In the Midlands, and indeed in the UK, we’re used to playing on greens of differing size and speeds but we’re definitely not used to playing on courses with ‘Green Complexes’ instead of greens. JCB has many green complexes and the best way to describe them is as if each green is 2 or 3 greens knitted together - imagine a huge practice putting green with multiple slopes, that would be what a green would be like on the course there and therefore some holes will play vastly differently depending on where the pin is placed - the 190 yard 14th has a 90 yard wide green for example. The type of grass and subsurface makes an amazing difference from course to course as well, at Brocton Hall as with many established UK courses, we are used to putts which will continue to turn as they near the hole - have you ever noticed that you can’t hit short putts harder in the hope of reducing the break? Very often the way to hole putts at Brocton is to die the ball into the hole with minimum pace and maximum break. When playing on firmer and bigger greens with multiple breaks, like at JCB, it’s important to hit your long putts like we do at Brocton, but to hit your short putts with more force otherwise the ball will meander offline and miss. This doesn’t mean you have to hit them with more speed - it’s simply a case of striking the putts with more of a solid strike. On dark green, grassy greens, the ball can slide off the club face and still go in the hole but on less forgiving greens with sharper hole edges, you’d better strike the ball out the centre of the face and at the right pace if you’ve chosen the correct line!
Ironically, right in front of us at JCB G&CC was a 4-ball from Brocton who had successfully bid for the round at the Captains Charity Am-Am auction. They had a brilliant day weather-wise, some really good pin positions and a great match that also went to the last hole. |