More on green speed...

What are they rolling?  This is a question any Golf Course Superintendent is asked many times a day.  The answer from the Superintendent usually comes back as a number, 9, 10, 11, 12.  The number is known as a Stimpmeter reading.  To most golfers the number represents speed, in actuality a Stimpmeter measures how far a ball rolls across the green.

The photo on the right shows Northland Irrigation Tech Rob Tripp watching while I "stimp" the floor in the ballroom.  A Stimpmeter is a 3 foot aluminum stick, which you can see in my left hand in the right hand photo and up close in the photo below.  

The Stimpmeter has a notch for the golf ball machined into the aluminum surface about 5 inches from the top.  When the Stimpmeter is raised to a 20 degree incline the golf ball rolls out of the notch, down the incline and across the green.  In order to determine the speed of a green this is done three times in one direction and the average distance the three balls rolled across the green is measured.  We then turn around and do the same in the opposite direction.  The measurements in both directions are averaged and that distance gives you a Stimpmeter reading.  Earlier this week we spent some time "stimping" the ballroom and men's locker room floors.  We came up with a stimp of 14 in the ballroom and 17 in the men's locker room.  Good information for those who might feel those floors are good practice for the course.  

The Stimpmeter in its current form was released in 1978.  The Stimpmeter was originally designed as a tool for Superintendents to measure the consistency of the greens on their golf course.  As time went by and green speeds increased, golfers and superintendents began using Stimpmeter readings from their course to compare the greens at their friends course down the road.  The problem with comparing speeds from course to course is, unless the two courses have very similarly sloped and sized greens the speeds do not really compare.  For example on a course with large relatively flat greens a 13 on the Stimpmeter might be the perfect speed.  On a course with small undulating greens a 9 or 10 might be the perfect speed.  This year we are planning to use our Stimpmeter for its intended purpose of maintaining consistency of our own greens from hole to hole and day to day.