GolfClubAtlas.com > Golf Course Architecture Discussion Group

distance markers, what's best?

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Mark_Rowlinson:
Most of the UK's championship lionks now have fairway watering, so sprinkler heads are usually adorned with distances.  Others tend to rely on a discreet green or blue stick at the side of the fairway indicating 150 yards (usually to the centre of the green, but sometimes to the front edge).  At Wilmslow, an inland course with plenty of trees, a discreet club emblem (a black crow on a yellow background) is hung on the trunk of a tree 150 yards from the green.  When I grew up it was often the practice to have a post alongside the fairway at 200 yards out from the tee.

With so much public and visitor play in the UK it is in the interests of everyone to have some sort of helpful indication of distance, such as a 150 yard post at the side of the fairway.  Too much information just slows play down.  Conwy's new sprinkler heads do not have the distance on them, but the 150 yard posts are retained.

I don't like the idea of aiming posts except on blind holes or where there may be confusion, such as two different fairways sharing a common teeing ground.  But it is the player's responsibility to have the post taken out of the ground before playing the shot, or if the post is hit and the ball bounces off into perdition or is prevented from running a further 50 yards it is simply rub of the green.

Tony_Muldoon:
Generally I'm happy with the posts at the side and they should be there at 200, 150 and 100. Each to have a small ammount of colour to speed things up.

If that causes you some heartache then avoid West Berkshire GC (nothing to do with the famous Berkshire). This course which makes it into the Peugeot guide, for being long and best enjoyed from a cart, has helpfully planted all their new trees at 3m centres to help players count off distances from the markers!

Brent Hutto:
Something I can see from a distance (post, etc.) set 150 yards from the center of the green is a big help--preferably in the rough to one side or another of the fairway rather than out in the middle. A nice printed and bound yardage guide with distance to the bunkers and hazards is nice. Any distance information much beyond that is overkill for my inconsistent golf game. Maybe on certain Par 5's where the 150 post won't be visible from certain angles or something you could add another post at 250.

John Kirk:
I like sprinkler heads with exact yardages to the center of the green.  Not only are barber poles prominent and unnatural looking, but more time is required to step off the distance to the green when the yardage marks are 50 yards apart.  Usually only 10-15 steps are required to find a marked sprinkler head.

I like having exact distance.  I can control my short irons enough so it matters.

Kyle Harris:
Slightly off-topic, but has anyone every seen sprinkler heads from outside say... 230 yards that read things like:
"No shot"
"Lay up"
"It's a 2-iron, Mr. Woods"
etc.

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