Are Larger Cups Good for Golf?
There has been a lot written about 8 inch cups and even going to 15 inch cups for golf. The Redwoods Golf Course in the Lower Mainland of Vancouver was the first to adopt the larger holes, moving from the traditional 4.25 inch size cups to 8 inch Tuesdays.
We have a group of golf industry people in the Lower Mainland that we organize a monthly skins game for and last month we were invited by Redwoods Managing Director, Doug Hawley (thanks Doug!) to play Redwoods on 8″ cups Tuesday. The Redwoods plays 8″ cups every Tuesday and has two flags on every green. One with the larger hole and one with the traditional sized hole.
8 Inch Cups Day
At our lunch meeting prior to golf our group was told that the 8″ cups might make a two to six shot difference (lower) in your score, depending on what type of player you are. Some of our group was leary about the concept and how it breaks the traditions of the game of golf. However, following our meeting everyone hit the putting green (which we don’t often do) to roll some balls at the larger holes. Everyone warmed up to the concept and we were off.
Improving Golf Scores
Let me say this… I don’t believe that 8″ cups changed the way our group scored on the golf course. It was fun and it made us play a bit faster. For all the negativity golf has received lately and the doom and gloom attitude some people have had towards the sport, golf will survive. We just need to think about doing things differently and 8″ cups, foot golf, sling golf and other things like that are outside the box thinking that is good for the game.
8″ cups don’t really lower your score in my opinion. But what I believe they do is boost your confidence and from 10 feet and in you can make a few more putts. I also think that they assist in reducing the number of three putts. The hole really looked large inside that 10′ radius.
At the end of the day, everyone in the group stated how fun it was to make a couple of extra putts and the confidence they had when they had a birdie putt in scoring range. I for one, will play 8″ cups again and would like to give the 15″ cups a try when a Lower Mainland course adopts them.
And yes, even Tara played and enjoyed the day!
We, Jeff & Tara Ciecko of CK Golf Solutions write two blogs, one is our 19th Hole Blog where we share personal experiences and the other a Biz Blog where we comment on business best practices and give golf industry related opinions. We have owned CK Golf Solutions for 7 years and provide marketing, social media and business services to the golf and other industries. We DO NOT get paid for ANY of the blogs on our website. These are the places we visit and the things we do because we want to. When we say that we like or dislike something or have a good or bad experience this is our opinion and the truth as we see it. If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact us anytime.
Redwoods Golf Course is one of the best golf course till date.