[dfloyd]

I am trying to get some feedback on some good and bad ways to help identify yardage plates, heads, stakes, ect. throughout the golf course. I am a assistant superintendent in SC and have played and worked at many courses up and down the east coast.  Last week our general manager came to us with some ideas for making the yardage markers throughout the course more identifiable.  We are a private club with only around 12,000 rounds annually so pace of play is not the issue.  We currently have three methods to help determine yardage. The cart paths are marked at the 200, 150, and 100 yard locations and we have the yardage plates in the center of the fairways marking the same locations.  We also have a double row irrigation system with yardages on both sides of the fairways.  Seems as though that should be enough.  His suggestion was that we paint a 2 inch "white" circle around all irrigation heads with yardages on them in hopes of making them easier to find.  Has any one ever seen this done and what was your take on it.  It has always seemed to me as you want to draw attentition away from things like irrigation heads and cart paths. To me less is better in this situation.  Any good ideas to compromise.

[Michael Hayes]

I paint around the yardage plates in the fairway, i.e. 200,150,etc... my members say it helps, but no one complains when they go unpainted for a month...

MH

[Tom Huckaby]

Hmmm... I'm with you in that less is more.  Jeez if you have 200-150-100 already marked with lines on paths AND plates, what more does one need?

One thought:  kirby markers at every 25 yards, from 75 to 250.  These are a great compromise - they really are pretty unobtrusive, and to me would seem to work a heck of a lot better than what you have now, not to mention how ugly a bunch of painted circles would be - which also would very much confuse one with Ground Under Repair markings....

TH

[Michael Hayes]

Those Kirby markers are pretty slick, but they are a pricey setup to add to a course that already has yardages up the wazzu...

dfloyd, have you asked if the membership would benefit from a yardage book.  This is something you could do; it would kill a lot of time and be pretty informative for you as well as the members....

MH

[Tom Huckaby]

Michael - I guess you're right - kirby markers can't be cheap.  But my take was to get rid of all those lines and plates he has now, replace them with kirbies.  Likely very expensive, but if he's being told to paint lines around all relevant sprinkler markers, heck how much is cost going to be an issue here?  That can't be cheap, in terms of manpower anyway...

Caveat - I just play the game and am speaking entirely from a golfer's perspective.  Man all those lines and circles would just look grotesque to me.

TH

[Sean Leary]

Kirby markers?

[Michael Hayes]

Caveat - I just play the game and am speaking entirely from a golfer's perspective.  Man all those lines and circles would just look grotesque to me.

TH

The fairways would look like a football field with all the markings, WAIT THERE'S THE ANSWER BIG STRIPES EVERY TEN YARDS WITH THE NUMBERS LEFT AND RIGHT PONTING TO THE ROUGH SO WHEN YOU MISS THE FAIRWAY ITS EASY TO KNOW HOW FAR AWAY YOU ARE FROM THE GREEN THAT YOU ARE GOING TO MISS

[Michael Hayes]

Kirby markers?

SEAN

kirby markers are those little pop-up markers that are seen in various states of disrepair at many golf courses...

[Tom Huckaby]

They might be primarily a west coast thing, although I sure think I've seen them elsewhere...

They're little plates - I'm guessing about a foot in diameter - that kinda extend upward a bit as well, but compress down when stepped on.  You put them at 25 yard intervals, and they're marked as such (ie 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 225, 250).  Typically courses put them always on the same side of the fairway, so you always know where to look.  They work really well - you're never that far from one so you can't either eyeball it or step it off if you're feeling anal - and they really don't look bad at all.

TH

[Tom Huckaby]

BTW, Michael's right, they can be abused fairly easily.  

[dfloyd]

Michael, we do have yardage books and they are handed out for free to any guest or to anyone playing the course for the first time.  I have never seen "kirby" markers.  The painting idea is something suggested by our GM and to my knowledge no members have complained about the marking of the course.  I am just trying to get some opinions as to the idea of painting around irrigation heads.  I agree with you all, it would be confusing and labor intensive.

