Punched Greens-how do you handle them?

[SelahVi]

The only way to win is to not play.

[BNGL]

You guys should see our greens after they punched them. We had great champ Bermuda rolling true the 1st of July. They punched them July 7th They haven't fully healed yet. They are puttable now. But maybe 80% what they were pre punch. They just keep adding sand. It rains. But they punched holes literally the size of a quarter. And double punched them.

 

Worst part is we had our club champ two day runnany on them 3 weeks ago. For the life of me don't know why they didn't move the punching back 2-3 weeks and that tournament to just before they punched. Ears are still being filled. This is the 3rd year in a row they've don't this. First month was like putting on a plinko board.

 

And before someone tells me it's necessary... yes. I've punched my share of greens in my school days. But I don't know where they got this machine with tines the size of a sword on it.

 

Depends on what you are trying to do, as I am sure you know. I will go all the way to an inch if need be, there are other times I will just needle tine and the golf players don't notice until the see the crews walking in from 9 and 18 towing the aerifiers. There is a couple alternatives such as dryject and aquaject, dryject aerifies and amends with sand in one pass, aquaject uses water instead of tines or air. it all comes down to cost and time as with everything else in life though.

[2putttom]

The only way to win is to not play.

I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it would work

[saksittb]

2 putt and I'm walking to the next tee. Not going to trip a out missing a 4 ft putt because of the aeration.

[A.Princey]

My question is, is a mid-season, full summer rate a legitimate greens fee to pay if the greens are in this condition? I only pose this question because I'll be playing a top 50 public course on Saturday and am praying that the greens are pure, otherwise I'll be telling them to shove it.

[BNGL]

My question is, is a mid-season, full summer rate a legitimate greens fee to pay if the greens are in this condition? I only pose this question because I'll be playing a top 50 public course on Saturday and am praying that the greens are pure, otherwise I'll be telling them to shove it.

 

could you call them and check before going out there?

[80sFredriksson]

I just play two putt max, if I one putt them its a nice bonus. Focus is on the other parts of the game

[dg_1983]

Avoid playing or putting if playing. It ruins yours stroke (hitting it too hard) and ruins your confidence.

 

I can't think of a more impactful and more disheartening course condition that punched/tined sanded greens. Required of course but ruins golf.

 

Some courses here in the UK to more regular smaller tines with lighter sanding - those courses are playable. Most do wide deep coring work and heavy sanding - those are horrible if not done early enough in the season to recover for winter.

[Djuga06]

If I’m playing with friends we typically use the two-putt rule if you keep your first within the flagstick length (keeps some form of concentration involved). My FIL has his annual member guest in 2 weeks and when they aerated last month I sent my putter to Continental to get it refinished and used a borrowed putter so I didn’t put any bad thoughts on my gamer. Focused more on course management than putting. Feeling pretty good about my decision and my Spider Mini is now an awesome blue.

[BForrester]

We play them as 2 putt max.

[br61]

My home club does this every April, sizes of tines varies depending on soil's condition. I don't complain because I know they are necessary to keep the greens healthy, our greenskeeper does a great job. The greens are always in great shape 11 months every year even in midwest's heat and humidity. The pro staff does tell whomever calls in for teetimes that greens has been aerified.

 

I look at the bright side, my misses sometimes hops into the hole.

[hybrid25]

Courses with aerated greens should give a discount, because they can be so unpleasant to play on. That's why I golfers tend to stay away from courses when they are aerated, it messes with the Mind psychologically.

[jjfcpa]

How can you rationalize making the part of the game where you take 50% of your shots unplayable, and say it's ok or you're still getting your money's worth. No way! It would be better if golf courses could collaborate and make up a schedule where half of them would punch their greens then 3 weeks later the other half. At least then you'd be able to avoid this issue.

[SelahVi]

One course near me punches the front half of all greens first, and when they have healed, punches the back half of all greens. The hole locations during this period are on the healthy half (front or back) on every hole. I thought this was clever.

[bladehunter]

One course near me punches the front half of all greens first, and when they have healed, punches the back half of all greens. The hole locations during this period are on the healthy half (front or back) on every hole. I thought this was clever.

