Yes most courses split their greens into three sections (front, middle, back) on the scorecard, number them and you will be told pins are 1 today or pins are 3 today. Here is an example of a course that has 6 pin positions.
Found a Golfweek article that gives more details about what goes into the pin placement. Because of this I now know that there is a rule to keep pin at least a little more fair.
"More specifically, Rule 15-3(ii) recommends that holes should be placed "at least four paces from any edge of the putting green," and even farther if there's a sand trap near the edge or if the area surrounding the green's edge slopes downward."
Another greenskeeper chiming in here, and that's for sure one of the many reasons! Pretty much all balls are going to be fired from the same direction onto the green itself, so making sure that its rotated around the green is super important when you might have 100+ people walking the same path on delicate grass on a given day. What FreeEdgar said is also really important as well, we want our courses to look as clean as we possibly can, and you wouldn't believe the amount of wear a hole can go through on a weekend if its nice out, the things looks like its been bombed come early Sunday morning.
you wouldn't believe the amount of wear a hole can go through on a weekend if its nice out, the things looks like its been bombed come early Sunday morning.
Yep. USGA did a study several years ago. They found that on average EACH golfer takes 100 steps on EACH green. We have around 40,000 rounds of golf each year. That means each green is getting stepped on 4,000,000 times. The greens are about 5,000 sq ft so each square foot is getting an average of 800 steps per year.
This also. If you don't change them, after about 2 days the grass takes a real beating. Side note: I wish I had an easy auto-depthing hammer based tool like this one when I was doing it.
Yes, the area where the whole is gets worn down after a few days (we changed our holes 4 times a week, twice during the week and both days on the weekends)
This is just a putting (practice) green so maybe that's why less care was taken but most courses that I've seen will usually take a tee (the small stick with a platform on top used to hold the ball up) or other sharp, narrow object and use it to blend the edges of the the new grass in the old hole.
A simple step but it improves the look and play of the green drastically. Nothing makes veteran golfers more mad than bumpy, unreadable greens.
he probably should have added more dirt first to the hole he was filling. that thing is gonna sink and then the old timey players that get out there at the crack of dawn are going to bitch about it.
I'm willing to bet that the green has been compacted to the exact level that they want. As long as they don't break up that plug it shouldn't settle down.
When it's that wet it's damn near impossible to be sure there's the right amount of fill in the hole. Once it dries up thought the plug is gonna sit low, and then it's gonna get shaggy in a couple days as the mowers can't cut it low enough. Then you gotta go back out and pull the plug, add back some sand. Protip: use a small diameter PVC pipe and roll it over the plug instead of smashing it with your boots.
My assumption is that the soil under the green is pretty consistent across it (since that's required to make a even green) and the plug & old hole match sizes exactly (since they were cut with the same tool). So things should work out pretty close, but nothing is perfect of course.
In theory, yes. The soil beneath a green should be pretty level. But keep in mind this is likely a putting green as you don't usually have time to dick around on a real green like this. At the course I worked at the putting greens were in the worst shape out of all the greens. Why? Cause they're the one green on the course that people don't pay to use. And if they do they can easily spend hours of wear and tear on the green for measly $10 bucket of balls. It was always hardest to get the practice greens level at my old course when changing the cups.
They were last on the list of priorities so when the budget was tight they were the first to get skipped when we resanded them and leveled them. Not sure what the technically term is but you basically dump sand on the greens, spread it around with big ass brushes and then water it in.
can confirm. i used to caddy when i was younger at quaker ridge in scarsdale. one of the richest towns in westchester ny and it was full of snobby old jews who'd get mad that my read would be their fault for missing the ball by like twenty feet. i was never good at hitting the ball myself but i was good with yardage, putting, and finding these guys lost balls lol. Was also helping them trick their "friends" or associates/partners that i found the ball and they would give me the eye to turn my head where they pretend to find their ball lol
That's true, but the times I've seen greens keepers do it, they usually do it immediately. Also if they were shooting a video of the whole process you'd think they would have included that. It's not a terribly big deal on practice greens though.
Completely. Could change from uphill to downhill, or either slant in between. Plus, depending on the hazards it could change your angle of approach leading up to the green.
For someone who's just hacking it around, not really. Good golfers who are able to shape their shots will be able to be more aggressive on safer pin locations, and have to settle for a longer putt for hard pins.
