Hey all, first post

I'm currently working on a personal project designing golf holes. I've been looking for a good way to get natural contours on a laid out surface. I'm aware of both the contour and 'smoove' buttons but haven't been able to utilize either with consistent success. The 'smoove' works well when I can get it to but often when I select a surface to 'smoove' it selects everything around it rather than just the intended top surface. The results are very undesirable. Basically I am curious as to how I can get a surface that looks like this.

This is when the 'smoove' works and only selects the desired area.

The only other option I have is to do the contours however the grain of the grass looks bad and ends up looking like this.

Maybe there is another way to do this but the method I've been using is inconsistent and unreliable.

I appreciate any advice, thank you!