Your guide to understanding how aim works on artificial turf.
Putting Baseline
Putting is an essential stroke in the game of golf, as it can considerably affect a player’s outcome in a single round. Any putting surface, natural or artificial, has essential playability parameters that rule the “putting quality” of such a surface. Bounce, spin, trueness, speed, aim, firmness, and consistency are some of the key attributes that affect “putting quality”.
To ensure our synthetic turf greens putted akin to natural greens we generated standardized testing methods to evaluate both natural and synthetic putting greens. These testing methods help deliver the country club golf course experience at your own backyard putting green.
The Putting Green Assessment Tool is devised to impartially measure the effect of different surfaces on the golf ball. The method is automated in such a way that it gets rid of the human interference and variability. For example, a golfer requested to putt 10 times will likely create 10 different shots. It uses a simple device equipped with a free swinging putter to repeatedly reproduce identical ball strokes for the putting motion, and two launching mechanisms that apply backspin to the ball from ground level and from 2ft from the ground. The apparatus generates data related to ball strike, spin, bounce, and aim. Other tests used in the protocol are well-known to most in the golf industry: speed and firmness(Stimpmeter and TruFirm).
This method can be used to:
1. Set up a baseline for perfect playability of putting greens using natural grass greens at the highest level;
2. Benchmark playability of a specific course vs. the baseline;
3. Benchmark the playability of an artificial putting system vs. natural green;
4. Generate product comparison data and advance product development intentionally to achieve a specific target.
How Turf Affects Aim
Aim is a significant skill you have to practice to get the shot accurate every time, but did you know that the quality of the turf you’re on plays a role, too? Here are the few elements that affect how the ball reacts when you’ve taken your swing and the ball lands:
Turf Stiffness
The stiffness of the turf alters how the golf ball will move throughout the putt, if the fiber is not optimized for putting particularly it can create erratic ball movement while rolling ”chatter.”
Friction Properties
Friction properties amid the ball and the turf also largely affect how the ball slides and rolls. If putting surface friction is not optimized it will not properly transition the club face and spin will form a bouncing effect instead of a smooth roll.
Pile Lay
A natural green is rolled to assure the fibers are not standing upright. Properly infilled putting greens will imitate natural rolled greens and avoid grain irregularities.
To test aim and surface variation; we measured the relative variation of standardized putts on a multitude of miscellaneous putting surfaces (bermuda, bent, nylon synthetic, polyethylene synthetic, and polypropylene synthetic)
The Southwest Greens Difference
Having a good value turf will provide you the assurance to know the ball will react the way it is supposed to. The type of turf will absolutely affect your shot. The precision of the turf lets the aim be as accurate as it can be, and you can now have this on your own lawn with our fan-favorite Golden Bear Turf.
Golden Bear Turf’s aim is scientifically developed and tested to go toe-to-toe with pro-quality putting greens. Shot after shot and putt after putt, Golden Bear has the snugest perimeter and the finest aim of any putting surface. For pro-level consistency, it’s simply the best synthetic green for putting aim on the market.