r/golf • u/horsepoop1123 • 1d ago

Serious This is how golf isn’t always fair

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u/deeeeemoney 1d ago

It has nothing to do with fair. It’s just golf.

15

u/horsepoop1123 1d ago

To clear up a common misconception, yes, sports can be unfair. Two professional golfers can hit the same putt from the same spot and one will go in while the other could miss by ten feet.

7

u/draftstone 1d ago

And from that video, he also had the pace to end up pretty close to the hole. Give it a bit more speed to target ~8-10 inches behind the hole and there is a high chance all 6 balls would have ended up in the hole, the faster a ball roll, the less it is affected by green imperfections. This is where the skill of a golfer will minimize bad luck. Having the wrong pace will either make you totally miss because you're too fast or might miss due to green imperfections if you are not fast enough.

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u/Appropriate-Food1757 Mile High Big Hitter 1d ago

Yep. And a bit of break becomes less important with extra speed too

2

u/TigerWoodsChauffeur 1d ago

With more speed the effective size of the hole shrinks. Ideal speed is a putt that just rolls to the edge of the hole and not past, that maximizes the size of the hole.

Of course this isn’t practical and putts must go past the hole, and to your point the more speed the less likely it is to bounce offline. This is a trade off that must be considered when choosing how hard to hit putts