I wonder how many of us here have played a course without any yardage markers at all? No range finders, no caddies no small booklet with information, just play what you see. I did and it was a blast.
Where on earth is Melvyn?
Bob
In the past month I have played a surprising number of rounds on courses with a great variety of distance aids.
1. No yardages marked of any kind, including total hole distances from the tee
2. Total hole distance known but the holes were not marked.
3. Total hole distance known, 150 yard post mounted off to the side of the fairway
4. Total hole distance known, 150 yard post mounted off to the side of the fairway, colored disks along the fairway centerline
5. Total hole distance known, marked sprinkler heads
6. Total hole distance known, colored disks along the fairway centerline, marked sprinker heads.
I should note that all rounds were played with hickories, with the gaping of my set and the lack of spin produced by the clubs I rarely care about exact yardages when playing with them. Most of the time my concern is how far is it to carry feature A, or stop before feature B, as I'm always landing the ball short of my intended target, this leads to me hitting very few full shots.
I found myself completely lost on the first course, unable to relate my distance to any known number lead to the majority of my approaches being way off and playing tee shots that were rather inappropriate for the hole. Knowing the hole length for the second course gave me enough information to navigate around the course in an acceptable fashion. I was able to at a minimum use my average driving distances and the hole distance to calculate approximate approach distances. Once the course had a recognizable 150 poll I felt that was all I needed to play the course effectively, I could use the hole length and the location of the poll to get a good understanding of where my drive was going to end up and how in play the bunkers would be. For the approach shots it was about gauging my distance to the poll and calculating from there. I didn't feel the need to pace of distances and was able to quickly evaluate my shot before struck.
Everything beyond that, plates in the fairway and marked sprinklers, help to calculate a more precises number but are not needed. I think a lot of this has to do with the form of golf I'm playing, a game played closer to the ground is much more feel based and exact yardages can't tell a player how to hit the shot. Whereas a game played entirely through the air, the player must rely on exact yardages for best execution.