Course Guides - A history (in pictures!)

[John_Findlay]

Hi Chaps,

OK. Don't laugh. It's raining, I'm bored and my course is still closed. So since I've nothing better to do....

WARNING; This could be a long post...patience required.

Course Guides (StrokeSavers) We've all used them. I love them. Collect one from every new course I play. Useful, sometimes a lovely memento of your trip. But which are the best? They've improved so much over the years and, now that Brendy has taught us how to post photos (cheers, sir), here are some examples of mine;-

North Berwick

This is your basic course guide and probably the most common. Not the best and only mildly useful. Few contours, few features and you'll be lucky to score better than not having one at all. At least there is a Pro's tip to guide you, though. 4/10

Goswick G.C.

Now we're getting there! Contours, features, good detail around the green and enough yardages to please most. There's even a Pro's tip. A pretty drawing. 6/10

Kingsbarns

Ok. Now we're talking. Yes, the drawing isn't so pretty but damn it's acccurate. Enough yardages to put the Laser Rangefinder away ...and look at the grid of the green! Very useful when they're 50 yards long.

On the 1st Tee the starter tells you where the pins are today in relation to the 7 numbers on the guide. So if the pins are at position 2 today it'll be 35 yards onto this green, 15 yards right of the bunker. Wow. Very helpful. 9/10

Royal Dornoch

Ooooh, lovely. We're getting into aerial photos now, tons of yardages and the green detail is immense (though no grid lines to help) You'll certainly remember playing this hole years after having done so. 9.5/10

St Andrews (Jubilee)

This is the daddy! Wow. Just like Google Earth. Need I say more. Beautiful. Although I would have liked more detail of the green. 9.75/10

It's amazing how things have progressed.

I know some people don't like them but what option do you have on a course you've never played before? Rangefinders are still not allowed in competition and are considered bad form in bounce games and local caddies hike the price of a round up. Long may the improvements continue.

P.S. Every one of these courses is a dream to play. Get out there, chaps.

 

[SS2]

I always try to use a guide if one is available. Played Slaley Hall (Priestman) for the first time last October and they were sold out of Strokesavers so had to play it blind, which was difficult.

The St Andrews one in the post above looks great but given that the photographs are taken from an elevated position, how much use is it when standing on the tee ?

I always like guides with pros tips, even simple ones like "don't go left".

I remember playing the Torrance at St Andrews bay a few years ago and paying £5 for the worst guide ever. Why a quality course like that doesn't invest in a quality guide is beyond me.

 

[MikeH]

J_F

awesome post - and a subject close to my heart.

I keep all course guides and try to keep a card from each course as well. Have got quite a collection and they're favoured reading material for trips to the smallest room in the house

I dug out my Jubilee course guide last night for a bit of revision before Friday. Reminded me how just how hard the last four holes are.

What's more, seeing the North Berwick one brought back lots of happy memories. I had my honeymoon in North Berwick and played the West Links (and Gullane No1) during the week.

 

[John_Findlay]

Separated at birth, Mike.

I still have my scorecard from the Jubilee from the only time I ever played it, maybe 15 or 20 years ago. In those days there was no clubhouse and the I see that the 1st hole was a 454 yards par 4 instead of it's current 367.

I see I scored a respectable 33 points (off 10) but I only remember the wind! I'm so looking forward to the challenge after seeing the new course guide (provided by Madandra)

2 rounds of golf on your honeymoon?! Is your middle name Nicklaus ?

 

[DCB]

Like most folk I have a collection of Course Guides for the courses played over the years. Some of these courses get played on a regular basis on outings etc so I have been marking up these guides with relevant information as to clubing, prevaling wind direction my distances etc. It means that before an outing I spend the evening before going over what I did on previous visits and hopefully plotting a good strategy for a good score on the following day.

 

[RGuk]

J_F, can I send you to the headmaster for a commendation?

What a clever post (now you're showing off!) and actually rather interesting.

Odd to note b.t.w. that on the St. Andrews (Steel's Gem) there aren't actually that many distances??? If you hit a beauty 210-220ish with a "not-driver" for example, you'd need to pace back to the 136 or forward to the 50....that's a serious margin for error.

I'm not sure I understand the Kingsbarns one at all!!!???

Goswick style gets my vote. 176, 133, 115, shouldn't need pace off too far!!

My home course is well done i.m.o. there's usually 3 or 4 distances between 185-100 from the green and 150 markers too. We also have red driving line arcs - on the last it's 210 to the trouble, but if you follow the arc left or right, 220 is quite safe.