[Brad Klein]

As long as your general manager is thinking about painting white circles around the irrigation heads, why limit the "announcement" to two-dimensions, esp. when the paint will rub off? How about large signs on six-foot poles that unmistakabley show "137" or "79?"

[JSlonis]

What more does he want?

Tell your GM to spring for the $$ it would take to implant a GPS chip into every member's brain. Sounds as if he needs  to be assigned some "busy" work.

Seriously, from what you have said, it seems as though you already have adequate markers.

[peter_mcknight]

At Saucon Valley CC, on the back of the scorecards, it lists the white and red yardage markers to the middle of each green.  The sprinkler heads just before the white and just after the red are 30 yards apart.

Since SVCC has a pretty good caddy program (I caddied there between 1985-1992), the caddy should pretty much know all of the yardages to bunkers off the tee and to bunkers on approach shots to greens.

I know that, after a few rounds, I remembered exactly where the white and red markers were and would pace it off while approaching a member's ball to speed up pace of play.  By the way, there's your answer--institute a caddy program and make sure they know where they are--if a member was looking for the colored sprinkler head, that was considered bad for the caddy.

[JohnV]

When I worked the Futures Tour, we also circled the sprinkler heads with paint.  It helped the players find them which sped up play.

[Neil Regan]

Derek,

  Has he considered white birches at 150, blue spruces at 200, red maples at 100 ?

[Brad Klein]

Neil,

if you use arbor vitae, you have the added visibility factor of deer that congregate around the trees and eat them all day long.

It's also helpful using blue spruce as the all-valuable 157-markers.

[Craig Sweet]

Kirby markers? Pop up?

So, when the mower comes along the employee has to get off the mower and stomp them nto the ground?

[Craig Sweet]

Trees as yardage markers...another "bright" idea gone wrong.

"Well yes, the nursery said they were drawf mugho pines, so I'm not sure why they're 10 foot tall."

[Adam_F_Collins]

I like the Red, white and blue system for yardage and flags. I also don't mind a barber pole, as one can easily see it and estimate their position in relation to it.

I think there's a point where yardage marking can actually slow play down. Estimation is still the fastest way, and if a course demands a little of it, players will do it.

Sound's like your course is going overboard.

[Tom Huckaby]

I concur that less is more when it comes to markings.

But remember, this place already has plates, lines, and the manager wants to paint circles around the sprinkler heads.  So I just don't see him going back to just a few heads marked front, middle, center....  Which of course would be better.

Thus kirby markers seem to be a fair compromise.

TH

[Steve Curry]

These work great.

[Jim Sweeney]

Dfloyd:

You could do what one course that I played this summer does- maintain a nice flower garden around every candy-striped 150 pole on both sides of the fairway!. Bet your boss would love to spend money on that....

Seriously, one subtle improvement in sprinkler head yardage markers is to have the engraved plate be yellow or red. The color makes it much easier to find. Also, I like having the yardages to the front and back as well as middle. If you're going to have the plates anyway, why not? Also, my observation is that sprinkler heads will "sink" over time, either due to soft conditions, thatch build up, or whatever. This makes them harder to see. If you have sunken heads, bring them up to near ground level.

Keeping the grass trimmed back 1-2" from yarage plates (not sprinkler heads) really helps the player find them faster. I surmise from your number of rounds that you are at a private and perhaps prestigeous club, and I expect your conditions are excellent anyway, but maintaining yardage plates seems to go undone at many courses.

If your general manager really likes his idea of paint circles, remind him of the man hours this will take to maintain. That ought to change his mind. Not to mention it will be ugly as hell- not the look you want for a prestigeous club.

[Michael Hayes]

this will all be a moot point when the club makes range finders legal for use
MH

[Tom Huckaby]

Michael - I was gonna point that out.  If ever there's a club that ought to declare the local rule, it would be this one, or so it seems.

TH

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