Best greens(smoothest & fastest) you have ever played

[Pat Burke]

I was amazed at how good the greens were on the sand belt in the tournaments I played there.
Royal Melbourne was crazy fast and considering the traffic late in the day still very true


Kingston Heath were not as fast but man they were nice


I played at he Vines outside Perth two years (one year Mike Clayton won!) and those greens late in the rounds were still amazingly true.

[Terry Lavin]

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.

You’re right, of course. I found myself seduced by my memories of happily struggling on some amped up surfaces. I greatly prefer fun contours and consistent (not punishing) speeds.

[Tim Gavrich]

Quail Valley here in Vero Beach in May 2017 in a Palm Beach Co. Golf Assoc. tournament, and then last April at USGA Four-Ball Media Day at Jupiter Hills.


Olde Farm several years ago.


Ozarks National's were superb this past September, especially for a course that wasn't even really open yet.

[Jay Mickle]

Fifteen plus years ago I can still recall the greens at The Ridge at Back Brook in NJ. I vividly remember an above the hole putt look like it had a chance until it passed the hole and took what seemed forever, one excruciatingly slow revolution at a time, until it finally stopped just inches from rolling off the green and down a long hill.

[James Brown]

The Old Course in 2018 the Monday after the Senior British Open.  Kept the pins in the Sunday spots. 

[jeffwarne]

Best? Well they wouldn't be the fastest because the "fastest" would be unputtable with good/great architecture and decent hole placements.
i.e. I can't glorify a boring super fast/smooth green by calling it the best.


The best greens I've putted were at Cape Arundel. Smooth and perfectly paced for the interest and severity of the greens.


The more I think of it, I have played many, many events where the greens were incredibly difficult and appropriately firm and fast for the designs. I can't imagine that ANY of them would have been "better" by being faster.Deepdale comes to mind_I remember watching Darrel Kestner(probably the best putter in MET Section history and Head pro there) 4 putt the first hole in a fall event.


I must say it seems like in early every week in the MET Section I'm fortunate enough to play near perfect greens every week. Invariably it ALWAYS seems like the best greens(firm, smooth(all day) and fast) are pure poa.



The fastest I've ever played were at Seawane about 5 years ago(it was shocking how little it took to roll the ball across the greens(which were quite mundane)-it may be just by comparison as there are probably many at that speed now in our silly arms race to neuter interesting greens and hole locations.

[Tim Leahy]

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.

Glad to hear someone else got to experience Plumas great greens.

[Anthony_Nysse]

While interning at Friars Head in 2002, I had the chance to visit a classmate at Atlantic GC. We played in the afternoon, after a Pro/Member type event. Those greens were over 13" at 3-4pm, so true and so firm. At the time, I had never seen anything like that. When you consider who is in charge of the agronomy there, you can understand why. BR is truly, one of the best Superintendents in the country.

[Michael Pelliccione]

Ocean Forest Golf Club weeks leading up to the Jones Cup...   kitchen floor type speeds!

[Cal Seifert]

Old town club in late october. The whole course was firm and fast and combined with the rolling land there made for a great round.

[Randy Thompson]

The title of this thread should have been, The fastest and smoothest greens you ever putted.

[John Emerson]

Best greens I’ve ever seen have been velvet bentgrass greens at the University of Kentucky’s turfgrass research site!!  I mean they looked fake!  They rolled true and were just super pleasing to the eye. But, they are not the fastest.  Fastest greens I’ve ever played were dormant Bermuda at streamsong red in February of ‘17

[Jay Mickle]

Played Roaring Gap in a hickory tournament a day prior to their member/guest and just the week prior to the course closing for the season. The greens were true and lightening fast. The ground game played like running a ball up across shag carpet onto a wood floor.

[Steve Kohler]

Oakmont on most days is an obvious answer.


Scioto CC right before the 2016 Senior US Open had the greens in immaculate condition.  It was still a couple weeks out but it felt like tournament conditions that day.


Seminole the day before their Coleman Invitational... the wind was up that day and the greens were running hot.

[Anthony_Nysse]

To those that have posted a number on this thread-


Did someone tell you what speed the greens were running or pure speculation? Im always interested in what golfers THINK greens are running at vs whey they are actually running at.

[Tal Oz]

Chicago Golf Club three days after their Member/Member. Super was on the practice green with me and said they've slowed down since the weekend but were still running 13'8". Immaculate, firm, and unbelievably fast.

[John Kirk]

To those that have posted a number on this thread-


Did someone tell you what speed the greens were running or pure speculation? Im always interested in what golfers THINK greens are running at vs whey they are actually running at.

