Yardage Post/Markers

[Matt Bielawa]

I'm curious if this site has any opinion on the presence of yardage posts or other markers that are visible from the tee (usually at 150 yards out).  I can see why private courses obviously wouldn't have them, but I'm always a bit curious why more public course don't have them.  Of course, it makes for a nuisance to remove them for cutting the fairways/rough, but are there other reasons why more courses don't have them?

[Mark Chaplin]

Why shouldn't private clubs have distance markers? I guess at privately owned clubs they want you to buy a chart!!

[Matt Bielawa]

I'm not talking sprinkler heads, just the yardage pole style markers.  Only because my assumption at a private club is that most players know roughly where the 150 yard point is and have an idea of how to play the hole already.  The same reason many private clubs don't even have signs on the tees that indicate what hole you're on...the members/players already know.

[Wayne_Freedman]

I have no problem with them on public courses. Wish there were a way to blend them more seamlessly into the landscape. At my club, we used to have distinctive plants at 100, 150, and 200 yards.

[jeffwarne]

Like them, especially at courses you're likely to see once.
Very helpful from tee to pick line based on distance/line taken, especially on an angled fairway

That said, I really love the old fashioned 150 markers you used to see before every club got too cool for them and went to marked sprinklers as if somehow every 18 handicap had developed a 137 yard shot.
ball washers have met the same fate at many clubs-same with signs-nobody in charge at a high end wants to see anything anymore.
The clubs in the UK and Ireland seem to have this right-signs where needed, 100, 150, 200 yard plates (I prefer something more vertical, but the plates allow an observant player to get his yardage quickly enough)

[Adrian_Stiff]

I have a strong opinion on this:
Absolutely hate plants/trees at certain distances, yardage posts on the side of the fairway I dont like much, but a marker in the middle of the fairway is ok.

[Tim Martin]

Like them, especially at courses you're likely to see once.
Very helpful from tee to pick line based on distance/line taken, especially on an angled fairway

That said, I really love the old fashioned 150 markers you used to see before every club got too cool for them and went to marked sprinklers as if somehow every 18 handicap had developed a 137 yard shot.
ball washers have met the same fate at many clubs-same with signs-nobody in charge at a high end wants to see anything anymore.
The clubs in the UK and Ireland seem to have this right-signs where needed, 100, 150, 200 yard plates (I prefer something more vertical, but the plates allow an observant player to get his yardage quickly enough)

Jeff-There are a number of old threads about this and like you have stated in the past I like the "barber pole" at 150. It should be more than sufficient to gauge distance and is a nice reference point off the tee especially for first time players.

[BCowan]

It seems now, that since range finders are the norm, they don't even have yardages on the Sprinkler heads anymore at most upscale public.  Searching all around today at WW for markers, being that i never hit it down the middle i miss the yardages on the sides of the fairway sprinkler heads!  Just something relaxing about looking for yardage markers instead of using GPS.  Put yard markers on the sides of the fairway, who hits it down the middle???

[Nigel Islam]

The barber pole 150 is the best and in the abscence a disc is good enough.

[Joe Bausch]

The barber pole 150 is the best and in the abscence a disc is good enough.

Nigel, I haven't played many of the older public courses in or near Heavensville in years, but my brain vividly remembers many of them in the 70's having 150 bushes on either side of the fairway and nothing else.  Since I grew up with those, I can't totally dislike them!

[Pete_Pittock]

You don't get free relief from 150 yard bushes, you do from the 150 pole. Thirty or forty years ago our area used small plum colored trees on both sides at 150. Now they are big plum colored trees that overhang the fairways.

[Jordan Standefer]

Wish there were a way to blend them more seamlessly into the landscape.

I've played at least one course in Palm Springs (Escena GC) that uses boulders on each side of the fairway as their 150 yard markers.  They aren't huge, but big enough that you can see them from the tee box on a par-4.  I thought it was a nice touch.

[Wade Whitehead]

On many great holes it's difficult to identify the middle of the fairway from the tee.

150 yard posts help the player do this.

When I'm playing a place just once, it's nice, though I'm not sure architects want me to know without figuring it out myself.

WW

[Nigel Islam]

The barber pole 150 is the best and in the abscence a disc is good enough.

Nigel, I haven't played many of the older public courses in or near Heavensville in years, but my brain vividly remembers many of them in the 70's having 150 bushes on either side of the fairway and nothing else.  Since I grew up with those, I can't totally dislike them!

Joe, I don't think any of the Heavensville courses have the bushes anymore. The city courses have discs, and Hamilton has colored stakes. I think the Boonville CC has the 150 yard bushes. And finally Clearcrest Pines just has full trees at 100, 150, and 200 on every hole

[Dave Greene]

The less "clutter" the better.

[Wayne_Freedman]

And what if a drive hits one of those boulders?
I'm kind of a purist, personally.
Less is more.

[Jordan Standefer]

And what if a drive hits one of those boulders?

I guess you'd play it where it comes to rest.  The markers are set well off the fairway.  Not sure what the ruling would be if you came to rest against one, though.

[Pete_Pittock]

And what if a drive hits one of those boulders?

I guess you'd play it where it comes to rest.  The markers are set well off the fairway.  Not sure what the ruling would be if you came to rest against one, though.

Unless the Committee specifically gives relief, play hard They are still natural objects and not obstructions under the rules.

[Sven Nilsen]

Wild Horse uses cow skulls set on either side of the fairway in the first cut.  Seems appropriate.

[Stewart Abramson]

Conestoga uses half Conestoga wagon wheels at 150 yards