Do You Prefer Faster Or Slower Greens?

[Patch]

Faster for me. Easier to control the roll of the ball.

I am of the opinion that slower greens will have more of a negative effect on the roll of the ball. Faster greens not so much.

The irony for me is, that I seldom play on what I consider faster greens. Heck, I seldom see all the greens on the same course run at the same speed. 

[Double Mocha Man]

But there was no voting option for preferring temporary greens.  ☺️

[luchnia]

My only preference is to know how they play before the round starts, so I can adjust as needed.

[chilepepper]

It depends on the course/greens topography. I used to play one regularly before it closed that, if you were 6’ above the hole, downhill putt , it would not stay on the green if you missed the hole.  

[NM Golf]

I putt better on fast greens as they tend to be smoother as well. Unfortunately, the course where I play 90% of my rounds has slow greens. I am always amazed how much better I putt when I play other places.

[GolfLug]

I am not sure what is threshold for fast/slow but my experience is best greens range from 9-11. Anything slower affects trueness of roll (relatively speaking) and anything faster makes me look like I have some kind of neurosis.

Edited December 16, 2019 by GolfLug

[gbogey]

Depends on the putt.  Seriously, I find medium to slow greens easier for lag putting and faster greens easier for short range putting.

[jamo]

I putt much, much better on fast greens. 

[Edsland]

Most courses I play are on the slower side but a few weeks ago I visited my son in South Carolina. We played a course in Augusta called the River Club. Beautiful shape and super fast greens. I bet I had 6 greens that where 3 putts because I blew the 1st one 10 feet past the hole. 

[sjduffers]

I may be the contrarian here, but based on the fact that the places I play tend to have slower greens, I would say slower (within reason). A few times a year we have a tournament on really fast greens and it takes me a good while to find the right stroke for them, whereas I consider myself a good putter the rest of the year, in particular in lag putting.

[jbishop15]

Definitely faster. I tend to leave my putts short, so faster greens make it easier on me.

[bkuehn1952]

Faster as long as the speed of the greens is appropriate for the green's topography.  A few times I have played courses where the greens were not designed for extremely fast surfaces (or the idiot who built the greens just put too much slope in places).

[gbogey]

7 minutes ago, bkuehn1952 said:

Faster as long as the speed of the greens is appropriate for the green's topography.  A few times I have played courses where the greens were not designed for extremely fast surfaces (or the idiot who built the greens just put too much slope in places).

That's a really good point.  There was one course in NJ that was built in the 70's that was on the edge of a mountain.  They decided to speed up the greens to make the course harder.  A few of the holes were almost unplayable - if you got above the hole there was no way to stop a putt within 5 feet.  Was once a preferred place to play but stopped going there after they made the changes.

[Yukari]

I prefer faster greens typically 10 or above.

Slower greens, in my experience, tend to have more inconsistencies.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 12/16/2019 at 11:31 AM, DaveP043 said:

A little off topic, and I apologize, but how often do you see someone whistle a putt way past the hole, and say "Gee, this green is a lot faster than the rest", when you're thinking "Wow, you hammered that one".

Yep! A lot of guys out there with not much touch! 

On 12/16/2019 at 12:02 PM, iacas said:

@dagolfer18, please add polls for stuff like this.

I added one and voted for "faster."

Golfers putt better on faster greens. In large part because, as others have noted, they're smoother.

I voted for "faster" as well. When I'm playing a course that I'm not familiar with, I'll warm up on the practice tee, but will spend more time on the practice green, to get an idea of the speed and break.  Depending on contour, faster greens will also usually break more than slower greens of similar slope. Plus, faster greens don't requite as long of a putting stroke as slower greens, so there's less room in which to make an error. 

On 12/16/2019 at 2:13 PM, chilepepper said:

It depends on the course/greens topography. I used to play one regularly before it closed that, if you were 6’ above the hole, downhill putt , it would not stay on the green if you missed the hole.  

Now that sounds like greens that were too fast, unless you were doing what was quoted above. Hammering putts past the hole! 

[Herkimer]

I didn't expect to see 86% vote for faster greens.  I figured it might be 50/50.  I will take faster greens every time.  I see here that I'm not the only one who putts better on faster greens.  

[iSank]

Another vote for faster. The free course where I live has the slowest greens I’ve ever played. Now that I’m on that course a couple times a week, I really appreciate some roll. Just played Koolina Sunday and it was very nice to knock my first out 10 ft past the hole but then got it dialed in. 
Aloha,

iSank

[The Recreational Golfer]

Fast. True, they are generally smoother, but mainly because I like to "finesse" the ball toward the hole instead of knocking it up there.