 

Now there’s a super who has a brain. Great idea !!!

 

Unless it has negative side effects.

 

My clubs issue is how crazy long it takes them to get them grown back in. Healthiest thick turf you’ve ever seen. They verticut then ever Wednesday to thin them out. And yet for some reason when they punch its upwards of 80 day’s till you don’t notice how bad they are. That’s a long time.

[I_HATE_SNOW]

If they are too bad, I'll hit to the green, then drop a couple of balls around the green and practice chipping to the flag.

[3pp]

Putting is not part of the game. +2 and move on!

[BuzzCat]

I play it normal like any other round. Gives me a leg up on all you bums blaming your missed 3 footers on a couple bumps.

 

Everyone is a putting wizard when they play aerated greens.

[hybrid25]

One course near me punches the front half of all greens first, and when they have healed, punches the back half of all greens. The hole locations during this period are on the healthy half (front or back) on every hole. I thought this was clever.

A course by me does the same thing, and they always put the hole on the good side. What a brilliant thing to do, I think all golf courses should adopt this policy.

[Kid Bro Sweets]

I try to avoid punched/sanded greens at all costs. Playing once a week, my preference is to have good conditions every time I tee it up.

 

There have been a few times at some of the older courses around here where they've neglected to tell me and I find out on the first green. That's dirty pool. I'll suffer through but it makes the round pointless for scoring (IMO) and it certainly darkens my mood.

 

Unfortunately certain points in the year it's like playing Russian roulette. The hope is to find a course that's at least two weeks past its latest punch. What stinks is when a lot of my go-to courses do it around the same time.

 

GolfNow started adding a "Course maintenance alert" that will let you know whether maintenance has been done, which is very helpful.

 

 

 

+1 for us folks that play once a week or two it's pretty annoying. If i was a member and played few time a week i'd just roll with it ;)

[Double Mocha Man]

Trying to remember when the PGA touring pros played a TV tournament on punched greens???

 

Seriously, one thing you should always do, if there is morning dew or a light drizzle or mist: Clean your ball, especially on the backside where putterface meets ball on your stroke. One single grain of sand in this area can deaden your putt by as much as 50%.

[davep043]

Avoid playing or putting if playing. It ruins yours stroke (hitting it too hard) and ruins your confidence.

 

I can't think of a more impactful and more disheartening course condition that punched/tined sanded greens. Required of course but ruins golf.

 

Some courses here in the UK to more regular smaller tines with lighter sanding - those courses are playable. Most do wide deep coring work and heavy sanding - those are horrible if not done early enough in the season to recover for winter.

I actually think that playing on these greens improves my stroke. If I can get the ball up and rolling, it goes pretty true, even with all the stuff in the way. Take it as a challenge, its really not that bad.

[Golfer4Life]

Our club is dong their thing next week. The good thing about playing up North, the season is relatively short and they don’t punch them until they are ready to get the course ready for winter.

[Chowdah86]

Punched greens generally slow things down and take the break out of putts. I have learned to recognize and take advantage of this. I focus on getting it close enough for a gimme. I feel like the only putts I lose when playing on punched greens are those long meandering miracle putts that drop from 70+ feet away.

 

Once I adjust, I can lag and them drop then just as well. Im just not not holing my lags.

[unrepentant 60s kid]

I go back to the clubhouse and look for a gin game.

[davep043]

Punched greens generally slow things down and take the break out of putts. I have learned to recognize and take advantage of this. I focus on getting it close enough for a gimme. I feel like the only putts I lose when playing on punched greens are those long meandering miracle putts that drop from 70+ feet away.

 

Once I adjust, I can lag and them drop then just as well. Im just not not holing my lags.

How many of those do you think you make normally? I think on the PGA the typical average is 7% from 30 feet, 2% from 60 feet. You're talking about one putt dropping every 6 to 10 rounds, depending on how many approaches you leave that far away.

[Mikey5e]

Punched greens generally slow things down and take the break out of putts. I have learned to recognize and take advantage of this. I focus on getting it close enough for a gimme. I feel like the only putts I lose when playing on punched greens are those long meandering miracle putts that drop from 70+ feet away.