Dave

 

[Atticus_Finch]

The Carnoustie one is excellent. (I'll try and post it when I get home) also, we have yardages on every sprinkler head so you are no more than 20yds away from a marker.

 

[John_Findlay]

I hear what you're saying, Dave.

Yes, the St Andrew's guide certainly doesn't overdo the yardage markers. I'm guessing they didn't want to spoil the pretty pictures... but then again it's so detailed you can tell which depression you're in and you should be able to work it out from there. You can suffer from information overload on some guides, though.

What's complicated about Kingsbarns? From the white tee it's 158 to the front of the green. Add on however many yards are required to take you to the pin (35 if it's in position 2, 11 if it's in position 4)

 

[RGuk]

Oh, it's a par 3......get it now.

158 to the front from the white......only 22 numbers to look at!!!

and if the pin is 1 or 7, you add 30 more = 188 to flag placed here.....amazing....how good is that!!! Impressed, but might make a mistake in a hurry!!!

I only ever look at the distance to the middle on par 3s t.b.h. If the flag is condiderably front or back I might club up or down if in-between. Don't often mis-club 150-200 par 3s. There is one that I play (little aston) where I always play only to the front and chip, the green's too narrow bang on middle pin distance.

If I were a pro, I'd choose the Kingsbarns style...sure!

Dave

 

[John_Findlay]

Exactly, Dave. You have it now. I think the grid thing is very useful for such big greens. Not so much if the green is only 20 yards long.

It takes a bit of reading on the tee but when you have worked out the yardage you know it's gonna be right. It certainly gave me tremendous confidence. E.G. Pin 4's a 6 iron, pin 3's a 3 iron. Big difference, or you're gonna have a lot of very, very long putts.

 

[Gasp]

J-F asthetically I think this is one of the greatest posts I've seen. Nice one mate.

 

[madandra]

I concur with my fellow members. This is a topic that has touched the nostalgic habits such as Top Trumphs and Pannini footy stickers, I have a few strokesavers tucked away in a shoe box in the attic but I also have some in the garage that need to be added to the collection.

 

[birdieman]

John,
The Kingsbarns image gave me a good minder of my most enjoyable round of 2007 by miles. The 15th there is a gem, I found the green from the tee but contrived to 3 putt from nowhere, the greens are v tricky.
The Kingsbarns strokesaver is very detailed, I seem to recall standing in one fairway for about 5 minutes trying to add and subtract yardages trying to plot my way amongst the many bunkers, but as you say you need that info to negotiate the course properly, unless you have a caddie!
I wish you hadn't shown me the jubilee pics, there appears to be a lot of gorse, can't remember that much gorse on the Old!

 

[John_Findlay]

No fears, Birdieman. Man of your saliva. That 15th on the Jube does look to be the tightest. Think it must be their signature hole. What a beaut, eh?

 

[golfcitydweller]

a lot of the gorse has been taken away from the 15th ,16th on the jub.
the links want to bring it back to the way it was originally..sand dunes ..it was n`t pleasing to the eye at first but time is a great healer !!!

 

[John_Findlay]

Did they just do that in 2007, Euan? The course guide seems to have been produced then.

 

[billyg]

Well done and thanks for sharing that with us JF.

The last two are stunning!

Digital technology has brought things on a long way.

I really love gadgets and would like to think one day there will be a small handheld gadget that can give you Google Earth style walkthoroughs/flyby's of a course similar to some of the later still images you show. Maybe it could be clamped to the trolley handle and contain a GPS tracker that would update your views as you move around.

I already make use of google Earth to look at courses i'm interested in.

I wonder if we'll see such a thing in the next 20 years. It could replace the strokesaver by just being uploaded to your device when you get to the course or available from the course website in advance so you can study the course before playing.

I'll keep dreaming

 

[TommyMorris]

jubilee distances

Re the lack of distance information for the Jub, all the sprinkler heads on fairways have yardage distances to the front of the green stamped on them.

The gorse management is ongoing as part of a 15 year plan and was started 3 years ago.

Tommy.

 

[TommyMorris]

Re: greens information

Also, more information re the greens can be taken from the pin sheets also given out to golfers, the pin locations are measured by gps and then uploaded to a website from which the clubhouses can produce a very detailed card.

 

[madandra]

Well done and thanks for sharing that with us JF.

I really love gadgets and would like to think one day there will be a small handheld gadget that can give you Google Earth style walkthoroughs/flyby's of a course similar to some of the later still images you show. Maybe it could be clamped to the trolley handle and contain a GPS tracker that would update your views as you move around.

I am with you on this Billy, I think it won't be long until you can download software for a pocket pc like an iPaq or a PDA or similar. I think you will have that technology in a couple of years.