Drawing yardage charts

Hi everyone, finally broke 80 recently - have been scoring around the low 80s/high 70's since then with MP-32s (lovely clubs). There were several times where I lacked the putting skills simply because I did not have enough knowledge of the greens, even though I played my home course every week for the past 3 /12 years! If my green reading was spot on I'd think I'd reach 76 again.

I want to draw up yardage charts for each hole on my home course to further improve accuracy off the tee/fairway and on the green, showing the breaks etc. I own a laser rangefinder and a digital camera to take pics home with me for reference, but I'm not sure how pro caddies draw up these charts. Is there a professional format they use? I can't find any samples either on the net, so I'm not too sure where to start. For example, do they measure between reference objects, or just distances to the centre of green (and then subtract one refence site to another to reach the distance between references)

Our course uses 200, 150 and 100 yard marked "discs" on the fairways, which are useless as it's often covered with grass and mud, and sprinklers are few and far between.

Does anyone have any samples or guidance on creating these, pictures would be nice, or a website on how to draw them up?

Thanks

Yep the caddies use an advanced system called walking and counting, koonl, nothing too fancy you will be pleased to hear. It's very labour intensive but well worth it for your home course.

For reference, most courses measure the yardages to the centre of the green so compensate for that but make sure that your course doesnt give them to the front..

You would be better pacing things out because these electronic aids are notoriously inaccurate at times. Make an effort to locate the markers on your course and make a mental note of any landmark that roughly marks them. Then simply pace off your distance when you get to the ball. An average pace for most male golfers is probably just a few inches short of a yard so its accurate enough for club golfers. Pacing every hole will drive you spare especially if there isnt much in the way of landmarks about. It wouldnt hurt to put forward a letter to the club asking for the markers to be made more visible as well, after all you are paying your fees, you're entitled to ask.

This is all for naught unless you know your club yardages as well remember koonl, so keep an eye on these from time to time.

I thought I told you to get the MP33's anyway....... only joking, the 32's are sweet bats as well, what set up did you end up with (shafts, lie angles etc)?

Good Luck,

D.

In a thread called "YARDAGES" are example of how I draw up my distance charts on tour. I draw the hole and the green seperately. I mark the on-course distance markers with a SQUARE and I pace between them and things like big trees or bunkers or sprinkler heads ... I mark the distance fro the tee shot to a certain point, like the beginning of the fairway or to the top of the rise etc.

I also mark any "NO GO" zones and for very tough aproaches or tough driving holes I mark "bail out areas" in case I need them.

The green I mark the entrace width, total width, slope, blah ... blah .. blah...

A good course map is essential and if you use it properly, it's worth 3 or 4 shots a round to you easily. Put as much infor as you can onto the chart, you should see some of the great tour pro's like Peter Coleman - there is SH*T everywhere that they use for every hole.

I used to pace it out on foot but for the last few years I've used a Bushnell Yardpro400. Trust me - they are accurate or why else would every tour caddie use them!? NOBODY on tour paces them by foot anymore.

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I thought I told you to get the MP33's anyway....... only joking, the 32's are sweet bats as well, what set up did you end up with (shafts, lie angles etc)?

Good Luck,

D.[/quote]

I got everything standard - I'm an "average" man so I'm quite lucky - I have been fitted for clubs and everyone tells me that off-the-shelf is all I need. Mizuno's were 1/2 degree flatter than my old Hogan Apex Edge, and this works out perfect for me. I only had them a few weeks and the scores are coming down, and I was thinking of getting the MP-33s simply for the looks - I think they look better than the Mp-32s, but not sure how much difficult it will be - I have no difficulty in hitting them off the sweetspot.

I have the Bushnell Yardage Pro, and I find it VERY accurate - a yard or two out from the club's course guide. I just looked in my Dave Pelz Putting Bible (p171) and it shows a sample of a yardage card - looks cluttered but shows everything you need to know. I walked the whole of my course after my round this morning with the Bushnell, pencil and pad - a bit tiring but I think it's worth it. I'm going to sharpen up my short-game with the Bushnell to dial into the pin for more birdies opportunities now.

Just joined today. Reading this thread gave me an excellent idea.
I went to http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ and got an arial view of the course I play the most at.

I blew the image up a bit and broke it up into 3 hole segments. Now I'm outlining the fairways,greens, teeboxes and hazards to show a more defined look. Also I'm pencilling in some changes that has been done to the course since the picture was taken.

Now I can't wait to get to the course so I can start getting some yardages.

The main reason I'm doing it is we have a severe dogleg par 5 and the yardages are horrible on it. They measure to the corner then to the green so going for the green is guess work at best. 250 could actually be 190. Plus there is OB on the long side so I always guess short and end up in the bunker.

Great forum!

Dude, cool sight thx

Just an update on what I've done with my yardage charts. I took the largest images I could from terraserver and the yardage key(after zooming in all the way). Then I Doubled the images size in my image editing program and then made a yardage key. Using the key I took off the site I made it proportional to the image I blew up. The key I made is partial circles marked off at 25 yard increments. Printed this out on transperency so I can over lay it on my print outs of the course.

Hope that made sense.

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