 

Once I adjust, I can lag and them drop then just as well. Im just not not holing my lags.

How many of those do you think you make normally? I think on the PGA the typical average is 7% from 30 feet, 2% from 60 feet. You're talking about one putt dropping every 6 to 10 rounds, depending on how many approaches you leave that far away.

I find the shorter putts more difficult then the longer putts. Having a delicate 5 foot putt for birdie or par is psychologically draining. If I have to hit a five-footer somewhat delicately I know darn well there's a good chance that the punch holes are going to affect it adversely. Even if punch holes don't hurt the line, in your mind it always weighs heavily.

[davep043]

Punched greens generally slow things down and take the break out of putts. I have learned to recognize and take advantage of this. I focus on getting it close enough for a gimme. I feel like the only putts I lose when playing on punched greens are those long meandering miracle putts that drop from 70+ feet away.

 

Once I adjust, I can lag and them drop then just as well. Im just not not holing my lags.

How many of those do you think you make normally? I think on the PGA the typical average is 7% from 30 feet, 2% from 60 feet. You're talking about one putt dropping every 6 to 10 rounds, depending on how many approaches you leave that far away.

I find the shorter putts more difficult then the longer putts. Having a delicate 5 foot putt for birdie or par is psychologically draining. If I have to hit a five-footer somewhat delicately I know darn well there's a good chance that the punch holes are going to affect it adversely. Even if punch holes don't hurt the line, in your mind it always weighs heavily.

I think we all have this attitude to some extent. If you miss the putt, the holes are to blame, but if you made it, you get the credit. As often as not, the holes will direct your ball in the RIGHT direction, you'll make a few that you would have missed otherwise. And in my experience, recently punched greens are generally slower, so that "delicate" putt can be hit a lot firmer.

[BNGL]

This time of year you have to ask when making a tee time. If they've been punched in the last 2 weeks, I'll just go somewhere else. What ticks me off is courses charging full rates, that's just not right.

 

 

So what you're saying is that the course should (via your proposal to institute "variable rates") charge more for greens fees when playing conditions are excellent?

 

Yes, they have their regular rate, discount it when the greens have been punched. The course where we play our 9 hole league does that, more courses should follow their lead. Similarly, most have early/late season rates vs prime season rates, i.e. charging less before May 1 and after Oct 1 or thereabouts.

 

 

Why the discount? It's maintenance - just like fixing a sprinkler head, re-sodding part of a fairway or rebuilding a bunker (sand trap).

 

If anything the club should charge more, (just kidding) my guys in the summer average 49 hours that total balloons to 58.5 when we aerify. That is a lot of overtime to be paid out amongst 30 hourly workers. Salaried employees can basically live at the property lol

[BNGL]

You guys should see our greens after they punched them. We had great champ Bermuda rolling true the 1st of July. They punched them July 7th They haven't fully healed yet. They are puttable now. But maybe 80% what they were pre punch. They just keep adding sand. It rains. But they punched holes literally the size of a quarter. And double punched them.

 

Worst part is we had our club champ two day runnany on them 3 weeks ago. For the life of me don't know why they didn't move the punching back 2-3 weeks and that tournament to just before they punched. Ears are still being filled. This is the 3rd year in a row they've don't this. First month was like putting on a plinko board.

 

And before someone tells me it's necessary... yes. I've punched my share of greens in my school days. But I don't know where they got this machine with tines the size of a sword on it.

 

And I just missed this one of the assistants in the office pointed this out, we had a good laugh at some responses to empirical evidence and sanding but anyways, your club aerified on 7 July and they are not fully recovered?

 

I always say that it is never fair nor right to compare course conditions to another one because weather issues can be different, different turf species etc, but WTF? We could give you a new green in 11 weeks, that is way more than enough time to heal. Since 1 June we have completed 4/5 core aerifications, our last one is scheduled for the last week of September and the club opens 17 October and I am in no way shape or form worried about them not being healed up fully. These were are with 5/8 inch diameter tines or larger. I guess I have no question other than where is this place located? and why did they punch on a weekend?