Sadistic pin placements

Hey Bullitt, where do you play? I used to be the assistant superintendent at Kings Grant in Fayetteville in the early to mid 90's. When I used to set the holes, I would try to make 6 easy,6 medium,and 6 tough hole placements. I would NEVER put a hole on a slope or near the bottom or top of a slope. The tough hole placements were usually tucked behind a bunker, or as close to an edge as was fair. I was always thinking about pace of play when I placed the holes. If I had to use a questionable hole placement, I would do it during the week when play wasn't as heavy. I've seen a lot of bad hole placements at other courses, and a lot of times they are placed by guys that don't play. Sometimes guys just don't care that the players have fun.

I'm a member at a course that is notorious for this.  Most of the greens are huge, which should usually be nice to play, but when the pin is 6 feet off the left fringe and you miss right you're looking at an 80 foot putt.  The slopes of the greens are also pretty drastic.  I think the pin setter must have a pretty good sense of humor.

I've seen some pretty stupid pin placements over the years on muni's and think it's due to greenskeeper's that don't know what they are doing. A pin should never be on a slope. If you can drop a ball next to a hole and it rolls away, it's a bad pin position.

I've seen pins where from below the hole you putt to the cup and the ball rolls back towards you. That's a mistake made by the greenskeeper.
 

Thats what you might call a, "sucker pin".  When they are like that, you need to simply go for the center of the green and trust your putter.

At the club I used to belong to, one day a year the course would be set with all the pins on humps, edges, and slopes, we would then play a 4-man scramble tournament, and have a good laugh at the absurdity of it all.  On a couple of the holes, you either made the 20 footer or the ball was right back at your feet.

My home course has very fast greens that can host some pretty ridiculous hole locations. Whenever we find one in such a spot we figure the greenskeeper must have gotten in a fight with his wife.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bullitt5339 

You can't go for the center, because then you're putting downhill towards a slope off the green,  So when you tap it, it ends up 12' off the green, chip up short, ball rolls back to your feet, chip up long and then miss the putt back and you're 12' off the green again.  We're not talking simple sucker pins, I know how to play those, we're talking about impossible to stop the ball near the hole.  Miss the hole at all, even if the speed is good and the ball is going to change direction and run off the green, picking up speed as it goes.

Par 3, #15 at Rancho San Jauquin here in Irvine is exactly as you described when mowed daily... When they place the pin on the right side - front or middle pins cause the ball to roll off the green.  They had to stop mowing that green daily - to slow it down from the rest of the course - given the severity of the slope, as it wouldn't hold putts/shots.  Talk about frustrating... I've had rounds where I was even or one over... And walked off four or five over.  

I am putting so bad right now that every hole placement looks bad to me!

That aint no sucker pin, those pins are in area's that are unfair. Sucker pins are ones that are sat behind bunkers in areas of the green were if you hit it straight at it, there's a better chance of ending up in a bunker or off the green than near the pin.

As for those pins, that should never happen. A ball should never run away from you on any putt. They might be fast, but shouldn't be unfair. True example is having a ball end up short of the pin, than rolling back down the hill, that should never happen. Unless you have a tiered green, were if you come up like 2 feet short it rolls back, that is ok. The reason is, close to the hole or past it is safe. 

This thread reminded me of a hole on one course I played this year.   The green sloped severely from back to front and the pin was about 10' off the front edge.   Naturally, I ended up above the hole and barely tapped the ball.   It went right over the hole and rolled past it onto the fringe.   From there, I hit what I thought was a perfect putt back up the hill to the cup.    It wasn't perfect.   It stopped literally within an inch of the cup and then rolled right back to me!    So, I tried it again, but this time I missed about an inch to the right and.........   you guessed it, it came right back down to the fringe.    I ended up putting twice more before I finally got the ball in the hole............    By the time I finally made the putt, I had gone from  disappointed to mad and finally to laughing so hard I almost couldn't make the stroke!