False fronts and approach mower height

[Thomas Dai]

These days it seems that a ball getting a few feet onto a false front can sometimes roll back say 10-20-30 yards rather than the more traditional say 5-10 ft. Seems like with a lot more short cut approaches this is becoming more prevalent, but is it appropriate?
Atb

[Jeff_Brauer]

Sure, why not, but I have proposed to create more level approach areas for greens that tend to reject balls off the front.  Problem is, it leaves sort of a Jack Nicklaus shelf look short of the green, so you have to decide whether and out of character approach is worth the poor visuals to save a few high spin shots from rocketing back off the front of the green.


I guess it depends on how much you listen to those who fell once there approach shot is on the green, it ought to stay on the green.


My most embarrassing de-greening came at La Cumbre, on the 9th hole.  Although warned about the speed of my putt from the back of the green, I still managed to keep rolling past the hole, off the green, and 20 yards or more down the fairway, turning a 4 into a 6 faster than you can bat an eye.  To me, it was lesson learned. To others, its an architectural disaster.

[Tom_Doak]

I have seen some crazy false fronts in recent years.  On the finishing hole at Gulph Mills, if you don't get your ball well into the green, it may roll 70-80 yards back down the hill.  But that was a severe hill ... they didn't build it deliberately, so much as refusing to grass it as rough instead of fairway.


Lochenheath, in Traverse City, has two greens where if you don't get "up" your approach shot comes back 30-40 yards and well below the green.  On one of the two, if you over-correct you will go over the back of the green and down another hill, and then likely wind up back where you started with the shot after that.

[Edward Glidewell]

Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, NC (currently the host of the Wyndham) has a false front on the long par 3 12th. The green has two tiers, and if the pin is on the lower front tier and your ball is on the upper back, it is nearly impossible to keep the ball on the green. You're almost guaranteed to end up 20 or so yards back down the hill in front of the green, chipping/pitching back up over the false front. It's all fairway cut.


I imagine this wasn't really an issue when Donald Ross originally built the course, because slower greens would have allowed you to keep the ball on the lower tier when putting from the upper.