Are their techniques for "hiding" the break in greens?

[Bob Jenkins]

How often have you looked over a putt and picked a line only to have misread not just the extent (including lack of) break ? Or, you could have sworn that was an uphill or downhill putt but turns out it was dead flat! How often have we seen touring pros express frustration at the break that was not there? Some are misreads but I have often thought that these guys know how to read greens but they have been fooled!

I used to think the old plumb bob was foolproof but have been proven wrong, although not that often.

These thoughts lead me to wonder if there are techniques architects and contractors use to disguise break or elevation changes.

Dr. MacKenzie was said to have been a camoflouge expert who used his skills in the Boer War and then applied some of those techniques to golf architecture. He would place bunkers such that they would appear to be greenside or in front of the green but in reality were 30-40 yards away from the green.

Are there means of "hiding" the break and elevation changes on greens?

Bob Jenkins

[wsmorrison]

William Flynn had a technique, I'm sure a select others did as well, on downhill holes, particularly par 3 holes.  At Cascades #4 and Rolling Green #3, the general topography slopes downhill.  The way perception works on a downhill hole, if you alter the slope of a green so that it still runs away from you but not as much as the general slope around it, the mind perceives the slope incorrectly.  It appears to be back to front while it is still front to back though not to the same degree as the surrounds.  Flynn would further enhance the effect in the later Rolling Green hole by having the toplines along the greenside of flanking bunkers raised in the back and sloping down to the front.  Standing anywhere on the greens you swear the hole is steeply sloped back to front but the putts don't lie.  It is amazing to watch the reaction of newcomers to the results.  Front to back putts fly past the hole and return putts are invariably short.  

Even playing the hole a number of times is no guarantee that the mind and body will be in synch on the putts on such greens.  It is a great design that shoud be replicated.

[Ted Kramer]

William Flynn had a technique, I'm sure a select others did as well, on downhill holes, particularly par 3 holes.  At Cascades #4 and Rolling Green #3, the general topography slopes downhill.  The way perception works on a downhill hole, if you alter the slope of a green so that it still runs away from you but not as much as the general slope around it, the mind perceives the slope incorrectly.  It appears to be back to front while it is still front to back though not to the same degree as the surrounds.  Flynn would further enhance the effect in the later Rolling Green hole by having the toplines along the greenside of flanking bunkers raised in the back and sloping down to the front.  Standing anywhere on the greens you swear the hole is steeply sloped back to front but the putts don't lie.  It is amazing to watch the reaction of newcomers to the results.  Front to back putts fly past the hole and return putts are invariably short.  

Even playing the hole a number of times is no guarantee that the mind and body will be in synch on the putts on such greens.  It is a great design that shoud be replicated.

Wayne, that is a great example of a tough putt to read.
Greens sloping in one direction set into a hillside or landform sloping in the other direction are often very tough to read. Pine Hill in NJ has a number of these greens.

-Ted

[Andy Scanlon]

Even playing the hole [RG #3] a number of times is no guarantee that the mind and body will be in synch on the putts on such greens.  

Wayne:

I can attest to that!

[Gary Slatter]

Many greens are difficult to read, but it's difficult to fool gravity and grain.  Gravity can be disguised and grain can be very subtle.  When we built our new RTJ2 Reef Club I asked that any slope on all par-three holes was downhill to the west, the same as the "grain".  This eliminates standing in the Pro Shop and hearing things like "that downhill putt on 14 is slow". I prefer to have downhill putts faster than uphill putts, although watching the Mercedes Tour event I see many cases where the grain over-powers the slope, but every so often they both align and Faldo says "that putt is very fast" or the opposite, when approach stops dead when hitting into the grain.

[JohnV]

I've noticed that Bob Cupp built a few greens at Pumpkin Ridge where there is a lake beside the green, but the green near the water breaks away from it.  #18 at Ghost Creek and #3 at Witch Hollow both are examples.  Most golfers will look at a green next water and assume everything breaks towards the water.  18 at Ghost it is very subtle, while 3 at Witch is a little more obvious.

[Tim MacEachern]

Bob, I'll have to ask how experienced you are in reading the grain on greens.  Have you scraped the green with the putter-head when fooled by a putt to see if you've misread the grain?  Break and speed is a combination of slope and grain alone (assuming no hurricane-force winds ).  A "plumb-bobber" is attempting to read slope alone.

There is a course I like to play in Sydney, Nova Scotia called Lingan (9 holes of which are by Stanley Thompson).  One hole, #10, a simple, short, par 5, has a small, flattish green that has a typical slight back to front slope.  What drives people crazy though, is that the grain grows up to the back of the green!  So downhill putts are as fast as uphill putts.  And sidehill putts sometimes break uphill.  

I've always wondered whether architects are able to anticipate what the grain will be on the finished green when designing green contours, and what shenanegans they can get up to with this knowledge.  But I think the green contour is designed without considering how it will play after the grain effects are included.  Mind you, grain patterns differ from area to area, between grass types, and even with maintenance practises, so I guess that's a complication.

[wsmorrison]

The grain at Merion East all goes towards the lowest point on the property, the 11th green, which is in the southeast portion of the property.  The 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 16th and the front half of the 18th greens are faster uphill and slower downhill than you think they'll be.  Other greens are quicker downhill and slower uphill than you think such as portions of  the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 10th, portions of the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and the front back of the 18th.  Similarly, sidehill putts are affected as well.

