To me anyway.  Just got back from the GIS and the product that caught my eye was a three part flag that helps you gauge wind....

Rather than a solid flag, there are three ribbons weighted differently.  One heavy enough to fly in a 6MPH breeze and up, the second at 12MPH and up, and the third for 12MPH and up.  (another version flies at 10/20/30MPH)  If you see on flag, its 6MPH, two its 12, etc.

What do you think of that?

On a related note, someone told me today that almost 10% of the public has red or green color blindness, so a flag should be white, yellow, and also patterned.

Does anyone have flag color preferences?

I often have trouble finding a white flag. Yellow and black does it for me.

Related question: how do people feel about different colored flags for pin positions (up/middle/back) versus pin sheets with exact measurements?  Lots of low handicappers I know like the exactness of the pin sheets, but I like keeping it simple and just TRY to hit the middle of the green.  

Jeff,

Doesn't sound like this is going to go over real well with all the purist on this site.  It probably won't be long before somebody comes up with a little weather station that can be added on top of the cart to the GPS system that has an anemometer, thermometer, and relative humidity sensors.  With all that I bet Westridge is still the fastest 18 in this part of the country.

Gary

Yellow only. Nothing else photographs well or registers on the optic nerve. All other colors get mixed up in the background, and by definition, a checkered flag loses half of its color value and is the dumbest solution yet.

Unless, that is, you include the wind flag, which is the worst thing I have ever heard of.

But Brad...can you tell us how you REALLY feel?      

Matt,

I think these gimmicks including the GPS on the carts serve no purpose particularly with regards for speeding play, however golfers are becoming accustomed to having them and therefore course operators fear not providing these features may upset their clients and cause them to look elsewhere.  This is particularly true for the yardages on sprinkler heads.  There probably is now a generation of golfers that are so accustomed to being fed all this information and know no other form of the game that there will be no going back.  One thing I was taught to do was to check all the flag positions of future holes while playing the present hole.  I would imagine for younger generations that process is unheard of and will never be taught, they just wait until confronted with the approach shot then they check the pin sheet, look for the yardage marker on the sprinkler, verify the distance with the laser, recheck everything with the GPS on the cart, throw turf in the air, recheck with the laser, look for another sprinkler head, then asked someone what they hit.  

Nix the tri-flag.

Yellow wicker baskets?

Brent, we basically agree, though it is a minor point that a normal flag does not come with instructions about the extent of stiffness correlated to the strength of wind. That's a judgment, and it varies from course to course depending upon strength of material.

Next year - an anemometer on top of the flag that can digitally transmit the windspeed to the cart so the golfer can not only know the exact distance but the windspeed too. The computer screen in the cart can also plot wind trends so that within a certain probability the golfer can estimate the windspeed at the time his shot approaches the green. Knowing the windspeed at the time you strike the ball is really insufficient.

I'm completely partial to red flagsticks with white, unfettered numbering, a red & white striped barber pole of a stick, and no logos anywhere.

This modernist yellow stuff is ghastly.  Sorry, Brad.  

This product won a "Best new idea" or some such at the PGA show, according to the brochure, so people seem to like it.

I wonder how much it really helps.  Who knows if the wind at the green is swirling and more up in the air, for instance? And how many would know if 6MHP translates to one or two clubs, given the other factors that go into your hitting distance.

Mike - I ended up getting busy with some ASGCA stuff, so I didn't really get to cruise the show too much.  I got a gift certificate to the book store, and happened to pass that booth.  I used it to pick up the pace of play manual mentioned here on another thread, among other library additions.

There were mixed reports on attendance, but most seemed to think it was a good show overall.

Matt,

  One thing I was taught to do was to check all the flag positions of future holes while playing the present hole.

Blake, I was to, and I think good architect's do give us hint's on future hole placement if you look. I think most "modern courses" however, are built though future neighborhoods, and the golfer is not given the opportunity to apply this very cool method of previewing future holes.

...Do you remember that character in Doby Gillis who wore the little skull cap with the little propeller on the top of it?

Do I remember correctly? Was that Maynard Crebs?
Eventually to become Gilligan?