Smallest Green

A friend of mine is a member at West Essex Golf Club and forwarded me this email.

“We think the 5th hole at West Essex Golf Club could be the smallest championship green in England. Known as‘the Frying Pan’ by the members, SkyCaddie have measured the circular green as only 14 yards wide (about 154 sq. yards). The 8th hole at Royal Troon, known as the postage stamp, is only about 10 yards wide but is 30 yards long (around 300 sq. yards). So the 5th at West Essex is about half the size of the postage stamp. Does anyone know of a smaller championship green in England?”

They may have got a little confused as Royal Troon is in Scotland but I think you get the idea.

At 148 yards and 14 yards diameter it is pretty small. I wondered whether anyone could out do this. I have been on Google Maps and used their measuring tool (bottom left of the map) and my course has nothing that close. Similar width but much longer. The tool seems pretty accurate judging my how good it was on a tennis court I measured.

The only ones that I can think that come close are at Scrabo Golf Club in Northern Ireland. Again, a few narrower but then a bit longer so not sure of the area. The thing with Scrabo is that its not just one green that competes but loads.

Not in the UK, but I wonder how big pebble beaches 7th green is?

Any of our winter greens would win hands down.

McLaren wrote:Not in the UK, but I wonder how big pebble beaches 7th green is?

thats pretty long i think

The 11th at TOC is like an Irish Runway, really really wide but not very long.

Pebbles 7th is just slightly smaller than average Mac, the problem green at Pebble is the 14th. It may not be small per se but about 3/4 of it might as well not be there because the ball doesn't stay in it. The actual working part of the green is probably the smallest in championship golf.

At nearby Spyglass the 4th green is exceptionally narrow (about 6 yards) but quite long. The par 3 15th is tiny there too.

Ok then, what about the 9th at silloth? It is known as silloths version of the postage stamp.

I could spend a lot of time that I haven't got on google maps trying to jog my memory of particularly small greens. Spyglass's 4th is definitely the narrowest, in overall square footage terms it's very difficult to judge. I don't remember Silloths 9th being overly small either Mac.

JAS

Silloths 9th is pretty small, and pebbles 7th below average size.

Just been on google maps (saddo that I am!!) I'm surprised at how small Pebble's 7th is (and I've played it 3 times), even more surprising though is the 14th I though it was average in overall terms but with just a tiny working area But it is actually quite small overall (anything right of the right side of the left bunker simply runs off the front so in practical terms it's a 20 foot wide strip extending about 30 foot from the bunker so approx 600 square feet.

The Google Maps measuring tools is a dangerous time waster. You can see how far people really drive the ball, how far your Sunday best is and what you are happy with.

I hit the ball a pretty decent distance for a club golfer and I always find it funny when I play with someone and they say something like, "I'm sure that you must be able to get it about 300 yards." I then tell them that I'm very happy with 260 and 240 is decent they are quite surprised. As well as disappointed as it means that they are probably only hitting 220.

Was the longest drive you've ever hit measured at "289" yards, by any chance???

super_realist wrote:The 11th at TOC is like an Irish Runway, really really wide but not very long.

The 12th green at the European Club in Brittas Bay Ireland is 127 yards long, surely enough to land a 747 on!!!

twoeightnine wrote:The Google Maps measuring tools is a dangerous time waster. You can see how far people really drive the ball, how far your Sunday best is and what you are happy with.

I hit the ball a pretty decent distance for a club golfer and I always find it funny when I play with someone and they say something like, "I'm sure that you must be able to get it about 300 yards." I then tell them that I'm very happy with 260 and 240 is decent they are quite surprised. As well as disappointed as it means that they are probably only hitting 220.

Yes I remember the first time I started to measure where I though my longest drives could get to, talk about a confidence sapping experience. Like you it turns out 240 to 250 is a decent effort.

Skydriver wrote:Was the longest drive you've ever hit measured at "289" yards, by any chance???

Nice! No, house number. Obviously I can boom it out much further....

I think St Georges Hill [10th?] and Royal Worlington [7th?] are the smallest I have played. The Saucer 15th on Gullane No 3 is also tiny.

Hi Doon

What was royal worlington like? It is a course I really want to play, in fact I may have asked you this question before?

Mac
It is a great wee 9 holer.
Cambridge University used to play many of their matches there.
The quality of the greens was superb they would be in my top 5 ever putted on.
Small tricky greens so your chipping has to be good to score. Very few bunkers, if I remember correctly there are less than a dozen. Two sets of tees.
Quite difficult to get on as a visitor but the members and staff are very friendly.
Nice little clubhouse.
Played it quite a bit when I lived in that area.

Mind you that was nearly 40 years ago. [yikes]

I can't really think of any unusually small greens. The one at Gullane 3 was mentioned above. I think the 13th at North Berwick West is pretty small too (the one with the green on the other side of the wall).

I can think of some greens that are either very narrow, or very shallow.

There's one at Hanbury Manor (near Ware in Hertfordshire) - I think it's the 9th - a par 5 up hill. The fairway winds up to the left of the green, and then turns right. If you are bold enough to go for the green in two, then you're aiming uphill at a green you can't really see on a ledge, with a sea of rough and bunkers in front. When you get up there the green is perhaps 20 feet from front to back.

If you take the long route, you are approaching from the side of the green. So the green now appears narrow, but very long - maybe 70 feet from front to back.

It's hard to describe how it is, but it's an unusual and memorable hole.

Also in Herts, there are two holes at Moor Park with odd greens. The green on the 14th on the High Course is about 50 yards wide, but only about 6 yards from front to back. And the 13th on the West Course is a par 3 with a green that's about 6 yards wide and maybe 30 yards deep.