Universally, golf courses have been thoroughly marked and measured.They are wrought with conspicuous accessories that reveal yardages. Too often distances are spray painted on cart paths. Many courses also use a series of colorful disks in the center of the fairway to expose distances in fifty-yard increments. Most other clubs utilize distinctive shrubs, wooden posts, tree monuments, and birdhouses as yardage devices. Still others attach yardages to the large array of irrigation heads. If this were not enough, each sprinkler head ordinarily contains different distances to the front, the middle, and the back of each green. Often the color of the flag will denote pin depth as well. Sporty little “pin sheets for the day” may be distributed or even posted in golf carts which diagram green shapes. The global positioning satellite (GPS) system is the latest novelty. Indeed, a variety of markers, maps, props, gadgets and measurements typically spoil our native landscapes.
Too many golfers depend on yardage markers to determine precise distances. What happened to the acquired technique of "eyeballing" a golf shot? The art of feeling and sensing the depth and distance to the hole is much more interesting than calculating yardages based upon an assortment of gadgets and numbers.
In my opinion, golf courses wear subtleties quite well. Understated yardage accessories, are much more attractive especially when kept to a minimum.
Dunlop