Hole in One... Upside Down cup

So general question if you play one of the courses set up with the cups upside down, to prevent the spread of Corona, and hit the cup with a shot, do you count that as a hole in one and if so do you feel cheated of a great shot?

that would suck IMO

i like the sunken pool noodle idea way better for this reason

I guess if it hit the cup straight on and came straight back some guess you could. Angled off definitely not. Interesting question.

Sure does, ask me how I know lol.

NOPE, sorry, not Hole-in-One. Hitting the cup is like hitting the stick it can easily ricochet off. There's a reason the ball isn't in the cup till it hits the bottom.

Or it’s wedged against the flagstick....

Did you do it? That sucks.

I’ve got three hole in ones on pitch n putt so my answer is definitely yes lol. I think the actual rule for raised cup is it only counts as a sunk putt if the ricochet stays within three feet of the cup. Did it?

Just finished my round today in horrible wind. The cups were about 3/4” above the level green. Crazy how much more confidence it gives you. Myself and one of my buddies putted lights out. I only had 27 puts today. Now par 3’s at distance sucked because none of us could see if the ball hit the cup or not. Luckily we did not seem to have that issue as we were well away most times.

Just going on record that the raised cup idea is truly stupid. There are much better alternatives. But if you hit the raised cup and the ball stays within a foot, then yes it is an ace.

What are some better options? Please tell us.

Lots of courses are using foam or pvc rings that keep the ball from falling deep into the cup so the ball can be "cleanly" removed. Our club uses the pvc ring approach which works well.

dave

If it happened to me, yes, it's a hole in one. USGA said it's legit. And yes, I'd feel cheated because there would always be that * associated with it.

i wouldnt go out of my way to let everyone know about the hole in one i had but if somebody asked me it would be one of those "technically yeah but...." stories

If you could buy drinks at the bar, I would suggest that you give everyone a nice drink glass that is upside down.

dave

I've had a few chips "bounce out" off the flag/noodle. Depends how the noodle is seated in the cup. Sometimes its hard to tell if it was in or a hard lip out. Kind of sucks..

I have read of a number of problems with balls bouncing out of the cups with foam rings, I have not had that problem with the PVC ones, Pinehurst adds PVC pipe at bottom of hole to limit touching flagsticksdave

Now that look nice and an easy fix.

Imo, on an UPSIDE down cup, yes a hio. On a RAISED cup I’d say no unless someone saw it roll up and gently bounce off in the center. I have found that the upside down cups seated to the green and not above the green ( 3 local courses here) speed matters a lot more as I’ve had quite a few drop and bounce back out where a regular hole would’ve stayed in, my opinion of course. I’ve still experienced the ball going around the edge of the hole and not drop, not touch the flag, just like a regular hole.

another course locally has raised cups, you can bang it off the edge but no way to really judge if the ball would have fallen if the cup wasn’t raised.

no experience with pvc or foam Noodle in the hole

Our clubs cups are installed upside down and flush with the turf, rather than a 1/2” or so below like a normal cup would be installed. I’ve seen several putts that should have hit the lip and fallen that did not because the plastic cup is right on the edge of the turf and/or the ball hit one of 3 raised areas on the bottom of the cup from the molding process.

So I say if it hits plastic it counts. Everything else is crazy right now, so there might as well be bizarre hole in one stories too. Just call it an ace under corona virus rules.

Even Dave Pelz's research on this subject of how far a ball can be after hitting a upside down cup would convince me that I got a hole in one.

In my mind, if it isn't in the cup resting against the pin, it's not a hole in one. But that's just me, you guys continue to have your silly debate.

ROFL

Corona Ace

Yep. Heard the ping from the tee box, ball was less than a foot away. Only potential other explanation is it hit the flag, hard to stay from 170 yards but it was a high draw and the ball mark a good 10 feet in front of the flag. I was solo either way, so could not have recorded it.

Lol found this thread because this exact thing happened to me today. PW from 150 landed, bounced toward the cup, hit it and ricocheted back. There was a guy just off the green who said that it was center-cup and would've most likely dropped had it been normal cups.

Oh well, still made $100 on that shot though.

Anyone who can legitimately hit a PW 150 yards (even if it does have the loft of my 9i), deserves EVERY bad break the golf gods can thrust upon them

dave

ps. Congrats, anyway.

Our greens keeper had the cups in upside down. only about an Inch or so of the cup below the surface, pin stays in. For some reason today they changed to the pool noodle inserted into the cup. We were talking about whether it would count as a hole in one. Since the bar is closed it would be the cheapest one, if I made it.

Covid Ace

That is definitely the Covid/Corona Ace.

Thanks, Dave.

P.s. my PW is a RTX4 48* ?

A hole in one isn't like winning a Nobel Prize where one's work needs to be scrutinised or peer reviewed....LOL. It's just the amount of golf shots it took you on that hole playing by the local rules

If your club sets up the pins that way and defines it being in the cup like that, than i would count it. Unique circumstances....but why should you be deprived of a hole in one ?