"The numbers, Mason, what do they mean?"

[sjw]

During my outing at Hillsborough last week, I found myself on a few tee boxes wondering where was safe to hit the ball. Unfortunately, I was met by course maps that to a mere mortal like me were completely indecipherable. At my home course, there are some points which are labelled with distance from the tee, and some that are labelled with distance to the green. I'm assuming that this is what these are showing, but some of it, I can't make head nor tale of. Can anyone help me out?

I'm assuming that the numbers are distances to the green. I don't know what the arrows are - they could just be pointing to areas on the map, but they're all angled funny. I'm guessing sp is sprinkler, but I don't know, and I'm also guessing that the dashed white line is a good target line?

I have no idea why some of the numbers are in white and some in black. The dots on the tee box didn't marry up with the colours of the tees. And the numbers in the brackets are completely lost on me.

I should add, most of what I've written above, assuming any of it is correct, is what I've got from studying it just now, sat at my desk. I didn't feel that I had enough time on the course to pore over these and decipher them. I therefore had to just rely on my GPS, which is great if there's a bunker but you're otherwise SOOL. And even if the maps did make sense to me, there are WAY more trees IRL than there are depicted here! So trying to copy the target line wasn't even straightforward.

 

[Orikoru]

Just another reason to use Hole19.

 

[PJ87]

During my outing at Hillsborough last week, I found myself on a few tee boxes wondering where was safe to hit the ball. Unfortunately, I was met by course maps that to a mere mortal like me were completely indecipherable. At my home course, there are some points which are labelled with distance from the tee, and some that are labelled with distance to the green. I'm assuming that this is what these are showing, but some of it, I can't make head nor tale of. Can anyone help me out?

I'm assuming that the numbers are distances to the green. I don't know what the arrows are - they could just be pointing to areas on the map, but they're all angled funny. I'm guessing sp is sprinkler, but I don't know, and I'm also guessing that the dashed white line is a good target line?

I have no idea why some of the numbers are in white and some in black. The dots on the tee box didn't marry up with the colours of the tees. And the numbers in the brackets are completely lost on me.

I should add, most of what I've written above, assuming any of it is correct, is what I've got from studying it just now, sat at my desk. I didn't feel that I had enough time on the course to pore over these and decipher them. I therefore had to just rely on my GPS, which is great if there's a bunker but you're otherwise SOOL. And even if the maps did make sense to me, there are WAY more trees IRL than there are depicted here! So trying to copy the target line wasn't even straightforward.

Isn't the white 185 yards to flag left .. and the 260 or whatever to land between white and yellow? I think

 

[sjw]

Just another reason to use Hole19.

Well in the end I used Shotscope's course preview option as my own map. I didn't have time for this! Lol

 

[Slab]

I got my hands on a ET course guide, lots and lots of numbers and arrows among other markings... and that's before the player adds their own scribbles

 

[jim8flog]

The black arrows indicate the distance from the tee the white arrows the distance towards the green. Sometimes arrows will be used indicate the direction of the slope.

White, yelllow and red dots shows a given distance from each tee, possibly 200 yards

White dotted line may be OB but we use red on our chart.

 

[sunshine]

On the fairway, red dot =
100 yards to centre of green
85 yards to front of green (don’t know what -1 is in brackets)

Yellow dot =
150 yards to centre of the green
135 yards to front of the green
262 yards from white tee marker to this point

White dot =
200 to green centre
185 to green front

Sp = 38 yards from sprinkler to green front

The white line represents the straight line from white tee to the silver birch. This is to help you orient yourself when standing on the tee.
If you hit your tee shot on this line towards the silver birch the fairway runs out at 269.
If you are playing from the red tee marker the distance is 18 yards shorter.

I’m happy to offer my services as a caddie for £2k a day plus 10% of your winnings
Alternatively I’m sure there is a legend in the course guide.

 

[sjw]

On the fairway, red dot =
100 yards to centre of green
85 yards to front of green (don’t know what -1 is in brackets)

Yellow dot =
150 yards to centre of the green
135 yards to front of the green
262 yards from white tee marker to this point

White dot =
200 to green centre
185 to green front

Sp = 38 yards from sprinkler to green front

The white line represents the straight line from white tee to the silver birch. This is to help you orient yourself when standing on the tee.
If you hit your tee shot on this line towards the silver birch the fairway runs out at 269.
If you are playing from the red tee marker the distance is 18 yards shorter.

I’m happy to offer my services as a caddie for £2k a day plus 10% of your winnings
Alternatively I’m sure there is a legend in the course guide.

Ok thanks, sounds like I was pretty close, except the numbers are to the front rather than to the middle. Are you getting distances to the middle by adding ~15 yards (from the 14 on the green)?

I assume that the numbers on the green are chosen because they are high and low points or something?

I don't know what many trees are but I know what a silver birch is - trouble is I couldn't see it from the tee! There wasn't just a single tree like the map shows, and the shade made the trunk look like every other tree!

 

[Billysboots]

Assuming this is a yardage book we’re discussing, every one I’ve ever used has a key somewhere telling you what everything means.

 

[sjw]

Assuming this is a yardage book we’re discussing, every one I’ve ever used has a key somewhere telling you what everything means.

This was the signs on each tee. I couldn't see a legend, but there must be one available from the shop or something. I just wondered if this was some sort of standard so thought I'd ask here in case I came across another one on my travels

 

[Billysboots]

This was the signs on each tee. I couldn't see a legend, but there must be one available from the shop or something. I just wondered if this was some sort of standard so thought I'd ask here in case I came across another one on my travels

In which case it’s not very helpful!

I wish there was a standard worldwide, but there isn’t even a national one in the UK. Some clubs have yardage discs/posts giving distances to the front of greens, some to the middle. Some have coloured flags denoting whether the pin is front, middle or back of the green, some don’t. And where coloured discs and flags are used, there is no uniformity between clubs.

It’s infuriating, but I suppose that’s how they ensure visitors buy yardage books from their pro shops, and invariably they are at least a fiver a pop.

EDIT: I hope it didn’t detract from your visit to Hillsborough - one of my favourite courses up that way.

 

[sjw]

In which case it’s not very helpful!

I wish there was a standard worldwide, but there isn’t even a national one in the UK. Some clubs have yardage discs/posts giving distances to the front of greens, some to the middle. Some have coloured flags denoting whether the pin is front, middle or back of the green, some don’t. And where coloured discs and flags are used, there is no uniformity between clubs.

It’s infuriating, but I suppose that’s how they ensure visitors buy yardage books from their pro shops, and invariably they are at least a fiver a pop.

EDIT: I hope it didn’t detract from your visit to Hillsborough - one of my favourite courses up that way.

No, it was a superb course in beautiful weather. I thought a couple of the holes were odd, namely the 14th (hitting up over a blind hill) and the blind dogleg 8th, the latter of which I could've really done with more info on where to hit.

No, the biggest let down was the fact that the greens had just been holed and sanded. I laughed when I saw the practice green, which apparently "had recovered the worst". I'd seen bunkers with less sand!