When did yardage markers become prevalent?

[Tommy Williamsen]

Growing up all we had was a 150 yard bush to the center of the green. Some course measured it to the front of the green, but they were the exception. The courses put in discs for 100, 150, and 200 yards. Now we have measuring devices. What did they have 100 years ago? Did Vardon etc walk the course? Or did he and others just eyeball it?

[Tom_Doak]

Growing up all we had was a 150 yard bush to the center of the green. Some course measured it to the front of the green, but they were the exception. The courses put in discs for 100, 150, and 200 yards. Now we have measuring devices. What did they have 100 years ago? Did Vardon etc walk the course? Or did he and others just eyeball it?

An amateur named Gene Andrews became known for pacing off all the yardages on courses in the 1950's -- that's where Jack Nicklaus got the idea.


Before that, I don't think they played by actual yardage but only by club.  Hogan would hit approaches from a certain spot during practice rounds, and then base his club selection on how far he was from that point.  I suppose he knew exactly how far he hit the 6-iron, but I think he charted the course as "it's a 6-iron from here", not that it was 165 yards.  And presumably Vardon did the same, if he had time to play a practice round.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I would guess that on a links course yardage wasn't as important as the kind of shot they want to hit. I know for me I will eyeball it and decide what kind of running shot I want to hit and then hit that shot. The height of the shot would determine club selection.

[Jeff_Brauer]

I remember the little evergreens beside each fw on many courses.  Also a few plates in the ground, usually only at 150 back then, expanded to 100, 150, 175, 200, 225, and sometimes comically, "Forgetaboutit" later on.


When I was lucky enough to play Medinah (circa 1967) they had notations on the back of the scorecard, telling distances from this tree or that (and the trees had an X, or small metal dot, etc. so you could tell (usually) one tree from another among their then 20,000+ trees.  (We were hired one winter to count them, LOL, a nice little side biz for northern architects without much going on) Anyway, attempts at marking yardages were in place then.


The first time I saw a course measured for plates on the sprinkler heads was in 1984, my inaugural year in my own biz.  I redid a few greens for Jim Colbert when he ran the Vegas Muni, and they were putting the yardages on all the sprinklers there. I presumed it was a trend started somewhere on Tour that Jim thought should have filtered down.

[Ira Fishman]

These threads always remind me of the story of the Caddie who was giving his Pro the yardage to the 0 and 5 marks. When the Pro noticed that his partner was getting the exact yardage, he asked his Caddie why he wasn’t getting the same. Without missing a beat, the Caddie responded, “Because you are not that good.” Probably Urban Legend. But the eye instructing the brain probably still the most important factor.


Ira

[Jeff_Brauer]

Ira,


Conversely, I play occasionally with my cousin, who is a 100 shooter, but once he got the range finder, he would drive right up on par 3 tees to get his exact distance to the pin, because he could.  What he couldn't do is hit it within 5 yards of the perfect distance, maybe within 10.

[Ira Fishman]

Ira,


Conversely, I play occasionally with my cousin, who is a 100 shooter, but once he got the range finder, he would drive right up on par 3 tees to get his exact distance to the pin, because he could.  What he couldn't do is hit it within 5 yards of the perfect distance, maybe within 10.

Proves my point exactly.


Ira

[Tommy Williamsen]

What is interesting for me is that when I was 60 I had about ten yards between clubs, now maybe six. Club selection isn't quite as important as it was before.

[Thomas Dai]

An overheard comment -
“A third of the membership around here can’t see 150 yds, a third can’t hit it 150 yds and of the remaining third most would likely be better off with a marker 150 yds from the bar.”

Ouch, but likely contains an element of validity.
Atb

[Pete_Pittock]

One year (1976?) I decided to caddy an LPGA event held at the course I grew up on. It had semi-mature birch trees at "150" and one set of sprinkler heads running down the middle of the fairway. I had read what JN was doing so I went out on the course to set up my own yardage book.  When I got the the first green I saw a hose coupler/sprinkler  setup at the front edge of the green.  I walked back towards the tee and found the next sprinkler at 25 yards. Another stroll found one at 50. Got to the second green and exactly the same situation.Quickly had most of the course covered except on holes with creek crossings and/or doglegs where I had to do some more pacing.
   With pin sheets I was able to give exact yardages to a player who could hit very precise shot lengths.
On the 13th hole of the first round she had to chip out backwards and was not close to anything. Set the bag down, walked up to find a sprinkler head, walked back, paced off a few yards, looked at the pin sheet, and said she had between 176 and 177. She hit it 175, saved par.
   Explained what I had found out, she paced a pipe length, looked at the front of the green and the partnership made it to the final group on Sunday with Donna Caponi and Amy Alcott.

