The original “Stimpmeter” was born in 1935, designed by Eddie Stimpson of Massachusetts. He made many attempts to introduce the device to the game but was shunned by some of the more conservative who, either did not appreciate its value or felt it was an undesirable intrusion into the game. This was the opinion of the R&A during the 1978 Open St. Andrews

Precisely quantifying and controlling the speed of greens was not part of the game until 1976 when Eddie Stimpson’s concept was redesigned by Frank Thomas and introduced to the game the following year. At this time mowing and agronomic practices allowed for a certain amount of manipulation of green speeds, without detrimentally affecting the health of the green. There became a need to quantify the speed so as to control it as required.

Just subjectively describing the speeds as slow or fast was not adequate. For instance while setting the ‘hole locations’ with Frank at the US Open in Atlanta P.J. Boatwright (Executive Director of the USGA) made the comment,

“The greens are slower than last year.”

“How fast were they last year?” asked Frank, to which PJ replied, “Faster than this year.” This exchange forced Frank to accelerate the testing and introduction of the new “Stimpmeter.”

Prior to settling on Eddie’s concept, three other devices were designed and drawn up but were all too complex, cumbersome and operator dependent. The simplicity and use of gravity to trigger the roll down the “V” groove runway made this device a winner. It was consistent and accurate and instructions as to its use were drawn up with a suggested table of green speeds for everyday and competition play.

The major concern Frank had was that this device would be used as a speedometer with course owners and green committee chairmen trying to break the recommended speed limit.

It happened, even at Augusta National. Fortunately things have settled down and common sense prevails in most cases. Greens are now being slowed down where necessary and where the undulations or slopes call for some restraint. The greens at Beth Page Black in 2002 were flat and could handle the 13 foot average speeds. In most cases, however, 10 to11 foot is fast enough for major competition on greens with normal undulation.