When You're Putting From 10 Feet and Leave Yourself 25

[saevel25]

16 hours ago, billchao said:

I have also had a 10' putt end up as a 40 yard pitch once. That was fun 🙃

I had a 15' putt end up going 60 yards down a hill once. The green was a three tier green. If the pin is in the middle tier and you hit it to the back tier you can't stop the ball from going off the green unless it hits the pin. Then there is about a 60 yard steep slope infront of the green. Fun times! 

[phillyk]

16 hours ago, Double Mocha Man said:

With a bad pin position on #3 on the Avalon South course (local course) a friend had an uphill 3 footer, but yanked it past the hole by a foot, but it wasn't done yet.  As we stared in disbelief the ball started rolling backwards and right into the cup!  (That's the answer to the trick question... how does a ball on the green roll 5 feet to make a 3 footer?) 

The front of that green is definitely nasty.  Hard to make any putts with a hole location near that slope.

58 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I had a 15' putt end up going 60 yards down a hill once. The green was a three tier green. If the pin is in the middle tier and you hit it to the back tier you can't stop the ball from going off the green unless it hits the pin. Then there is about a 60 yard steep slope in front of the green. Fun times! 

I had a similar occurrence.  I was on the back of the green looking towards the front; had about 20ft.  Hole location was ok, except for the 5ft tier drop that starts a couple feet after the hole. When the greens are quick like this day, it'll roll down to the front edge which is about 30yds and then down the approach area to about 45yds away.  Normal stages of emotion don't apply here. I jump past anger to utter disbelief and almost into a stage of the world is about to end. 😁

[Bucki1968]

I played a course recently where I hit it to about 8 feet on a par three and my playing partner hit about 10 feet above the hole. His putt rolled off the green and he hit his pitch to the same spot he had just putted from. He eventually picked up on his 8th stroke. It was an awful pin. It was also a Sunday and everyone was taking forever on the hole (9th hole). We got over to the 10th hole and there was three groups waiting on the tee. We just left. They did give us a 9 hole rain check. 

[Pretzel]

I played in a tournament down at Walking Stick Golf Course down in Pueblo when they had the greens rolling at a 12. The pro was quite proud to show all the players it was indeed a 12 using his stimp meter before the round.

 

The problem is that most of the greens there have 2 or 3 tiers, and each tier is about 1-2 feet taller than the previous tier with a very distinct line where it drops off. They all build from being low in the front of the green to tall in the rear, so hitting past the hole to a higher tier was a death sentence. If you putted the ball you'd end up a minimum of 5 yards off the front. I stayed on the green only once that tournament when my approach stopped above the hole, and that was only because I used a wedge to try and clip the ball with a lot of spin.

I don't mind penalizing fast tiered greens like that ordinarily, I just get fed up when you see it on nearly every single hole. It's an interesting design made boring from overuse in that case.

[DeadMan]

6 minutes ago, Pretzel said:

I played in a tournament down at Walking Stick Golf Course down in Pueblo when they had the greens rolling at a 12. The pro was quite proud to show all the players it was indeed a 12 using his stimp meter before the round.

The problem is that most of the greens there have 2 or 3 tiers, and each tier is about 1-2 feet taller than the previous tier with a very distinct line where it drops off. They all build from being low in the front of the green to tall in the rear, so hitting past the hole to a higher tier was a death sentence. If you putted the ball you'd end up a minimum of 5 yards off the front. I stayed on the green only once that tournament when my approach stopped above the hole, and that was only because I used a wedge to try and clip the ball with a lot of spin.

I don't mind penalizing fast tiered greens like that ordinarily, I just get fed up when you see it on nearly every single hole. It's an interesting design made boring from overuse in that case.

I waiting for you to post this story. I think every round we've played, you've told me about it.

[Pretzel]

2 hours ago, DeadMan said:

I waiting for you to post this story. I think every round we've played, you've told me about it.

Hey, I've only got a few stories good enough to be worth telling so I have to milk them for what they're worth! 😅

[billchao]

8 hours ago, saevel25 said:

I had a 15' putt end up going 60 yards down a hill once. The green was a three tier green. If the pin is in the middle tier and you hit it to the back tier you can't stop the ball from going off the green unless it hits the pin. Then there is about a 60 yard steep slope infront of the green. Fun times! 

It was pretty much a something like that, yea.

