Whatever happened to the Red, White, Blue flags on greens?

[Jeff Schley]

I grew up with red - front, white-middle, and blue-back.  It seems many courses are not using this system any longer and always worked very well for me IMO.  I guess they want to put their course logo on all the flags nowadays. Rarely do you actually see the hole # either.

Technology of GPS perhaps both personal devices and on the carts?  Advertising potential?

[James Brown]

Many of the courses in th DC area still do this?

[Tom_Doak]

Yes, quite a few clubs still do that, and not just in the U.S.  Others think it's not classy, or not necessary, because of rangefinders and pin sheets and so forth.


Crystal Downs has flags that are white on the bottom, but the top stripe is color-coded.

[Ira Fishman]

Our course—indeed DC area—still does it. I don’t use a range finder so find it helpful in old school way.


Ira

[Tim Martin]

They seem to have gone away like signage and other vestigages of hole information including yardage. I don’t know what makes these indicators not classy but they are completely de rigueur at many iconic and high end private clubs today. Seemingly less clutter(are these really clutter?) is more classy. I like tee signage with hole number, yardage and handicap number as well as color coded flags and barber poles at 150. I guess I am a shining example of the great unwashed.

[Brian Finn]

I've always liked the red/white/blue flags as it seems to be just the right level of information for amateurs. Pin sheets are great, but my game doesn't warrant such precision, and i usually lose them anyway.

The blue (200), white (150), and red (100) discs in fairways always seemed to provide ample information for approach shots. I miss those as well. 

The move away from "visual clutter" is one I never understood.  Of course i don't want the golf course to look like Times Square, but simple signage with basic information on tees is nice to have. I've never been offended by a ballwasher or a trash can either.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I pretty much ignored the different colored flags. Those that put them out had different ideas of where the middle of the green is. Is it measured from the front of the green or from the part of the green where the pin is?

[Mike_Trenham]

Problem with this is it typically it becomes rote and the progression of locations is front, middle, back or some other repitition on the theme.

[Jim_Coleman]

   We were told we lost ranking points as a classic course for, among other reasons, having color coded flags. What this has to do with architecture is beyond me.  Class? Maybe. Architecture?No. Anyway, we removed them.

[Frank M]

If a course is too classy to have red, white and blue flags and red white and blue yardage stakes, they are to classy a course for me to be on.

[Jeff Schley]

   We were told we lost ranking points as a classic course for, among other reasons, having color coded flags. What this has to do with architecture is beyond me.  Class? Maybe. Architecture?No. Anyway, we removed them.

Seriously?  This is from what publication?  I would think that deserves a letter of dissent.

I"m not good enough to utilize the pin sheet  .  All I really needed is a visual clue instead of having to carry around a sweat soaked piece of paper in my back pocket.

[Buck Wolter]

My course in Minnesota has a simple 150 yard post in the rough with a red, white or blue changeable cap, I can eyeball yardage from the fairway as well as pin position. Easier than changing flags and effective.


 

[jeffwarne]

My course in Minnesota has a simple 150 yard post in the rough with a red, white or blue changeable cap, I can eyeball yardage from the fairway as well as pin position. Easier than changing flags and effective.

+1
never heard of that!

[Jeff Schley]

My course in Minnesota has a simple 150 yard post in the rough with a red, white or blue changeable cap, I can eyeball yardage from the fairway as well as pin position. Easier than changing flags and effective.

Very interesting, so as opposed to looking at the flag for color you look at this 150 post which changes according to flag location.  I haven't seen or heard of this either.  I don't know how difficult it would be to change the flag color, I can't imagine it that time consuming however. 

But what do you do on par 3's?

[Buck Wolter]

My course in Minnesota has a simple 150 yard post in the rough with a red, white or blue changeable cap, I can eyeball yardage from the fairway as well as pin position. Easier than changing flags and effective.

Very interesting, so as opposed to looking at the flag for color you look at this 150 post which changes according to flag location.  I haven't seen or heard of this either.  I don't know how difficult it would be to change the flag color, I can't imagine it that time consuming however. 

But what do you do on par 3's?

Same little post somewhere on the tees of the par 3's.

[John Connolly]

Buck,


Sounds like the 'kahda.

[Matthew Rose]

I feel like 10-15 years ago they were a lot more common than they are now. Maybe courses only wanna order one set of flags now, or don't wanna bother switching them around every day, I dunno. I certainly liked it as a device, as well as the distance markers.

[Duncan Cheslett]

Reddish Vale has never gone in for colour-coded flags - until now.


A delivery of new red, yellow, and white flags arrived this week! 

[Jeff Schley]

Reddish Vale has never gone in for colour-coded flags - until now.


A delivery of new red, yellow, and white flags arrived this week! 

Ahhh... switching out blue to keep with your logo colors?

[Sean_A]

My course in Minnesota has a simple 150 yard post in the rough with a red, white or blue changeable cap, I can eyeball yardage from the fairway as well as pin position. Easier than changing flags and effective.

+1
never heard of that!

+2...a cool idea. 


Ciao

[Kyle Harris]

I never cared for such systems or any other sort of information regarding someone's opinion on where the hole is relation to the dimensions of the putting green/angle of play. Especially as hole corridors get wider, this information becomes increasingly irrelevant. You'll see this when irrigation heads are marked with distances to the (front/middle/back) of each green. As you get to the edges of the hole, the numbers compress and the information becomes less useful since those yardages are determined from the center line of play - usually from some arbitrary distance like 150 yards.

Show me the target and I'll read the ground from there.

P.S. If you understand a little bit about Military Crests, the striped flag-sticks can be very helpful in helping you determine the location of the flag-stick in relation to little crests, ridges, and bumps along the ground.

P.P.S. I once asked the question on here about how the approach shot would be perceived if all information regarding hole location were known to the golfer without flags in the holes. When you have to use the features of the golf course to orient yourself without flag sticks, you tend to notice things more.

[Duncan Cheslett]

Reddish Vale has never gone in for colour-coded flags - until now.


A delivery of new red, yellow, and white flags arrived this week! 

Ahhh... switching out blue to keep with your logo colors?

In the UK tees are generally coloured red, yellow and white.


It kind of makes sense to give the flags the same colours for front, middle and back.

[Buck Wolter]

Buck,


Sounds like the 'kahda.

'tonna they just did this a couple of years ago --maybe borrowed from there

[Ronald Montesano]

Surprised no one has heard of the color-coded cap on the 150-yard poles. I've seen it at a few courses in the northeast USA. It is a great idea, once you become conditioned to looking for it.

[Pat Alpaugh]

We do exactly the same (caps on 150 yard posts) and it works perfectly.