TY - JOUR
AU - Askew, Shawn D.
AB - Simulated putt devices (SPDs) are marketed to golf course superintendents to steer agronomic inputs intended to improve consistency of ball roll distance and direction on green canopies. Although research has demonstrated the use of SPDs to contrive green management practices that improve ball roll distance, no peer‐reviewed research has evaluated their ability to measure golf ball directional behavior, despite the existence of products marketed for that purpose. Laboratory and field research was conducted in Blacksburg, VA, to evaluate sources of error that may influence inferences made using SPDs on golf greens. The data suggest that commercially available SPDs impart directional imprecision that is orders of magnitude greater than custom‐built flexible ramp and mechanical putter devices. A significant source of this directional imprecision between SPDs is associated with wobble, assessed by high‐speed videography, while balls were rolling down the Greenstester, PELZmeter, and US Golf Association Stimpmeter. The influence of 13 golf ball brands was secondary to that of SPDs on ball roll directional and distal imprecision. A novel method of scoring the balls’ direction was employed in the field by allowing balls to strike pressure‐sensitive paper 0.3 m before terminal motion. Repeatedly rolling balls in the same track increased ball roll distance and decreased ball directional imprecision. Brushing the creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) canopy between ball rolls eliminated these effects. These results bring into question the utility of commercially available SPDs to steer agronomic decisions on greens, especially for the purpose of improving ball roll directional precision, but prove that subtle distinctions in canopy trueness can be measured using appropriate methods.
TI - Measuring Canopy Anomaly Influence on Golf Putt Kinematics: Errors Associated with Simulated Putt Devices
JF - Crop Science
DO - 10.2135/cropsci2017.03.0211
DA - 2018-03-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/wiley/measuring-canopy-anomaly-influence-on-golf-putt-kinematics-errors-S22d0rLmWx
SP - 900
EP - 910
VL - 58
IS - 2
DP - DeepDyve
ER -