Raised Cups

[ajlacombe]

I did not see another thread on this and played my first round with the cups raised. The first cup was not raised all the way around the hole so it made things super strange since some of the putts hit the slightly raised cup and went in anyway. Here are my general comments:

1) Cup looks WAY bigger

2) It was intimidating at first - I felt like there is no way I miss that thing. Need to just putt

3) after about 7 holes I got used to it and it was actually fun.

4) I think the better solution is a PVC pipe segment in the hole so it still drops but not very far. You would need to play if it hits the flag it is good, so a steel flagstick can not screw you :)

I think there may be a future for playing with raised cups - it was fun. Yes, its not "real" golf, but it was something different. It is a gamble, because you an hit it harder but if you miss you could be facing a long next putter.

Has anyone else played with the raised cup

[driveandputtmachine]

 

Instead of raised cups, this is what they did at my club.

[DaveLeeNC]

For the rest of the folks who frequent this thread, @ajlacombe posted this in the General Golf forum and it got moved here. IMHO, it belongs back where it started as this is about golfing experience with raised cups and not a rules (or posting) related question/thread.
dave

[rogolf]

Our course has installed the foam pool noodles which sit at about the same height as the normal cup in the hole, or just lower than that. Allows the ball into the hole and the ball can be picked up with ease and not really touching anything. If you don't walk up and look into the hole, you don't even know that they are there. Really inexpensive and effective, no doubts that the ball is holed by definition.

[puttnforthe8]

pool noodles at the course we played yesterday....trouble is some putts bounced because of them. We eventually had to go with consensus if the putt would have been good.

[cwilk]

My club installed the cups upside down. The flag still works and it allows the ball to hole out without falling in as deep as when installed normally. It works essentially the same as the piece of PVC or pool noodle around the pin as others have mentioned.

[rogolf]

The pool noodles don't fall off if the flagstick is inadvertently removed whereas the pvc pipe may do so.

[ajlacombe]

That is perfect - better than PVC pip thing too. Hopefully that catches on

[EmperorPenguin]

Help me understand this, guys. By raised cup, you mean the liner is set higher up than the Rules specify?

I remember my days way back (1995) when I was a starter at one of The Links at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach. In the 1995 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, heavy rains in the week prior saturated the area so much that PGA Tour made the decision to cancel all practice rounds for the whole week so the courses could recover. Pros were scrambling to play anywhere and we did our best to accommodate them, squeezing them in between groups and pairing them up with Resort guests who already had tee times. We were completely full that day with a rag-tag mix of tournament players and Resort guests. ( What a remarkable day that was! The highlight of the day was when Steve Elkington was being a total schmuck not wanting to play with a nice elderly couple; we comped him and tried to pair him up and he was so snooty and did not want them to play with him--and it was their tee time! He went ahead of them and refused to let them pair up. Other players were so great with Resort guests, most notably Rocco Mediate and Lee Janzen, who played together with two of our Resort guests, and they all had a blast.)

In the mid-morning of that day filled with Tour players, David Ogrin called me on to the putting green to complain that the liners are flush with the tops of the hole. He told me, "You know, the liner is supposed to be mounted at least one inch below the lip of the hole, right?" I answered, "Yes, the greenskeeper [my buddy Mick] does this to the practice green only to protect the lips from damage." David answered, "Yes, but while over the ball I don't want to think about that liner. I want to make the putt and not be distracted." I apologized and told him that I will relay it to the greenskeeper, and of course I subsequently didn't. He later ended up playing with Vijay Singh and I think Loren Roberts. I overheard Vijay and David place bets on the first tee. I muttered, I hope Vijay takes all your money, twerp! When David came in, I asked how he played. "Vijay shot 8-under and I lost six bets." Sweet justice!

Fast-forward twenty-five years and I was playing Coyote Creek in San Jose with my cousins. On the 16th hole I had a three-footer for par, and when the ball went into the hole, I realized the liner was too high; the corner of the liner hit the equator of the ball and the ball bounced out. Remember Joe Daley? Missed his Tour card in Q-school by one stroke because this.

I am not a fan of raised cups, and I think everyone is overreacting thanks to the media. The infection rate of the disease (32,800 cases out of 328 million living in America) is one percent of one percent, so I will take my chances and play just as I ordinarily would. I am more likely to die driving to the golf course than catch the virus.

