Golf’s Evil Little Tool: The Sport Needs to Use it More Wisely

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: May 20, 2010

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Golf Pros love it. Golf Course Superintendents hate it. What is it?

A little device known as the Stimpmeter.

It was developed back in 1935 by an amateur golfer from Massachusetts, Edward Stimpson.

The USGA first used the instrument in 1976 at the U.S. Open, and it was made available to golf course superintendents in 1978. That is the key point. The device was made for use by golf course superintendents, not golf pros.

The intent by the USGA back in 1978 was for the superintendents to be able to measure the consistency of the greens on their golf course, from one green to the next. There was no intent to measure distance.

The Stimpmeter does not measure speed, as is commonly thought. It measures the distance a ball rolls. Someone, at some time, referred to the number the Stimpmeter produced as speed. Somehow it stuck. The device measures distance, not speed.

The official Stimpmeter is not sold to the public. It is an angled piece of metal (Edward Stimpson's was wood), that releases a golf ball at a certain point when raising one end of it, and the distance of the ball roll is measured from the release edge of the tool to the position where the ball ended rolling.

Usually you use three balls and get the average, and then you turn around and do the opposite direction. A somewhat flat surface is needed for the tool to work.

Superintendents like to use it for the original reason the Stimpmeter was made available to them; to measure consistency and the trueness of the ball roll. They do not like to use it to measure distance or, as it is commonly (albeit incorrectly) referred to, speed.

Golf pros love to get their hands on one (you will no doubt find one in most golf pros' offices, tucked away behind a door). They love to tell the members in the mornings what the greens are rolling. If they are rolling "slow," they try and find out why.

"C...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Golf

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