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Today was our first preseason match and I got to be #1 . The course we played today was a par 31 course with some of the toughest greens I ever played. What was more irritating was trying to calculate distance. I got 2 double bogeys on 2 of the par 4's due to not knowing my distance. There were tons of bushes behind the greens so I had to call an unplayble lie. The shots were way past the greens. The par 3's were easy and one of the par 4's was a drivable hole so it was an easy birdy. I shoot 34 and this was a HUGE improvement compared to last year so im happy. Id like to know any tricks you use to measure distance because I feel I will deal with many courses in the future that wont give any yardages.

Once I hit a marker - 150,200, I start a steady 1 yard stride and count it off and I'm usually close enough for the club I need 9if I trust first instinct:)) Played with a guy who had a sky caddie and I played the same club I would have walking it off as I did with his info. I do the greens about the same just convert it to feet.

I also pace it off from a marker. As for greens, I just use feel, not pace.

there werent ANY markers here

Walk it off from the tee box.

Never played a course that didn't have sprinker heads with yardage numbers on them. If this is the case where you're playing, you might want to pace off your tee shot and subtract that number from the yardage for the hole according to the score card. Or you could get a range finder of your own and use that. A laser range finder can be had for $150 or so if you look around.

Did you get to play a practice round? Before the laser range finders or sprinkler head markers, I used a small note pad to mark distances, location of hazards, green contours and grain, and any other thing that would be helpful in competition. That worked well and I was confident in my shots because I had prepared the info myself.

I go with my gut...sometimes get it horribly wrong, but usually in the ballpark...I have a laser rangefinder that I played with for quite some time and I've gotten pretty good at guesstimating...in the end unless I'm 200 or less it really doesn't matter...


You just have to play alot more...

Make your own yardage book if you really wanted yardages.

Yes, a yardage device would make it easiest, but from the sound of your post, I think you've got the time (i.e. I think you're a young guy), so I'd say it's best to also start using your gut, as bump-n-run says, because there's probably nothing like playing a solid shot on your own, reading all the variables without help, and sticking it.

Knowing this, you should also know: Yesterday I played nine with a Buddhist minister and two businessmen on the home course. I walked up to a second shot and pulled out a 3-wood only to be advised--by the businessman (a programmer)--that I wasn't as far as I thought I was.... He gave me the yardage with his Sky Caddie and I dropped to five-iron and hit it pin high, off the green, but close enough to save par.

My point is, if I had gone 3-wood I would've hit it past the green and into one of the dirtiest waterways in the United States, so the range finder not only saved me strokes, it also saved me a ball!

You need glasses!!!


...that bit about the businessmen and the buddist minister had all the trappings of a classic joke opening BTW...

Did you check the sprinkler head covers as OnePutt suggested? I used to play a courses, and we have a few around where I play today, that marked the 150 yard point with identical bushes or small trees that were on either side of the fairway. The bush or tree would stand out by where it was planted and contrast with the surrounding vegatation.

wow. i mean thats ususally all i do. lol look for yard markers.

There is a story I know I've read or heard at least twice now -- maybe someone can put a name or two on it for me.

Anyway, a golfer was going to play in The Open (the British one) but his regular caddy was afraid to fly, so he was trying one of the regulars at the club where the Open was being held during a practice round. Now, different people want different things from their caddy. This golfer wanted his caddy to carry the bag, clean off the clubs after a shot, and hand him his putter on the way to the green, and nothing more. Well, this caddy was a bit of a gabber -- liked to talk, thought he was there to help. And, especially when the caddy found out that this was the first time the golfer was playing the course, the caddy thought he'd impress the guy (and hopefully get hired) by trying to point out all sorts of things. Needless to say, this was really getting on the golfer's nerves. So, they get to around hole #12, and the guy's ball is on the fairway about 150 out. The caddy says "it's a 7 iron". Well, that was it, the golfer just exploded at him -- telling him that he's sick and tired of the caddy thinking he knew his game well enough to suggest clubs.

To prove his point, the guy pulled out every single club, driver to sand wedge, and put the ball on the green with every different club. If the golfer wasn't red with anger at this caddy, it would have been pretty much a perfect clinic on how to hit high shots, low shots, shots that ran up on the green, shots that spun back, etc. Needless to say, that caddy was immediately fired, and the guy carried his own clubs the rest of the round.

Anyway, I wrote that out to kind of get to the point that there is a tremendous value in "going with your gut" as said above. That the really good players know how to hit a wide variety of shots in a wide number of situations. That is specifically, don't get in the habit of just thinking "x yards, that means y club". That is really only the beginning. You need to think further "x yards, that's a standard y club, but the pin is in the back and there's trouble in the back. Oh, but the front is fairway mowed right up to the green, if I take 1 or 2 more clubs and swing a little easy I can land the ball right in front of the green and let it roll up to the pin and reduce the chance of going over into that trouble" Or "there's trouble in front and in back, so I want to fly the ball onto the green. I'm going to take one less club to get the ball up in the air and generate more spin, but put the ball back a little in my stance and I'm going to hood it a little so that the effective loft is decreased some and I get a little extra distance and spin on the ball to help stop it on the green". Etc.

I'm not saying that you don't want to know the distances, because having accurate distances obviosuly does aid in club selection. But, I so want to emphasize that it is only the first piece of the puzzle. You have to add a bunch of other things in there too to arrive at your final club selection. Things like if you are in the rough or fairway, like if the ball is above or below your feet, on an upslope or downslope, how receptive the greens have been, the trouble around the greens, how you're hitting the ball that day, how windy it is and what direction the wind is blowing, etc. There are probably a few more I am forgetting. Every one of the above can change what club is best. So, just having the yardage is only the beginning. An important beginning, but just the beginning nonetheless.