The Pro Tours Random Thoughts and Musings Thread

[turtleback]

Are the greens on PGATour tournament courses an apples to apples comparison to the greens on LPGA tournament courses?

[GolfLug]

On 8/18/2025 at 6:47 AM, colin007 said:

Are there any ladies on the LPGA who could hang with the PGA guys when it comes to putting or chipping?

In all seriousness, these are low SV skills so yes, I'm guessing not only could they hang, there's actually a good chance that some of them could be better than some men on the PGA. 

12 hours ago, Shindig said:

I wouldn't be surprised if there are ladies who aren't professional golfers who can hang with the PGA Tour guys when it comes to putting;  possibly chipping (I haven't thought about that one as much).  

Put it this way:  you've heard of people who practice regularly and spend half (or more) of their practice time putting;  I don't even mean when I'm in the week before a tournament, or if putting is a glaring weakness relative to handicap.  I mean there are people who (incorrectly) believe that's the right practice ratio.  I don't need to repeat the bad math here, I hope.

Some of those people turn out to be really good at putting, especially if they keep up regular practice at this ratio for a long time;  I would go so far as to speculate there are people who convert makeable putts (inside 15') at a higher rate than scratch (male) golfers over the course of a season, regardless of what the putt is for.  We've all met people who make an occasional 8' putt for par and then proudly explain that's how they saved a stroke and we should all practice putting more (nevermind why they had an 8' putt for par on such a regular basis).  I'm not convinced the ceiling of how good someone can get at putting is PGA Tour level -- although it's the ceiling for how far I'd want to get.

It wouldn't surprise me if some of the people in the world who can do that are women.  

I don't know enough about the depth of the LPGA Tour to know if someone whose golf game was built that way would make it to the tour.  We have occasional people on the open side whose strength is clearly inside 50 yards (and on rare occasion, they make a big splash or even win a tournament).  

Yeah.

[p1n9183]

I don't think they can match up off the tee and on approach shots, but I do around the greens and putting. There's no real difference in strength so It should be very reasonable to find woman that are above PGA average level or at least beat a couple of them. 

[Shindig]

13 hours ago, turtleback said:

Are the greens on PGATour tournament courses an apples to apples comparison to the greens on LPGA tournament courses?

My understanding is that the PGA Tour greens are faster and the pins are more tucked than LPGA Tour tournament setups.  However, the degree to which that affects chipping and putting isn't something I know.  

My (very possibly wrong, someone please correct me!) understanding is that faster greens reward better putters.  Being short sided and having a short game shot to a tucked pin is harder and might require a better ability to stop a ball precisely, but I don't know how much the PGA Tour's higher full swing clubhead speeds affect short game shots.  

[iacas]

9 hours ago, GolfLug said:

In all seriousness, these are low SV skills so yes, I'm guessing not only could they hang, there's actually a good chance that some of them could be better than some men on the PGA. 

Yeah.

Women often don't trust the speed they need to hit some of the short game shots.

[p1n9183]

21 hours ago, Shindig said:

faster greens reward better putters

Smoother greens rewards better putters. The faster the green, the bigger the error in distance control. But, if you make the greens too slow good players are not used to hit the ball that hard so it can make them struggle a bit.

[iacas]

2 hours ago, p1n9183 said:

Smoother greens rewards better putters. The faster the green, the bigger the error in distance control. But, if you make the greens too slow good players are not used to hit the ball that hard so it can make them struggle a bit.

That's part of why faster greens reward better putters. Given time to acclimate, golfers of any level (not talking about utter beginners or people who can't break 100 often) putt better on faster greens.

[saevel25]

Yea, faster greens = shorter putting stroke. You can be more accurate. 

Really, I think people who struggle with distance control struggle just as much on slow greens as fast greens. I've seen people blast putts 10-FT past the hole on 8 or 9 STIMP as much as 11-12 STIMP. 

I prefer faster greens. Usually means the putting surface is better and again, shorter putting stroke. 

 

 

[turtleback]

Then why doesn't the LPGA make the tournament greens faster so the better putters can shine?

[iacas]

23 minutes ago, turtleback said:

Then why doesn't the LPGA make the tournament greens faster so the better putters can shine?

They do putt on faster greens, but they also don't have the money to push the greens as far as they can on the PGA Tour.