One vital decision you’ll need to make with your synthetic golf green is, what cups are you going to choose?
There are two options here:
1. Standard Cups: These are the normal putting cups that you’ve no doubt seen before. They are inexpensive at around $25 each and do a good job. The main downfall with these cups are they a tricky to get set exactly right.
Why?
Because normally, for a real golf green, you’d set the cup around 25mm-50mm below the surface of the green. This allows the ball to strike the bare dirt and then drop into the hole. But one can’t do this with a synthetic golf green because you’ll get a lot of overhang. So the cup must be set near the surface of the putting surface. But this also causes a problem in that the ball can strike the rim of the cup and then bounce out. These “plastic lip outs” are annoying and will frustrate the golfer looking for the most realistic experience.
The second option is…
2. Platinum Cups: These beauties offer the serious golfer the very best finish to their green. With the Platinum Cups you are limiting the “plastic lip outs” and the ball can be struck firmly into the back of the hole without it bouncing out.
The second point with the Platinum variety is it’s much easier to get the infill right up to the edge of the cup. The rubber edge acts as a barrier, giving a better and more consistent roll.
The other good thing with the Platinum Cup is you can remove the internal part of the cup – this is handy to remove any infill that has fallen into the hole. This isn’t so easy with the Standard Cup.
The issue with the Platinum Cups is they are expensive. Pricing is $150 per cup + GST and freight.
What sort of putting cup should you choose?
For what it’s worth, here’s my advice:
If you’re a super serious golfer and you want (like) the best, then the Platinum Cups are your only choice. Don’t even think about the Standard Cup because the lip outs will annoy you.
If you’re not so serious, and your golf green is for a bit of fun then the Standard Cup will be fine. You’ll save some money and you probably won’t know what the fuss is about. And for what it’s worth, when I installed my putting new putting green this year, I installed both standard and Premium cups to see how both would work out, and here’s my verdict after a few months of use…
For small backyard putting greens, the plastic cups work just fine. Yep, there’s a little bit of sand in the bottom, but this isn’t a huge issue.