Need Help Playing Paspalum Greens

[Ronzo]

Can't hold 'em...

Don't know if this is the proper forum for this; mods, please feel free to move it to the most appropriate forum.

Two courses in my area of South Florida recently were redesigned with Paspalum fairways and greens. A friend who is a better player said that while the courses are beautiful, he has a hard time holding Paspalum greens. Even when he hits a clean shot from a tight lie, he cannot stop the ball. His ball of choice is a ProV1.

I played last Friday, and had a lot of frustration for the same reason. On five occesions, I hit the green with 8i or less and was unable to hold it, with two shots rolling off the greens into water hazards behind. All five shots were hit cleanly from closely-mown fairway lies; ball was a TP Black. On the typical bermuda greens around here, the same length shots stop within 3 feet of the pitch mark. When I visited my son in NJ, my well-hit short iron shots to bentgrass greens from similar lies spun back, one more than 20 feet off a backstop slope. (Nice to know I can do that occasionally now, but I don't play a lot of bentgrass greens anymore.)

What do I need to do differently to hold Paspalum greens with a short iron shot? All help gratefully accepted. Clubs 8i - AW + LW are Burner Plus, SW is a Vokey 55*. I'm a digger type; no fear of going down and through the ball. Lousy with long irons, but pretty decent with an 8i or less in my hands.

Edited for poor typing skills.

[Pepperturbo]

I face that turf material regularly on a few courses in AZ and CA, it's become popular under certain conditions... I haven't seen a decrease in ball spin presuming the surface is conditioned to be receptive to a well struck ball. It might be the conditions under the turf are too firm. I've never encountered problematic turf material, typically it's the conditions right under the turf that are either too soft or hard; and that's superintendent oversight.