Cup edges and solutions:

Leaving the flagstick in while putting seems to have become the new norm on most golf courses. As a downside to this now common practice, the edges of the golf holes are being beaten down by golfers reaching into the hole to retrieve their golf ball. The flagstick acts as an obstruction, and allows less room for players hands when reaching down to grab the golf ball. This results in many fingers and backs of hands scraping and rubbing against the edge of the cup. We have tried numerous ideas to mitigate this issue, from plastic cup rings, to upside down cups, and reaching out to many other properties to see what has worked for them. Nothing has seemed to totally work for everyone. We have come up with an idea that we can make in house, with pvc pipe and reducer bushings, to still allow the ball to fall into the hole, but not fall all the way down. We hope that this will help with ease of ball retrieval and in turn, reduce the problem of damaged cup edges for both play and course maintenance purposes. Shown in the photo is the view of the product looking down into the hole. If you desire to pull the flagstick out, it will stay on the flagstick and leave you with the standard golf hole, but with the flagstick in, it will prevent the ball from falling all the way to the bottom of the cup. Our prototype is in the golf hole of #18 only, as we are looking to get some feedback on the idea before producing them for the rest of the golf course.