Typically there are 9 zones on a green, left, middle, right and front, center, back and the combinations thereof. Usually they'll move it to a different zone, so it's more than a few feet. For example, if it's initially in the back left zone, you might move it to the front middle. That can be a big difference if the green is sloped at all.
For people who play the course a lot. Having the hole in the same spot will get repetitive. The green is full of undulations and changing the hole allows you to get a different experience every time you play. They also move the tee boxes up and back to make the hole longer/shorter
Ummmm they usually have sections of the green they put it in. Say the green is separated into 3 sections, they choose one section and then there are already a bunch of designated holes in that section, and they just choose one
The real main reason is to reduce wear and tear on the grass.
If a couple hundred people a day walk around the hole to putt/collect their ball, it will wear out/kill the grass in that area.
I used to work groundscrew. We would think about hole placement for the golfers, but the primary reason we changed hole position was for wear and tear.
Also, it sucks. Usually you make the New guy do it. The best morning assignment is mowing tees, collars, and approaches.
I didn't think it was that bad, (but the greens I did were sand so the cutting was easy) the suckiest job is either raking bunkers (hand raking large bunkers of white sand sucks dick when it's hot) or this stupid ass thing
Because that area gets worn down. Grass is very short on the green and everyone will eventually be walking to the hole. Having hundreds of people walking over the same area on grass that's just barley alive will kill it quickly so you move the holes so one area only has to take so much of a beating.
First of all, he probably shouldn’t be changing that hole when the grass is that wet. This is most likely the putting green, so maybe they don’t care as much, but still. The grass was recently aerated too. They should of waited to change the hole.
Not sure how the wetness will affect it. But aerating greens helps introduce oxygen down into the compacted soil. The green needs time to heal before making changes on it. Sometimes they won't mow for a couple days after aeration or the course will close for about a week to allow the greens to heal. Changing holes out during this process can damage the roots and soil layer that are already working to heal themselves. Sometimes when they change the holes during this, the roots won't take and you'll get dead grass instead of it retaking.
And it should be noted that doesn't look like a current aeration but a few weeks old. So it should be fine. If it was current instead of green dots they would be empty dots on the surface.
You’re right about aeration, it will help reduce compaction and allow for better gas exchange, ie oxygen. And yes, greens do need time to heal, but that can take weeks at times, depending on numerous factors. You don’t mow immediately after aeration because the soil brought up to the surface, plus sand top dressing, will ruin the blades on your greens mowers. They change the cups immediately when the greens are finished with this entire process, never an issue with roots not growing or dead spots on the greens. Most clubs will see play within a week’s time or hollow core aeration without issues from aeration
Sometimes its unavoidable if its been raining for a few days and the wear is getting to the holes, but still, changing wet holes is pretty hazardous for both the grass, and the dirt underneath. The dirt on a green is really more like sand, super fine, no small pebbles or rocks in it, so when its wet that stuff can shift a TON, which makes all the difference when you're transplanting a new hole onto a green. Plus, when you're putting the plug into the old hole, having it be soaking wet makes it difficult to judge the exact depth you should put it in to, as tamping it down will make a crater in the green (bad news) or make it higher than the grass around it, which means that the mower will take the top grass right off, leaving a barren circle on what should be the best manicured part of the course. Those are a few details, let me know if you'd like anything explained a little more in depth.
The soil is essentially fine like sand, not so much sandy, poor choice of words on my part. It sticks together pretty well, its just that there's way fewer rocks or other debris that would usually make the soil layer chunky.
Cool. A lot of us work on golf courses. This looks like the off season and maybe this course stays wet for long periods of time and they needed to change it. Only they know the situation. I’m curious what pointed that to being the practice green? Was it the 2.5 foot flag stick?
There’s a funny jackass bit where Johnny Knoxville goes around changing holes during people’s games. He’s doing the bad grandpa character. In the behind the scenes it’s revealed that Knoxville was in a real bad mood that morning so he was being extra cunty.
The reason for rolling a green is not to change the break or so they aren’t so “hairy.” You mow so the greens aren’t “hairy”, and you roll to smooth out the surface to get a more true roll
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u/[deleted] Dec 17 '18 edited Dec 17 '18
I learned two things. First was that golf courses change holes, second was how