Your guide to understanding how aim works on artificial turf.
Putting Baseline
Putting is a crucial stroke in the golf, as it can notably influence 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 guarantee our synthetic turf greens putted similar to natural greens we created standardized testing methods to check 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 designed to impartially measure the effect of different surfaces on the golf ball. The procedure is automated in such a way that it remove the human interference and variability. For instance, 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 regularly reproduce identical ball strokes for the putting motion, and two launching mechanisms that administer backspin to the ball from ground level and from 2ft from the ground. The device 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 practice can be used to:
1. Set up a guideline for perfect playability of putting greens using natural grass greens at the highest level;
2. Benchmark playability of a notable course vs. the baseline;
3. Benchmark the playability of an artificial putting system vs. natural green;
4. Create 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 precise every time, but did you know that the value 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 hits the turf:
Turf Stiffness
The tension of the turf alters how the golf ball will move throughout the putt, if the fiber is not optimized for putting specifically it can create unpredictable ball movement while rolling ”chatter.”
Friction Properties
Friction properties amidst the ball and the turf also hugely 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. Correctly infilled putting greens will simulate 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 different putting surfaces (bermuda, bent, nylon synthetic, polyethylene synthetic, and polypropylene synthetic)
The Southwest Greens Difference
Having a good quality turf will give you the assurance to know the ball will respond the way it is supposed to. The type of turf will certainly affect your shot. The correctness of the turf lets the aim be as accurate as possible, and you can now have this at your home with our fan-favorite Golden Bear Turf.
Golden Bear Turf’s aim is scientifically developed and tested to match pro-quality putting greens. Shot after shot and putt after putt, Golden Bear has the tightest perimeter and the most accurate aim of any putting surface. For pro-level consistency, it’s only the best synthetic green for putting aim on the market.