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What's more important, or what will help more to stop a ball on the green (let's assume technique - contact, angle of attack, swing speed, club - are all the same)....

1. the ball itself - including the materials and design, or

2. the condition of the green - wet/dry, length of grass=speed of green...?

It's just something I was thinking about after my last round. An early thanks to everyone who chips in. Get it...chips in? Yeah, I know, you all have had enough louchougesycoughjokeschough, ahhh, excuse me.

I'd have to say the green conditions. It doesn't matter what kind of ball you play, if the greens won't allow a pitch mark, it's not going to get much action. Look at what happened at the Masters, everybody was having trouble stopping the ball on the greens. They we're playing the ball short of the hole because they knew it was going to roll up.

Green has the majority to do with it, but balls also play their role in it as well. If you are playing a distance ball, then don't expect much check up from it as you would say a Pro V1 or Nike One. Also, contact plays a huge role in it as to if you are hitting down through the ball, decelerating through the hitting area, blading it, topping it, etc. Wow, come to thing of it, there are a ton of factors that come into play on how efficient you are at putting spin on the ball.

Green conditions over type of ball by a wide margin, all else being equal.

I agree that green conditions are very important, but with the new irons I've been playing, I can back up a 4 iron from 200 yards. My trajectory is a lot higher on the clubs I play now, as opposed to my old Titleist, but the spin is also crazy. Possibly just groove structure/pattern? I'm using Pro V1's as I have for a while. I think clubs / grooves are very important as well.

I think those two are both pretty equal factors (ball and green condition). I think the swing and type of contact made are far more important in stopping the ball on the green.

Without a doubt it's the conditions of the green. Just look at the PGA tour and you can see ample evidence of this.

During the hot summer months here in SoCal the courses tend to play more on the firm side and it usually means playing to the front of the green and letting the ball roll or release to the center of back of the green. I spent a few weeks in the midwest and the courses are much softer. I found that using my normal approach method I left a lot of shots on the front edge of the green and decided to become more agressive (which paid off nicely).

On my second day there I played midday and the course was playing firm and it was difficult getting the ball to stop on the green. An afternoon storm came through and the course softened up enough that I was able to hit the ball close to the pin and have it stop quickly. I had 215 into the pin on one hole and hit 5I which stopped four feet from the hole and about six inches from the ball mark. The same shot on a firm green would have likely taken a hard bounce and ended up off the back of the green in the rough.

It has to be the green...my club leaves the fairways pretty hard this time of year, but waters the greens so that we duffers have a chance...

Definitely the greens. Yelling at the ball to "sit" sometimes works.

Has to be done in the right tone of voice, however!

i think that ball plus technique make a difference,but if greens are mega dry then forget it and pitch short and roll on