Hole-cup modification during Coronavirus

Our club has done a number of things during this viral outbreak, but one that I like is the modification to the cups where the ball doesn't fall to the bottom, but stays in a groove where the ball is raised high enough you can pick it up easily with 2 fingers (the cup has several ribbed sections, much like in this video link...ours only has 4 ribs).... I think they should keep this modification. Haven't seen a ball go in and come out.

I think that is a great idea along with mandatory leaving the pin in place. I’m hoping to do a lot more walking this year too so I can try to maintain the social distance that sharing a riding cart doesn’t allow.

That is if they even open the courses this season....

Our club has threaded a short piece of "pool noodle" onto the flagsticks, to accomplish the same purpose. The ball can only drop about half-way into the hole, easy to extract without touching either flagstick of the outside of the cup.

We started with cups in upside down, my favorite of the options. The pin would fit in and the ball only had about a half inch of cup to go in. Since then we have put the pool noodle sticking up about 4 inches out of the cup. You don't have to pull the pin or reach in to get the ball. Probably the safest of the solutions, although one guy in our group still wanted to pull the pin.

Is that what those cups are with the rib sections, just regular cups put in upside down? I wonder if they were designed that way for that purpose (what would that be?), or if it happened to find out that upside down would work to hold the pin and keep the ball suspended high enough to reach it like that.

That's how the two courses I've played have handled it. Super easy, you don't even have to touch your own ball.

So if you don't touch your own ball - how do you get it on the tee at the next Tee box???

It doesn't matter, I think golf is done for this year.

Nothing new, there have been at least two other threads on this topic. And they aren't even near to 2 metres apart

But all golf banned over here (ie where they are).

That's me typing after a few too many nightcaps. I meant you don't have to touch any part of the hole.

i thought that or also maybe you could not scratch your xxxx when golfing..

Course I played the last two days played pool noodle at the bottom of the stick. If you putt and hit the noodle, it’s good. Kind of lame.

Anyway, there were too many people taking the stick out, and the noodle, and putting it back for their liking. The course planned on everyone leaving it in place as a best practice. So the second day they went with no pins. Only pool noodles. They cut the holes in the middle of the green, front middle or back, and had the noodle sticking up.

I will say all of this is nonsensical, but if putting to noodles and no flagsticks make businesses and people feel like they won’t catch covid, and it allows me to play golf, I’m all for it. Golf is closed in my state (MN). It’s not closed 2 hours away in Iowa.

I’ll be making more than a few trips to Iowa if they don’t open MN. It’s not like I’m not going to play.

I hate it. I agree with doing it for now. But I’ve never seen so many putts spit out in my life. I’m birdie free for 4 rounds now. And had a running average of 4.6 in January.

We have pool noodles on the flagsticks. The top of the pool noodle is about even with the top of the cup (1 inch below the green's surface) or just lower than that. No balls are spit out and the ball is easily retrieved from the hole without touching the green or flagstick. Maybe they'll be there all year.

We enjoyed this for 5 days, then the lockdown scaled up again and now all courses are closed.

ThTs what we have. It’s down in the cup. Hit the noodle bounce into the pin and out. Seems that die putters don’t mind it.

part of it I think is a mental block against the pin in. I hate it. Feels like there’s an obstruction in the way. So I find myself aiming at edges. And lipping putts out. Have to practice putts with pin in now. ( at home ) and try to work the block out

Don't fear the pin, go right at it! I'm a die putter to a fault. Pin in has really helped me go more firm 10' and in. Specially the 2-3 ft putts with some break that I had a tendency to miss low side a couple times a round.

Yea But I’m not a die putter. I’m coming in with speed if it’s 12 inches. So I’m having to rebuild stroke and aim to make it work. Still don’t know how long it will take to not feel like it’s a smaller hole. Since it actually is. Lol.

Been posted before, but this solution (in my somewhat limited experience) has minimal effect on putt outcomes and seems relatively safe to me.

dave

That sequence of events you describe, hit the noodle then the pin and bounce out doesn't sound right for the way you say you putt? If you're as aggressive as you say, wouldn't your ball would hit the pin first?

I’ll take a pic of our cups Saturday when I get back out.

maybe our pool noodles are up too far ? They aren’t up to the cup level. But they do look higher than the pvc posted above. The ball will peak above the green level when on the noodle. Does the ball peak out of the hole with the pvc above ?

and to be clear. I’m not really griping. I’m thankful to be able to get out. But my club isn’t counting putts holes if they touch the noodle or pin , and with me seeing them spit out , I don’t feel comfortable posting higher rounds and sandbagging for later.

But my club isn’t counting putts holes if they touch the noodle or pin

What does this mean? If any of the ball is below the surface of the green AND touching the flagstick, it is holed.

Meaning I’ve heard some say that if they hit the noodle and bounce out it’s considered holed.

The pic is a little deceiving as the ball is actually has a portion of it above the surface which can be seen while approaching the hole. This pic makes it look a little deeper than it is.

Have not seen that or heard that; according to the Rules, if it's not holed unless part of the ball is below the surface of the green AND is touching the flagstick. (as in the picture above)

Last time I played a couple days ago was a new course to me and they removed the flag sticks. Holes in the middle of the greens. Very strange playing to a green with no flag stick. Missed one green guessing where the green was. Overall, the most difficult thing were chips and pitches where the hole wasn't visible. Expanded circle of friendship was in place.

Yes ! Exactly what we have. Hit in anywhere but dead middle 6 o’clock and Bounces off the noodle , side swipes pin and poof. Out. You either need to drip it in. Or bang it hard enough to jump noodle and hit pin and hope it stays in.

For posting purposes, and for competitive purposes if your committee allows, all you have to do is use your best judgement as to whether the ball would have gone in.

It’s not that hard.

I agree with you. We talked about it. I was the lone vote to “ use best judgment “. And it’s hard for me to argue FOR gimmies given my historical stance to adhere to the rules as best I can. They basically flipped the rules around on me

so it’s in the hole dead or not holed .

ill stop now , just trying to figure out why I was experiencing different things than most And that pvc vs noodle pic describes it perfectly At least an inch or more difference in depth and the noodle is certainly giving more bounce/rebound than thin piece of pvc

I just played a course that put sand in the hole to about an inch from the top. The holes were pretty much in the center of the green though I wish they had painted the rims white.

No flagstick. I think they did it that way for the mowers. They also caught some fool a couple days ago removing the flagstick.