Weekday pin positions

[Craig Sweet]

Imagine a club tournament and the pro shop is suddenly determining where the holes will be and the person that's been determining hole locations all summer is reduced to looking for white dots on the green....

[Rob Marshall]

Imagine a club tournament and the pro shop is suddenly determining where the holes will be and the person that's been determining hole locations all summer is reduced to looking for white dots on the green....

Pro shop should be involved to some degree. They are the ones who have to field all the complaints about bad pin's.

[Joe Hancock]

Imagine a club tournament and the pro shop is suddenly determining where the holes will be and the person that's been determining hole locations all summer is reduced to looking for white dots on the green....

Pro shop should be involved to some degree. They are the ones who have to field all the complaints about bad pin's.

Who should the definitive authority be that decides what is a “bad pin”? The pro shop, unfortunately, hears a lot of complaints from golfers that shouldn’t be complaints.

[Carl Johnson]

Normally I don't think the pro shop should be involved with pin positions.  Isn't that the greenkeeper's job under the direction of the green committee?  Naturally the pro shop will get questions because they're more accessible than those responsible, but no one should give them any heat for the pin positions.  Mostly the pro shop is not going to know why the pins are where they are.  Right? 

[Jim_Coleman]

   I’m pretty sure at my course the pro shop only gets involved in choosing pins for important events -  m/g, m/m, c/c etc. However, if there is a bad pin on a given day, the pro shop will (and should) get the call. Someone from the shop will investigate, and if he agrees, will call the super. It almost never happens.

[Carl Johnson]

   I’m pretty sure at my course the pro shop only gets involved in choosing pins for important events -  m/g, m/m, c/c etc. However, if there is a bad pin on a given day, the pro shop will (and should) get the call. Someone from the shop will investigate, and if he agrees, will call the super. It almost never happens.

Several weeks ago we had a pin on the edge of a ridge very near the back corner of a green.  You either made the putt or your ball was "gone" and you gave up.  My group passed through at about 11:00 am after several other groups.  Just after we finished someone from the super's dept. drove up and moved the pin about three feet to a flatter area.  My assumption is that a group ahead of us had called the pro shop, who in turn called the super, just as you describe.  The system worked as it should.

[Kalen Braley]

Given Barney hasn't weighed in on this one yet, i'll posit that perhaps they know what their doing and just don't like the job and/or the members! 

[Rob Marshall]

Imagine a club tournament and the pro shop is suddenly determining where the holes will be and the person that's been determining hole locations all summer is reduced to looking for white dots on the green....

Pro shop should be involved to some degree. They are the ones who have to field all the complaints about bad pin's.

Who should the definitive authority be that decides what is a “bad pin”? The pro shop, unfortunately, hears a lot of complaints from golfers that shouldn’t be complaints.

If a ball putted gets to the hole then stops moving forward and rolls back to you, it's a bad pin. Happens are my club on the same hole a couple of times a year. Goes back to the goofy green speeds everyone demands that limit pin positions.

[Grant Saunders]

I think this subject is being overthought by a large margin


Moving hole locations is primarily about spreading wear and turf conditions will dictate where a hole can be cut a lot of the time

[Chris Hughes]

Imagine a club tournament and the pro shop is suddenly determining where the holes will be and the person that's been determining hole locations all summer is reduced to looking for white dots on the green....

Sounds entirely sub-optimal to me...

[Jim Lipstate]

It is apparent that deciding on daily pin positions is rather a complicated matter that should require some thought. My course uses a computerized program that sometimes results in unwanted consequences. On a holiday with a full tee sheet the first three holes had pins placed in the most difficult positions possible. It caused a huge backup on the course as players were routinely three putting or putting off of greens dramatically slowing pace of play. A little thought to pin placements on a very crowded day might have greatly improved the experience of those trying to get around.


Thinking about the thought processes involved I can come up with several considerations:


Hole difficulty
Green speeds and slopes
Length of hole
Green wear due to pin placement
Routine play versus tournament play
Pace of play considerations
Weather considerations such as wind and rain
Varying pin postions front, middle and back
Avoiding having the same pin positions on the same days of the week
Proximity to bunkers and hazards
“Challenging” versus “unfair” pins


I’m sure there are a few others and I am open to additional thoughts. I doubt most computer setups or non-golfing green superintendents give full considerations to all of these variables. It can make big difference in how a course might play in any given day.

[Craig Sweet]

Man, a computerized pin location generator...what could possibly go wrong?  Give me a golf savvy human, and a simple front, middle, back system and I can guarantee you'll go weeks before you see the pin in the same location again.


I bet the computerized system leaves large portions of the green pretty much always devoid of a hole location.