Every year at the public course I play at they seem to have a new wrinkle for the golfing public…The latest are these hole inserts that sit dwon about a quarter of an inch from the top lip of the hole…Anyone else have an objection with these bad ideas for the aspiring golfer? Seems to me that they encourage lip outs and make the hole smaller…I’m pretty sure the greenskeepers change the holes every day anyway…
My course started using them a couple of years ago when they converted from bent grass to bermuda. The reason given was to protect the hole from breaking down. Apparently the edge was less stable with a younger root system or something.
I agree…they promote lip outs, especially if they are installed at the very top of the hole,rather than a quarter of an inch down from the top. I also wonder if they encourage that “volcano” effect near the hole.
The Rules request the hole liner to be at least an inch below so that the hard liner doesn’t bounce a ball out of the hole that should have gone in, but they do acknowledge that sometimes the nature of the soil makes it impracticable to do so. I’d hope these stabilizer rings would only be used in such situations.
Very good point Eagle…My greens were converted last summer too…Maybe that’s the ticket…Perhaps they might accidently break or turn up missing 
In the interim, I’ve dialed back slightly on the optimal holing speed since there is now less time for 51% of the ball to drop below the edge… 