Don has a great point...gps everything, or rather map it so you can find it later and before it is covered up, but not necessarily with any gps and not necessarily with gps.
Several important issues here; not all gps is created equal, or stated another way, not all gps or 'high quality' gps deliver the same accuracies; especially under or near trees or other 'blockages' to line of sight of satellites. If you lose sight of just one satellite and don't gain another, accuracy suffers. Signal that 'bounces' off trees or buildings (called multi-path) contributes significantly to accuracy/positional degradation.
Submeter gps has too much positioning error compared to survey gps; even for area calculations...up to 10% more/less than what survey grade (centimeter positioning) produces...that's a lot!
If you want to test your gps, try mapping one green at different times of the day and compare the area values. You will notice that your area value will change; sometimes as much as 6%-10% and more depending on satellite availability. The shape of the green will remain generally the same, unless the green/tee/bunker is near or has trees surrounding it.
Not sure if $6K will do the job...is this 'real-time' positioning or post-processed? Frankly, even submeter gps is not good enough for line or point mapping of buried asset(s) because and given best case accuracy, most gps manufacturers state accuracies at 50% (CEP-circular error probability) or 66% (HDRMS-Horizontal Root Mean Square or one standard deviation), which is not that good statistically speaking and no submeter gps gives reliable vertical values, so it can't be used for greens modeling or any topographic mapping or where accurate vertical values are needed.
I apologize for the OT on gps here, but there is just too much mis-information about gps. Given the cost of building a golf course and the value of the asset, it only makes sense to deliver an As-Built or Asset Inventory using survey tools...RTK GPS, Robotic Total Station and/or 3D Laser Scanner...and in lots of cases, all three are needed.
If the As-Built is produced during construction, as Don says, it will be of much greater use to the Super, his associates, management and membership and others well into the future. If there is a problem below grade, the location data can be given to a gps mapper and relocated before digging...no treasure maps here. Also, the 'Z' or vertical value is noted so anyone digging will know how far down to go before they hit or break a line.
The data can be repurposed for other initiatives; web publishing, fly-throughs, yardage books, scorecards, pin sheets, agronomic budgeting, irrigation control software and out-sourced, bidded vendor services.
As-Builts are serious business. The As-Built represents the 'best work' of the builder and the architect and serves as the historical or 'legacy' document for later reference, repair, renovation and restoration in some cases.
OK...thanks for the indulgence. I'm a newbie with few posts and have over the past year since I began reading find the site to be very informative and at times very funny. I can't stay away!
I'll find the 'Who are you guys' post and introduce myself.
Thank you