Lesson 1: Circles, Ovals, and the Putting Green
Look at a putting green from above and what do you see? It is rarely a perfect circle. Most greens are irregular shapes — kidney-shaped, teardrop-shaped, or flowing forms that curve and dip in interesting ways.
A circle is a perfectly round shape where every point on the edge is the same distance from the centre. Golfers use circles all the time — the hole itself is a circle, and when you measure distance from the hole for putting, you are thinking in circles.
A radius is the distance from the center of a circle to its edge. When a golfer says ‘I have a 6-foot putt’, they mean their ball is 6 feet from the center of the hole — the radius of an imaginary circle centered on the hole.
The shapes of greens are designed deliberately by architects to create interesting and challenging situations. A narrow green is harder to hit than a wide one. A green with ridges dividing it into sections means that where you land the ball matters as much as how close you get.
A circle has a center, and every point on its edge is the same distance from the center.
The distance from the center to the edge is called the radius. A 5-foot putt means your ball is 5 feet (the radius) from the hole.
The golf hole is 4.25 inches in diameter. That means its radius is about 2 inches. Using a piece of string 2 inches long, mark out a circle that size on the floor. Then use a 6-foot piece of string from the center — that is what a 6-foot putt looks like. How much bigger is the putt than the hole?
Visit the practice putting green. Draw a bird’s-eye view sketch of the green in your math journal — try to capture its actual shape as accurately as you can. Label: the hole, the longest part of the green, the narrowest part, and any ridges or slopes you can see. Then write: is this green a circle? If not, what shape is it most like?