Your guide to understanding how roll works on artificial turf.
The Physics of Golf
Physics. It impacts everything around us, and, notably, the wonderful game of golf.
Physics, the nature and properties of matter and energy: how the club impacts the ball, the ball’s flight through the air, its initial bounce, and the ball’s ultimate roll out.
Ideally, the ground in the direction of the shot would be perfectly flat, perfectly uphill, or perfectly downhill would be perfectly flat, perfectly uphill, or perfectly downhill in the direction of the shot. This would make targeting the ball into the hole a simple task and hitting it in a straight line.
Often, you will find that the ground is sloped. Now the ball trajectory can’t be a straight line to get in the hole, meaning it is a more complicated task. In this case, the ball has to follow a particular curved path to get into the hole. Whether the ball has to curve to the left or right relies on the amount of the slope and undulation of the putting green.
Whether synthetic grass or natural grass is chosen to your dream backyard putting green, the physical characteristics of the surface factor into the performance. Southwest Greens Pittsburgh uses a mix of typical golf course tests and our proprietary playability testing.
A common test to test ball roll is the stimpmeter test. Stimp testing is calculated by the distance a ball rolls on artificial turf in meters when dropped from a height of one meter. The ball-to-surface interaction of the grass is directly related to the ball roll distance.
Our proprietary playability testing for roll provides an analysis of the consistency of outputs with a standard putting stroke. The test analyzes the initial bounce of the club face and the spin to roll transition.
Let’s take a closer analysis into the elements that affect how a golf ball reacts and rolls on a turf.
Green Characteristics
Product Construction: Extruded, recycled plastics that offered in various combinations of constructions, colors, and lengths. Proper construction is vital in allowing key putting green installation practices; construction will allow turf to be infilled and rolled. Properly rolled fibers appear and play like natural greens.
Pile Height: How thick and tall the grass blades are will provide varying frictions; impacting the velocity and smoothness of your putt.
Fiber: The fiber composition will have a notable effect on how the golf ball will move throughout the putt. Friction and pile lay are affected by fiber composition. How the turf lays impacts how the ball interacts with the surface.
Infill: Integral to the turf system, infill is made of rounded washed silica. Infill allows ballast and helps drainage. How the infill is shaped is critical to performance; sharp edges and angles disrupt roll.
Aggregate Base: Compacted stone creates challenging slopes and undulations; one that performs and drains like a championship golf course.
The science in creating a Backyard Putting Green that performs like a Championship Golf Green utilizes the optimal raw materials with elite-proven-tested installation techniques. This is especially important when you are on the putting green seeking to gently get your ball into the hole.
The Southwest Greens Difference
Southwest Greens have quantified key performance indicators. Because we understand what variables impact performance, we are able to mimic natural greens.
With Golden Bear Turf, you’ll experience smoother rolls comparable to playing on your favorite championship course. Scientifically tested and developed to replicate natural grass, from the initial bounce off the clubface... to the spin transition… to the smooth ball roll into the cup...
Golden Bear represents only the best! It’s the best backyard practice putting green and offers the most realistic putting surfaces on the market.