[sjduffers]

19 hours ago, DeadMan said:

I saw a guy make a 10 with a similar pin location. I think he technically only had 3 putts on the green, but twice he putted off the green. 

Actually, if you follow the PGA Tour way of counting putts (and some other tournaments too), once you start putting, ie from on the green, all the subsequent strokes are counted as putts, whether off the green or on the green (or penalty strokes).

I had this situation happen too but from the other side with the hole cut just on the edge of a false front so a 12 footer that barely missed the hole ended up a good 40 yards away. I should have declared an unplayable a redo the putt from the same location (with a penalty stroke of course) rather than pitch up and then 3-putt from there! 

[Killa]

Such pins are just stupid and scores show nothing of a golfer skill on such holes. One guy gets lucky and sticks it really close for a tap in, the rest can easily end up with 10s...

[ChetlovesMer]

29 minutes ago, Killa said:

Such pins are just stupid and scores show nothing of a golfer skill on such holes. One guy gets lucky and sticks it really close for a tap in, the rest can easily end up with 10s...

Totally agree. 

I used to occasionally play a course that did this kind of thing on 2 or 3 holes each side. Sometimes even more. The course used to brag about how "challenging" the course is and how its a "test of your golf skill" and blah, blah, blah. In my opinion it was just a course cut into a corn field with a bunch of ridiculous Mini-Golf style greens. I had a buddy who loved the place though. He'd always want to play out there. We'd play and hit 13 fairways. Get 9 GIR's, 16 NGIR's and shoot like 97. Because we'd literally have 45 putts on the card. You'd get two 10's because it was literally impossible to stop the ball near the hole. I thought it was ridiculous. He'd always say, "This is the kind of course the pros play." I'd ask "How come there are never any pros on it?" 

The layout was nothing special. The greens were just stupid.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 10/9/2019 at 5:10 PM, Double Mocha Man said:

With a bad pin position on #3 on the Avalon South course (local course) a friend had an uphill 3 footer, but yanked it past the hole by a foot, but it wasn't done yet.  As we stared in disbelief the ball started rolling backwards and right into the cup!  (That's the answer to the trick question... how does a ball on the green roll 5 feet to make a 3 footer?) 

That 40 yard pitch must have been at Pebble Beach on #14, before they worked on the green.  Years ago when you stood on the front of the green the back section was above your head... only 25 feet away!

There's an Avalon South in the state of Washington? We have one here in NE Ohio too.

This has happened occasionally on Tour as well. If I remember correctly, the tourney was at Riviera CC in Los Angeles. Payne Stewart had an uphill putt that rolled back to his feet, He was hot! As were a lot of other pros. The tournament committee and the green keeper got a good roasting by the players and the press for losing control of the greens. 

And it wasn't that many years ago at the Masters when a player replaced his ball on the 15th green, and a gust of wind blew it off the green and into the lake! Yes, for the pros you want a real test, but it should be fair. I remember reading an article back when Augusta was really dancing on the line about just how fast they could get the greens. The article stated that the magic was disappearing from Sunday at the Masters. Everybody had to be so tentative on the greens, that the Sunday charges, along with the roars echoing through the pines, were being lost! 

But this situation is more about where the cup is cut. I had a situation like this many years ago, playing a local course on a weekend morning. So, it's packed! The 10th hole was a 190 yard par 3. I pulled a 3 or 4 iron (yes, I could hit those that far back then) and hit it about 2' from the cup! Unfortunately, it was cut right at the brink of a false front, and my ball sucked back to the fringe about 20' away. I line it up and putt it to about 6" from the hole, and it rolls back to my feet! I putt it again and it does the same thing! 

That's when the owner of the course, an insufferable a**hole if there ever was one, came roaring up in his cart, screaming at me about holding up play. I was in enough of a mood by then to brain the stupid bastard, but I just yelled back, "You sit right there! You just sit right there and watch this!" I putted the ball up the slope again, and it rolled back to my feet. I yelled at him again, "I'm not holding up play! You are, with your stupid, tricked up bullshit!" He just stomped the gas and roared off to find someone else to scream at. 

[Double Mocha Man]

Good story Buckeye.  You should have handed the owner your putter and a ball and said, "You try it and see how you do.  And while you're doing it I'll get a marshal out here to run you off the course." 

Along with Avalon South there is an Avalon North and Avalon West.  A 27 hole course.

Edited October 14, 2019 by Double Mocha Man