Hi Anthony,
I was told the day I played Kinloch by a member of the greenskeeping staff that the greens were rolling at something like 15' 2".  It was over 15.  In the case of Sand Hills, I'm making a judgment call based on my previous experience at Kinloch.  Maybe they were only running at 14, but for several years Sand Hills had a reputation for letting their greens get really fast.

 

I've also heard anecdotes about Sebonack greens getting super fast at times.

[James Brown]

To those that have posted a number on this thread-


Did someone tell you what speed the greens were running or pure speculation? Im always interested in what golfers THINK greens are running at vs whey they are actually running at.

Hi Anthony,
I was told the day I played Kinloch by a member of the greenskeeping staff that the greens were rolling at something like 15' 2".  It was over 15.  In the case of Sand Hills, I'm making a judgment call based on my previous experience at Kinloch.  Maybe they were only running at 14, but for several years Sand Hills had a reputation for letting their greens get really fast.

 

I've also heard anecdotes about Sebonack greens getting super fast at times.

Holy green speed arms race!  Stop!

[jeffwarne]

Ozarks National's were superb this past September, especially for a course that wasn't even really open yet.

Ozarks National(is that a real place?).... conjures up visions of 22 year old curvy interns, multiple mulligans and crooked drives

[Anthony_Nysse]

To those that have posted a number on this thread-


Did someone tell you what speed the greens were running or pure speculation? Im always interested in what golfers THINK greens are running at vs whey they are actually running at.

Hi Anthony,
I was told the day I played Kinloch by a member of the greenskeeping staff that the greens were rolling at something like 15' 2".  It was over 15.  In the case of Sand Hills, I'm making a judgment call based on my previous experience at Kinloch.  Maybe they were only running at 14, but for several years Sand Hills had a reputation for letting their greens get really fast.

 

I've also heard anecdotes about Sebonack greens getting super fast at times.

Thanks for the explanation. Sometimes its a real struggle to get golfers to understand what green speeds really are when greens are very undulated or like here, very flat. What some THINK is fast or slow are usually the opposite and leads to a guessing game as to what speeds really are.

[Ken Fry]

To Pat Burke's point, the overall firmness of the ground on the sand belt courses surprised me.  The level of traffic wear and bear spots around Royal Melbourne, coming off tees especially, surprised me.  I found it quite refreshing that on a world class golf course, it was OK to show the wear.  Pitch marks were hard to find on the green surfaces.  Loved it.

To Joe Hancock's point, it's always struck me a difficult achievement of smooth greens without firmness.  A course in Joe's hometown hosted PGA section players and to "show off" the course, sped the greens up significantly.  The catch was many of the greens were so soft on the surface by late day footprints and spike damage (soft spike, not metal spike) were so bad, even short putts were hit and hope.  1 foot putts could turn into 10 foot putts in a hurry.

I've played Crystal Downs a number of times but always at the end of the season.  The greens were firm and very fast.  Most know the comment from Fred Muller that he's witnessed someone putt off all 18 greens at some point.  Those greens are the smoothest and fastest I've been on although I feel the course would be even more enjoyable without those green speeds.Ken

[Dave Doxey]

Interesting that many replies equate green speed as the measure of a green being “best”.  How have we been convinced to believe that green speed is a good thing? 


I’m not sure that I understand the use of “firmness” as a quality measure either... Hard green are better than soft?


Personally, I’d consider the trueness of roll to be the measure of a green. My tile kitchen floor is both fast and firm, but I’d not enjoy putting on it.

[Kalen Braley]

I played the Couer D' Alene resort course years ago, back when they used to pour a bunch of money into it and was in immaculate condition.

As I recall it was also fall (sensing a theme here) and the greens were just crazy fast.  All of my golf up till then had been on 7-9 stimping courses, so when I played this one, it was such a tough adjustment.  I don't know how the math works out, but I vividly recall forcing myself to hit 8-10 foot putts like they were 4-5 feet putts...

[Thomas Dai]

This thread seems to have an element of the Monty Python Yorkshireman sketch! (Sic)
Atb

[Jon Wiggett]

This thread seems to have an element of the Monty Python Yorkshireman sketch! (Sic)
Atb

I am a high end private club. My greens roll smoothly all year round and stimp at 20. I look down on both the member's club and the muni.


I am a mid level member's club. My greens roll smoothly all summer long and stimp at 10. I look up to the high end private club but look down on the muni.


I am a municipal club. I know my place. My greens bobble all year round and I do not own a stimp meter.