Cutting Cups

How do you change cups? Why?

A routine ritual on a golf course. Again all courses are different but most change hole locations daily if not every other day. Our hole locations are moved every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Some are often surprised when they learn that cups are moved often. Reason being…if the cup remained in the same spot day after day week after week etc…everyone would be walking to the same location on the green….causing unwanted wear and tear. Lets not forget…those missed putt reactions (Shown below).

Its all about sustaining healthy turf and changing cups often is a great way to reduce stress.

Changing cups benefits the golfer as well! A new hole location gives the golfer a different experience every time. One would simply become bored hitting/putting into the same hole. Level of difficulty changes when the cup is moved…so we must keep in mind not to create hard locations in every green and at the same time not too easy!

Below is the process of changing a cup.

Removal of current cup.

New location is chosen and cup cutting begins. Our cup cutter is the HiO (Hole in One) cup cutter. One can hammer down the blade compared to using one’s own strength pushing and twisting downward.

Check to see if hammered down straight!

Once hammered to the set depth…the plug is removed by slowly twisting upward. Feet are placed around new hole location to prevent surrounding turf from pulling up with the cup cutter.

While the freshly cut plug is still in the cup cutter…it is placed into the old hole location.

Where as you can see…is removed by lifting up the handle on side of cup cutter.

The plug must be neatly knitted into its new home.

Must be flush with putting surface…too low or high can affect a golfers putt. Not to mention a high plug is bound to be scalped by the mower and low plug can not be reached by the mower resulting in shaggy turf.