[Graymulligan]

Imagine thinking that you understand virology better than the people that who actually do that for a living. It's misinformation like this that's going to get people killed.

[Jeff58]

The cup is raised above the ground level, so that the ball bounces off rather than going in the cup.

With the current death rate, if you don’t live in CA, NY, or Wa and are under 65 years of age, your probably of death is similar to being bitten by a poisonous snake.

[Augster]

Thanks for the story. And not to go on a tangent, but the raised cups, pool noodles and pvc is foolish.

I played yesterday and today with pvc in the cup. PITA since I putt with the pin out. Pull the pin and pull the pvc. Silly really. Since you can’t get C-19 by touch. Plus dramatic falloff of new cases in the US since the sanctions were put in place. In other words, you were WAY more likely to get it last week than now. 3/1 to 3/12, there were 100-200 new cases per day in the US. 3/13, 95, 3/14, 55, 3/15 35, 3/16, 12, 3/17, 8 new cases. We’ve gone from nearly 200 cases per day and growing to single digits per day. At this point you’d be pretty unlucky to get it.

[HitEmTrue]

Where are you getting your numbers? Over 16k cases in last three days. Number of cases in US has been doubling every 2 to 3 days.

Hopefully it will start flattening out a bit as folks have been taking this more seriously.

This thread will be locked...it’s a shame these issues can’t be discussed in this community.

[Colin L]

I played yesterday and today with pvc in the cup. PITA since I putt with the pin out. Pull the pin and pull the pvc. Silly really. Since you can’t get C-19 by touch. Plus dramatic falloff of new cases in the US since the sanctions were put in place.

It's bad enough for people to post dismissive stuff about this disease and the precautions being taken, but to post a statement that is completely wrong, a statement that is dangerously wrong is outrageous. As to your conclusion that the spread is miraculously slowing down in the USA have you looked at the rest of the world and the way in which and the rate at which the infection develops? Are you seeing something unique about the USA that makes it invulnerable compared with everywhere else?

Please stop peddling misleading nonsense. I see other countries already in a state of lockdown. Our schools, cinemas, theatres, restaurants and so are being closed. My country is having to spend billions on supporting workers and businesses. We will probably follow others by restricting everyone to their homes. Can't you see that anything, no matter how apparently trivial that we do to help stop the spread of this disease is worth doing. Remember that a precaution taken that proves unnecessary does no harm; a precaution we should have taken but didn't can put people at risk.

Sorry for venting off folks. That's my last rant in response to this sort of thing.

 

 

[Newby]

Since you can’t get C-19 by touch.

Really?

[DaveLeeNC]

@EmperorPenguin this is NOT ABOUT YOU. This is about who you infect.
dave

[driveandputtmachine]

Not sure where some people get their info. Myself for instance, I do not turn on MSNBC, Fox News or CNN to get information about a virus and possible pandemic. I go to the Center for Disease Control, you know the people who have trained and schooled their whole lives to find ways to protect and inform the population of the United States against diseases and viruses. Since I live in Atlanta and know 4 people that work for the CDC I also ask them. Two are infectious disease specialists, one is a virologist and the other is an epidemiologist.

Please do not post nonsense about a disease from a "News" source or a politician, that would be like going to a bicycle shop to have your car worked on. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) - TransmissionPulled these numbers from the John Hopkins Tracker, which you can find out all about online.US Cases

3/18 7,560

3/19 11,382

3/20 16,422

3/21 24,137

3/22 31,832 

A growing increase in the number of cases in the United States(even when there are not enough testing kits to go around) is NOT a slow down in the spread of the virus. The number is increasing, numbers are not that hard, I am guessing someone is getting virus information from their friends or a political source. Even after a country wide lock-down in Italy, their rate of infection is still increasing.

[J13]

That's what my club is doing and its perfect as you still hole the putt but the ball only drops 1" into the cup and requires nothing to be added or purchased. Not sure why people are raising the cup or using foam noodles. Especially the raised cup as you would count putts that wouldn't have gone in.

