolitan Golf Association explaining what (in his opinion) makes a great green. This article is a fabulous insight into the creative process.

http://scgolfpanel.org/Rankings/WhatMakesAGreatGreen.pdf

[Thomas Dai]

Tom Doak penned an article for New York's Metropolitan Golf Association explaining what (in his opinion) makes a great green. This article is a fabulous insight into the creative process.

http://scgolfpanel.org/Rankings/WhatMakesAGreatGreen.pdf

Thanks for linking this Mike. Damn fine piece.
Atb

[Ira Fishman]

Terrific article. Thanks for sharing. Any other thoughts about the question?


Thanks.