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Pin Positions

Fish

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I have arrived at a few meets and various courses last year only to find once I have got to the 1st green there is no coloured flag for front, middle or back or the small flags you see up and down the pin, instead, you have these pin position sheets that nobody tells you about, even though you've been in the pro shop and not only that, they want you to buy them!!

I find these sheets, when you actually know about them to be a pain in the backside and something else I have to remind myself to get out of my pocket and work out when in range of the green.

They seem to be creeping in more and more just lately on my travels, why?

I personally don't like them, why can't we simply have red, yellow & white across the board?

:sbox:
 
I agree. Being asked to pay for course information is a crime.

I've also seen clubs who clearly can't be bothered to get the right flags for the right pin positions, so after a few holes you realise that, even though the flag is red, it can be anywhere on the green!
 
We have neither and have to peer into the distance to figure out the pin location. In practice it makes not a jot of difference to me - once I've missed the green I'm usually close enough to see the pin for my next shot :D
 
you could argue that the pin sheets give a quicker more accurate location as they are generally quartered.

is it not the same as yardage markers and course planners some give distance to front but some to the middle.

Do agree an agreed standard would be good for everyone.
 
I use a Lazer DMD - no need to rely on sheets or flag colours
 
if I was accurate to within 2-3 yards then I guess it would matter, mostly I am not so use yardage markers and if to front or centre allow accordingly as a guesstimate. I would imagine for a cat 2/cat 1 golfer this would make a big difference but for me it doesn't. I agree clubs that have a lot of visitors especially higher end clubs leave a fair bit to be desired with regards this info, I have also noticed how bad yardage markers are at a lot of 'decent' courses. FoA was terrible in my opinion as an example.
 
being honest, pin position doesn't bother me.

I just play to the middle of the greens as it gives me a bigger margin for error. And besides. If I play to the centre of every green, I'm not going to be a million miles away from the pin anyway (.... Said some famous golfer once :smirk: )
 
is it not the same as yardage markers and course planners some give distance to front but some to the middle.

Yes, no consistency and if not informed by the pro when arriving or reading the notes on the score card, if their on it that is, you find out by default!

Again more courses are doing away with 150yd markers and using sprinkler heads and the old coloured discs, not as noticeable in the distance recessed into the grass are they? and...how many times are we walking down the middle of the fairway :o
 
We dont have them
We only have flags
Front 9 in 1 colour
Back 9 in another colour
Red or Yellow ( I believe )

Ditto.

plus i use a laser anyway.

I find a pin sheet is Ok when i do play an open somewhere must be better than diff colour flags and bits on them less error IMO
 
on big greens that are partially blocked from view it can make a difference. you can be left with quite a long lag putt even if you do hit the middle of the green.

agreed though, traffic light flags should be the order of the day at every club! it just makes sense!
 
from 150 yards i am happy to just hit the green if i am honest, any closer i can usually see where the pin is anyway. My course has little flags that are either low/middle/top of the stick, so i can see. but lots of courses have nothing still.

In brief, i am not good enough to worry from actually, 100 yards. i can still miss a green completely from this close!
 
from 150 yards i am happy to just hit the green if i am honest, any closer i can usually see where the pin is anyway. My course has little flags that are either low/middle/top of the stick, so i can see. but lots of courses have nothing still.

In brief, i am not good enough to worry from actually, 100 yards. i can still miss a green completely from this close!

I understand that Scott, however, on some greens which are 2-tier or we know have big slopes, we want to know if the flag is at the the top or bottom because we can still play short or long of the green giving us the best putting opportunity.
 
I understand that Scott, however, on some greens which are 2-tier or we know have big slopes, we want to know if the flag is at the the top or bottom because we can still play short or long of the green giving us the best putting opportunity.

this is it. If you know for a fact the pin is tucked away at the back up a slope you may try and bring the ball in a bit lower to get it to chase up the green a bit.
 
this is it. If you know for a fact the pin is tucked away at the back up a slope you may try and bring the ball in a bit lower to get it to chase up the green a bit.

or, if its in the middle of an up sloping green, I'd rather be short and putting uphill than over clubbing and being long coming back down the slope!
 
We have red/yellow/white for front middle back.

We do find this useful as a lot of our greens are quite long and some of these are also elevated, and it can be a 2 club difference from front to back.
 
It's very important to know whether the flag is front, middle or back even if you have a laser rangefinder if there's trouble in front of the green and it's got a front flag I'll take an extra club to save dicing with the danger and obviously would favour a shorter club if there's trouble behind with a back pin position.
 
We have one of our new greens that is around 45 yards from front to back, knowing if its front or back would make quite a difference on some greens !
 
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