slow greens or fast greens?

I play several different courses and all have different types of grass and therefore different speeds.  I find that slower greens tend to not roll as true as fast greens.  I find that fast greens tend to amplify a mistake in speed and line far more than slower greens.

So overall, slow greens are easier than faster greens, but I like the challenge that comes with fast greens.

While I also prefer a moderately fast green (10-11), part of the fun of golf for me is adjusting to the course conditions, whatever they may be.  I've played some extremely slow greens, and early in my playing life I hated going from fast to slow on consecutive rounds (slow to fast wasn't as bad).  Seemed like at first it was impossible to get the ball to the hole, and then I'd overcompensate and bang it way past.  But over time I learned to adjust both ways, from fast to slow and from slow to fast.  The one thing I try to do when I play an unfamiliar course is to hit the putting green to get a feel for what I'll see on the course.  It only takes me a dozen or so putts to get ready to play

I enjoy the fast greens more as long as they are not too fast.  But when I feel I need to hit the ball harder than normal for a given distance I don't tend to putt very well.  But I have played some greens where if you were behind the hole you either made the putt or were chipping again.  That's too fast for me.

Slow greens all day long because they dont penalize you as much for your mistakes.

Not so slow it becomes a day of short putts and not so fast that the weakest tap sends it flying. My parents club is the latter on tournament days. Anything above the hole and there's a chance it will roll off the green if it doesn't hit the hole. Though I blame the members. If the course plays too easy they complain. Usually the rough is overly long too.

Slow greens take more club head movement to move the ball the needed distance, compared to fast greens.  More club head movement also means greater error potential.

My last round I was out before the mowers so I had some fast and some slow.  I preferred the newly mown greens (they mowed from 1-9 and 9-1 at the same time so I only had three slower greens) because the roll was true and speed was predictable.

That happened to me on Friday and was part of what made me start thinking about this whole thing.  The greens that weren't mowed...you just had no idea at all what you should do.  Then, on Saturday I played another course that the greens were just slow all around(surprising to because they host a regular NGA tour event)..so I was expecting at least moderately fast greens.

I had more 3 putts in that 18 hole round than I have had the previous 6 months.  Have a 15 footer or so and it comes up woefully short...Think you need to hit the next one a bit firmer and it rolls too far by...Definitely error on my part but it was just hard to get in a rhythm on a slow green.

Fast Greens.  One of the better courses I've played with regard to greens was a small private club in San Diego which has Poa Annua grass.  The greens were immaculate and faster than anything I've ever putted on.  And I've played a lot of championship golf courses in my time... It was like you got the putt started, and it would just track to the hole with little effort.  I loved it.

Slow greens are bad greens...............there is no gray area on this subject.

I thought I had played courses with fast greens before yesterday.  Turns out I had not.  I got the chance to play at Pelican Hill ( http://www.pelicanhill.com/golf/north-course/) yesterday in a tournament, and I now have somewhat of an appreciation for what types of greens the pros must play on week to week.  I use Aimpoint, so I am able to get a pretty good read on stimp, and the vast majority of the courses I play around here are about a 9.  I have played a few slick ones that were probably 10's and they paled in comparison to these.  My charts only go up to 12, and that is what I think these were probably closest to.  It was amazing.  If you were not below the hole, then you had to make your putt or else you were running several feet by.

One of my competitors had a pitch from above the hole that he hit fairly well, and it still ran about 12 feet past the hole and then stopped.  For about 10 or 15 seconds, then somehow got to rolling again, and went clear off the front of the green by 10 yards.  Another competitor also putted one clear off the green on another hole.

The good news, though, was that these were also the truest greens I've ever played.  If you read the green correctly and hit your line, nothing was going to stop it from going in.  Uphill putts were quite easy to make, or at least get close.  I had 7 one-putts yesterday.**

** Unfortunately, I also had 3 three-putts and a four-putt to go along with them.  Whoops.

I can't wait for another chance at a course with greens like this now that I realize how vital it is to be below the hole.  I've never really had to consider that before on courses I've played.

Explain this a bit.

I don't really enjoy the super fast greens.  Too penalizing I guess.  And it always seems that when I do play one like that, I enjoy how true they roll, but some of the pin placements are just too tough.  You can roll it within 3 inches and rolling slow and then your ball ends up 20+ feet away.  I'm not sure it is intended to be that way.

Yup.  One of the putts where the guy hit it off the green yesterday was like that.  I've played golf with people who overcook putts and slam them off the green, but this was nothing like that.  He barely tapped it ... it was never going "fast" ... it just never stopped.

If I was striking the ball well, and I had some knowledge of the course (meaning I had a clue which part of the green I should be on) then I would love to play a course with greens like that.  But a resort course, where people are usually playing $280 to play there, I would think, would typically want to "help out" their guests a little more than that, with easier pin placements, as well as slightly slower greens.