Why Slower Green Speeds Are Better For Golf

I’ve always been a golfer who thought he preferred the fastest greens possible.

Growing up, fast greens were typically a sign of nicer courses in my area. Did I prefer playing nicer courses with smooth, fast greens? Of course I did. Faster the better, honestly.

“I putt better on fast greens,” I told dozens of people over the years.

But like a lot of other parts of life, age has complicated my once simplistic view of green speeds.

I find myself now yearning for more interesting green complexes—married with reasonable speeds—that make the game more enjoyable for all skill levels.

The drawback of fast greens

On a recent trip to Bandon Dunes, I was struck by the green speeds across the property.

More than anything, I had trouble getting the ball to the hole rather than seeing it race past the hole. I was also struck by how much break I had to play at times, even on putts inside 10 feet.

That is a luxury afforded to courses with slower-paced greens that have undulation.

Managing shots into the greens proved to be an enjoyable experience. Being above the hole wasn’t a death sentence but it felt like a lot of creativity was required due to the dramatic slopes. Hole locations were more adventurous than you would find on courses with lightning-fast surfaces. (If greens are too fast, many hole locations are no longer playable).

Being alongside the Pacific coast where winds can be wild, Bandon is a place where green speeds need to be kept in check. Add the resort element where many high-handicap golfers are playing and it makes sense for them to be conservative with green speeds.

It did get me thinking, however, that some of my favorite golf experiences in the past few years have been on greens that were slower than I expected. When I say “slow”, I don’t mean a shag carpet—I just mean closer to average.

One day I think about repeatedly was playing Elie Golf Club in Scotland, a course where the greens were probably running at a 9 on the Stimpmeter if I had to guess. The real skill there was navigating all of the firm humps and hollows on the approach shot—and the slower green speeds allowed for that challenge to be interesting.

I would also point out a recent round at Chambers Bay (host of the 2015 U.S. Open) where the greens were rolling closer to a 10. The firmness of the greens, combined with a reasonable speed, made approach shots fun while allowing putting to be manageable.

For me, it’s gotten to the point where playing hyper-fast greens is significantly less fun than layouts with more reasonable speeds. Having greens running like concrete has become trendy in golf over the years as courses—mostly private clubs—compete in an arms race of faster greens, but that has come at a cost.

• Maintaining faster greens is more expensive, the USGA says. Lower mowing heights, regular topdressing, verticutting and hand watering are just some of the practices involved in maintaining faster greens. Courses with faster greens typically invest heavily in improving putting green health by doing things like removing trees and enhancing drainage. That type of maintenance is beyond the budget of most golf courses. It also puts the health of the greens in more danger as courses push speeds to the edge.

• Playing faster greens makes the game slower. According to a 2017 USGA study, every foot of increase in green speed increased the average pace-of-play by 6.4 seconds per player per hole. That resulted in more than a seven-minute increase in the total round time for a foursome. So if a course went from a 9 to an 11 on the Stimpmeter, the round took 14 minutes longer.

• The actual playing conditions of faster greens can make the game significantly harder for high-handicap players while simultaneously dumbing the game down for better players. Faster green speeds often require less break to be played because fewer hole locations can be used on greens. Also, the more time a ball spends rolling—which is typically the case on faster greens where players have to hit putts more softly—the more likely it is to be impacted by imperfections on the green. When top pros are faced with slower greens that feature more break, it’s often harder for them than when playing lightning-fast greens with less break.

Green speeds used to be a lot slower

How much faster have greens become?

In 1978, the USGA standardized the Stimpmeter and began taking measurements of many golf courses in America. They measured more than 2,000 golf courses and found the average Stimpmeter reading to be 6.5.

More than 40 years later, there are a lot of fairways across the U.S. that run above 6.5.

The mowing heights for greens in the ’70s were generally higher than they are today. The maintenance element has also been improved to allow for greens that go well beyond 6.5. In fact, today’s greens average beyond 9 on the Stimpmeter, nearly three feet faster than they used to be.

The high end of the green speed chart is more populated today as some of the top clubs in the world push towards 11, 12, 13 and beyond on the Stimpmeter.

But just because greens can be faster doesn’t mean they should be taken to those levels.

Many courses in the U.S. and around the world were specifically designed with slower green speeds in mind. Their greens are tilted and undulating in a way that caters to slower green speeds. Having those greens run at something ridiculous like a 12 or 13 on the Stimp is not what the architect intended. Those courses would be better—meaning more fun with faster rounds—if they just lowered the speed a couple of feet.

Unfortunately, ego gets in the way. Clubs compete to see who has the fastest greens in town. Some golfers associate slower greens as a sign of weakness—it’s like a badge of honor for their course to dole out maximum punishment on the greens.

Hopefully, that mentality is starting to shift as golf is welcoming an influx of beginners. Playing the game faster and shooting lower scores is fun.

I’m not suggesting every golf course should slow their greens down to an 8. There are some places that should be at a 10 or 11, especially if their greens are flatter and less interesting.

And I think most of us can agree that smoothness of greens is the most critical factor for enjoyment. In that same 2017 USGA study I cited earlier, the golfers surveyed listed smoothness as their top priority for deciding which greens they like.

Having said that, when a course has a ton of slope and the greens are very fast, I don’t understand how that is interesting or fun. I prefer slower greens with more break.

What is your ideal pace for green speeds? Let me know below in the comments.

Top Photo Caption: Slowing down green speeds might be helpful at all levels of the game. (GETTY IMAGES/Michael Reaves)