[Ira Fishman]

An overheard comment -
“A third of the membership around here can’t see 150 yds, a third can’t hit it 150 yds and of the remaining third most would likely be better off with a marker 150 yds from the bar.”

Ouch, but likely contains an element of validity.
Atb

One of the redeeming features of our club is that the 9th, 12th, 14th, 15th, and 18th greens are roughly within 20 to 175 yards of the bar. I do not need a course map or range finder to find my way.


Ira

[Jim Sherma]

Remember playing in high school and one match a year was played at a course with no yardage markers whatsoever. I would only ever play the course in this match and maybe one or two other times in a year, so little to no intimate course knowledge. This was back in the early '80's so no rangefinders or gps. Huge home course advantage for their team to say the least. My strategy was as follows: First, I would get to my ball and estimate how far I hit the drive since I knew my yardages fairly well then. Second, I'd subtract that from the scorecard yardage for the hole to get an idea of what I might be left with. Then I'd eyeball it and get a feel if I was in the ballpark. At that point the key was simply committing to what I thought and swinging, uncertainty would hurt me more than being 5-10 yards off.

[Tom_Doak]

One year (1976?) I decided to caddy an LPGA event held at the course I grew up on. It had semi-mature birch trees at "150" and one set of sprinkler heads running down the middle of the fairway. I had read what JN was doing so I went out on the course to set up my own yardage book.  When I got the the first green I saw a hose coupler/sprinkler  setup at the front edge of the green.  I walked back towards the tee and found the next sprinkler at 25 yards. Another stroll found one at 50. Got to the second green and exactly the same situation.Quickly had most of the course covered except on holes with creek crossings and/or doglegs where I had to do some more pacing.

This would not work today, because they have designed irrigation systems to be vastly more complicated.  There is no longer a pipe running down the centerline of the hole; sprinklers are instead set on lateral lines running from a main line in the rough, and the positions are triangulated to cover the fairway.

[jeffwarne]

Going back to the mid/early 70's, I remember 150 bushes or posts to the sides of fairways.
At Forest Hills in Augusta, someone had painted white rings around "proximate" pines at 100 yards.





Watching and playing with Jordan Spieth wannabes makes me miss them all the more.

[Pete_Pittock]

My first overseas trip was 1975 (I also worked in Hilton Head, The Dunes and Pinehurst). The only yardage book was from The Old Course, which consisted of pages of aerial photographs (or drawings thereof)and a plastic ruler which was correctly scaled so you could put one hole at your position and scale to your objective.

[Jeff_Brauer]

An overheard comment -
“A third of the membership around here can’t see 150 yds, a third can’t hit it 150 yds and of the remaining third most would likely be better off with a marker 150 yds from the bar.”

Ouch, but likely contains an element of validity.
Atb

One of the redeeming features of our club is that the 9th, 12th, 14th, 15th, and 18th greens are roughly within 20 to 175 yards of the bar. I do not need a course map or range finder to find my way.


Ira

Your eyesight may be going, but you can still hear ice clinking in the tumblers!

[Wayne_Kozun]

These threads always remind me of the story of the Caddie who was giving his Pro the yardage to the 0 and 5 marks. When the Pro noticed that his partner was getting the exact yardage, he asked his Caddie why he wasn’t getting the same. Without missing a beat, the Caddie responded, “Because you are not that good.” Probably Urban Legend. But the eye instructing the brain probably still the most important factor.


Ira

I have heard this story with Payne Stewart named as the pro.

[Jim Hoak]

I love the classic Jackie Burke advice—Look at the shot, decide with what club you could comfortably hit it over the green, take one less, and go.  Would be faster and work fine for most golfers!

[Ira Fishman]

An overheard comment -
“A third of the membership around here can’t see 150 yds, a third can’t hit it 150 yds and of the remaining third most would likely be better off with a marker 150 yds from the bar.”

Ouch, but likely contains an element of validity.
Atb

One of the redeeming features of our club is that the 9th, 12th, 14th, 15th, and 18th greens are roughly within 20 to 175 yards of the bar. I do not need a course map or range finder to find my way.


Ira

Your eyesight may be going, but you can still hear ice clinking in the tumblers!

Bourbon. Neat. The smell of the corn mash is an infallible guide.


Ira

[Pete_Pittock]

I really liked the sprinkler head marked "406" at Banff. It could help BAD.

[Tyler Kearns]

When I played Barnbougle Dunes back in 2005/06, the proshop staff apologetically explained there were no yardage markers on the course, but assured me that I would receive one of the new yardage books for my round the following morning.


Playing completely by feel, managed to score better during my first round than the next round with yardage book in hand.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much easier is was to gauge / feel distance by eye.


Tyler