[DaveLeeNC]

Our club is using the PVC pipe trick and no bunker rakes (plus a request to smooth with your feet). They are also requesting that you either walk (they have a limited number unmotorized walking carts available free) or take a single cart. Before they were allowing you to take a single cart but had not been formally requesting that. I suspect this is a reflection of reduced resort play as I doubt that they had adequate carts for everyone to take one 'in season' (which is now). We are talking a big resort/club here with 9 courses spread across five locations.

All the other expected closures and 'to-go only', of course.

dave

ps. In my last round a guy in our foursome said "anybody here wear size 12 or larger shoes? If so you've got bunker responsibility for the group".

[bladehunter]

Our course used the noodles. Works as intended except. I counted 6 putts that got spit out for me yesterday. . 2 on the first hole. They’d hit the hole , bounce on the noodle and then pin and back out. Sure. Maybe a touch too much speed. But. The 3rd and 4th Ejected ones I had were from 3 ft. They weren’t traveling fast.

not griping about the conditions. But. I don’t feel like posting those scores is very honest. Unless I’m supposed to give myself those putts. Mentally I did so as to not get irritated, but on the card I wrote what happened.

[DaveLeeNC]

FWIW, I played 18 with a foursome on a course with the 2 inch PVC pipe pieces rather than foam. I did not see anything pop out of the cup.

dave

[bladehunter]

Yea. Who knows. Probably has to do with height of the pool noodle , and maybe even wind. It was a windy day for us. So pins bouncing everywhere. Also the noodles seem to have some ( minor) spring effect. Like the ball bounces into the pin faster than it was rolling. Again. Who knows. I just don’t think me posting two high rounds rounds (80-82) on a 1 handicap feels right in these instances. If I get to keep playing I could come out of this as a sandbagger. Big time.

 

 

[DaveLeeNC]

"Most Likely Score" would seem to me to be the best way to post a round such as you described.

dave

ps. Not sure about 'best' - just the way the USGA is requesting it be done.

[Sawgrass]

Supporting Dave's "most likely score" description above: https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/rules-hub/rulesarticles/covid-19-rules-and-handicapping-faqs.html

[bladehunter]

Thanks guys .... I suppose that makes sense. And puts yesterday’s round back into the range for my normal scoring average. So it wouldn’t effect anything. But still feels wrong somehow. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because on the flip side I saw a 7 iron holed from the fairway ( by someone else ) and my self left a 7 iron to a blind approach around 6 inches off the pin. Maybe it hit and came out ? We will never know. But obviously wasn’t rejecting everything . But obviously some things .

point being , it just feels like too many ifs and buts to even keep score. And yet to contradict myself again , we did keep scores , skins and Some payed out. I ended up slick after a 3 hole carryover birdie on 13. Had it not been for that approach to tap in , I’d have paid out too. And that’s fine. I’m not griping. I was happy to be out. I just think for me maybe calling it all practice makes more sense. I don’t know.

[ThinkingPlus]

Just the opposite here since our liability solution is cups above ground. My last 2 rounds are under par (really padding the vanity cap - LOL). Hit the cup, count it holed. Hard to decide the would it or wouldn't it have gone in. It's obvious when it is a glancing blow, but hard to see whether the outer edge of the ball is inside cup edge or not for better hit putts. Of course speed plays into it as well. We were going to try a proximity after striking the cup metric for holding, but those exposed cups are like springs. Good holing speed putts bounce back farther than you would believe (more than 6"). Also the slopes around the hole exaggerate or mitigate the effect so it's really not reliable. I fully expect to get, but not be able to count, my first HIO during this altered cup period. Already left one 6" away where the ball was hopping all around the hole. I don't think it hit the exposed cup, but it was awfully close.

[DaveLeeNC]

FWIW, I have holed out a shot from more than 100 yards on 2 occasions (one from the fairway and one from the tee) . For whatever reason they were both to back pins that I could not see from where the ball was struck. Guess they were both misses these days at your course

dave

[Sawgrass]

Before making such comments yet again, please consider that if you are wrong (and I believe you are immensely wrong) you may be inadvertently encouraging people to accidentally kill themselves and others.

Perhaps you are in denial, but please keep it to yourself.

[ThinkingPlus]

Exactly. What will truly be painful is to see the ball slowly roll to the hole and kiss it dead center and bounce back a few inches. Arrgghh!

[DaveLeeNC]

TP, I don't have your golf game so I don't worry about such things :-)

dave