Combined with the outstanding slopes and contours, the greens are very demanding.  There is a huge outstanding home course advantage to them, but it didn't show against Brian Phillips for some unknown reason.  He probably had the staff alter the maintenance practices overnight to throw me.  Nothing else can account for the results  

[Tom_Doak]

I don't know if there are "techniques" so much as there are opportunities when you can make it happen.  Wayne's example is one of those.

Most breaks can be solved if you force yourself to read where the surface drainage goes.  Plumb-bobbing is a complete mystery to me but I can read putts pretty well anyway.

[Mark_Fine]

It is hard to "hide" something for long, kind of like a blind bunker (it is only blind once).  Mountain courses offer opportunities due to the mountain effect as some breaks seem to go against the logic of the slide hill nature of the surrounding terrain.  But at the end of the day, if you know which way water drains (downhill for those wondering  ) and look for clues where water departs the green, you won't be fooled by breaks very often.  On older greens in particular, surface drainage patterns are pretty easy to see.  If you need practice identifying this, go see you nearest golf course during a big rain storm.  

Here is #16 green at Lehigh CC - Any questions about which way this green breaks  

[Jeff_Mingay]

I hope that water is moving, Mark. On my laptop screen, it looks pooled!  

[Mark_Fine]

It's moving and it would be very obvious if you were standing there.  It is quite amazing what you can learn about a golf course by watching it drain!  All those "hidden" breaks can't hide when it is raining and water is sheeting off the green.  

[D_Malley]

wayne
i always found people could not belive the way #16 east on the top shelf at times can break towards the clubhouse, even when the pin is placed near the slope.

[D_Malley]

and #10 can be very trickey to read

[wsmorrison]

Racetrack George,

Balls on 16 just seem to keep going even after losing steam up the slope from the front of the green.  It is fun to see the expression on people's faces as they expect the ball to stop by the hole for an easy tap-in and they have a 6 or 8 footer coming back.  You can hear the knees a knockin' on the comebackers.

10 is tricky to read.  Especially when the pin is near the front right just before the slope.  It is awfully hard to read the break and the speed on that putt.  Like putts from right to left on the 1st green, putts from back to front on 10 are very slick.

[RT]

5-6 carefully slung square point shovels (USA issue) of rootzone material here and there in an area can help produce those pesky imperceptable breaks

[Adam Clayman]

Imperceptible breaks on flat modern greens are the most confounded things.

Prairie Dunes as well as our modern greats use a confluence of slopes that require the proper speed for the proper line that are not imperceptible. The rub is that without repeated play they are usually only perceptible after the first putt.

[Jeff_Mingay]

Mark,

I've visited Essex (Ross, Windsor ON) during heavy rain to watch it drain as well. I agree, it's pretty neat to see.

[Mark_Fine]

Jeff,
Unless one has done this, you can't believe how much you can learn about how the golf architect and/or the construction firm designed and drained the golf course.  

[Jim Sweeney]

AT Coronado CC in El Paso, which is built on the side of a mountain, the only way to read the greens is to comapre the slopes to the eaves of adjacent houses which are, of course, level.

More than one engineer has told me that plumb-bobbing putts is worthless. (Unless, I suppose, doing so gives you warm and fuzzy feelings toward the putt.)

The second hole at Pine Needles has a green that slopes from front to back, and the approach is downhill to boot. There is a swale behind the green which is probably five yards wide, with bunkers built into it. The back edge of the green is readily discernable, which, combined with the player's looking down at the green, makes it appear to be higher than the front.

[Bob Jenkins]

In this part of the world, ie. the Vancouver area, there really is no concern with grain. It isnt a factor.

There is a hole at Semiahmoo in Washington state, (Palmer design) which has a par 4, about the 13th or 14th hole, where you will swear you are putting uphill or downhill, depending which side of the pin you are on, but it is totally flat. Even looking at it from the side it will look to be up or down because of adjacent features also being at the same slope as the green.

I think Gary has described best just what can been done.

Although I can generally read a green fairly well, I do find mountain courses play tricks with my head. You are always assuming there will be breaks downhill but that is not always the case.

Thanks for your comments.

[Tim MacEachern]

In this part of the world, ie. the Vancouver area, there really is no concern with grain. It isnt a factor.

That's what the guys say around here too.  Doesn't bother me, I'll take their money if that's what they want to believe.

Grass has grain.  Maybe only a little bit on some greens, but it's there.

[Lloyd_Cole]

Mark,

I've visited Essex (Ross, Windsor ON) during heavy rain to watch it drain as well. I agree, it's pretty neat to see.

Wow, this GCA business can offer us something positive on the worst of days.
I'm now excited for the next heavy downpour so I can make notes.

[Jim Nugent]

Mark, if no rainstorm is in sight, is the recommended course of action to bring along some large hoses?  

While novel, I'm kind of hoping there might be some alternative way to read the greens.  

[David Mulle]

In "Bury Me in a Pot Bunker" Pete Dye writes:
"My intention is to provide a putting surface with a half-inch fall every ten feet or so.  The human eye can detect only a two-and-one half-inch fall every ten feet, so I attempt to make a putt appear straight when it actually has some curvature."