course walking distance

[SubPar]

I often walk 27 holes in a day and have always wanted to know how far I really walk golfing on any given weekend. I found a cycle odometer on e-bay for less than $10 and rigged it up on my push cart.

Using it today I walked a 6800 yard course. 6800 yards is 3.86 miles and I logged 5.0 miles on the odometer. So I walked 1.14 miles in addition to the official course yardage.

For anyone who is curious, that should be about average for any course... just add about 1 mile to the official course length. I hit 10 fairways so I was not zig-zagging around too much.

SubPar

[Dub]

Good info.

I've always wondered how much additional yardage came into play on the courses I go to. Some of them have no residential...so green to next tee distance is minimal.....some of them sprawl out through huge neighborhoods.

[Shindig]

I often walk 27 holes in a day and have always wanted to know how far I really walk golfing on any given weekend. I found a cycle odometer on e-bay for less than $10 and rigged it up on my push cart.

6800 yards in Los Angeles... was this the walking distance for Woodley Lakes, played from the blues, by chance?

[PuterPutter]

I used Google Earth to measure the course I play and it is 4.2 miles for 18 holes
if you hit every shot straight.

When I play I feel like I walked 10 miles, so how does that tell you how I play?

[iacas]

I used Google Earth to measure the course I play and it is 4.2 miles for 18 holes if you hit every shot straight.

No reason to do all that measuring. Take the yardage, divide by 1760. That's how many miles your course plays, tee to green, in a straight line.

The general rule of thumb is "double that." The doubling accounts for you walking not in a straight line, for green-to-tee walks, and for pacing around greens lining up putts, etc. If you have especially long walks from greens to tees, multiply instead by something like 2.1, or just guess how much they add. A 7000 yard course is nearly 4 miles, so most golfers who play will have walked about 8. That's why golf burns so many calories. It ain't the swinging and the bending over 18 times.

[SubPar]

6800 yards in Los Angeles... was this the walking distance for Woodley Lakes, played from the blues, by chance?

Well, the walking distance would be the same no matter which tees you play from, but the card reads 6800 from the blues.

Using my odometer, I accounted for every step taken, except walking from the edge of the green to the ball, and then to the hole and back. Due to the aggressive furry-tailed rodents in the area, I always roll my cart to the edge of the green nearest to my ball. For me walking around on the greens might add up to another 500-700 yards which would be perhaps 0.35 miles. It may be more for people who walk laps around the hole reading a putt, but I keep that to a minimum. SubPar

[ChiChiIsMe]

4.6 miles for my 6500yd from the Blue course.......at least that's what the Garmin said at the end of the round yesterday.

[SubPar]

...

Of course, rules "of thumb" are not always reliable. I actually measured the distance and, excluding walking on the greens, the distance was only a little more than 25% over the straight line distance on the card. In order for the rule of thumb to be correct, pacing on the greens would have to add up to 2.5-3 more miles. Not likely.

There are variables, but I would estimate Woodley to by typical with regard to the distances between holes and fairway width. In no case is the walking distance anywhere near 8 miles. Next time I walk a course I'll walk a victory lap around every green and see what that adds to the equation. SubPar

[iacas]

Of course, rules "of thumb" are not always reliable. I actually measured the distance and, excluding walking on the greens, the distance was only a little more than 25% over the straight line distance on the card. In order for the rule of thumb to be correct, pacing on the greens would have to add up to 2.5-3 more miles. Not likely.

Sure, but you also didn't measure walking around your ball once you dropped your clubs, either, right? Walking onto and off of tee boxes. Walking around to find grass to toss in the air. Walking into the port-a-potty to take a leak... do you take your clubs with you for all those things, too? What about walking from the clubhouse to the tee (and from 18 back to the clubhouse)? Did you do any practice putting before the round?

You likely left a lot of things out that got factored into the "rule of thumb." I've taken a step counter that's pretty precisely measured to my step length, and the rule of thumb is pretty accurate. And I didn't even turn it on until I'd finished my warm-up putting. But for everyone it will be different. For example, I walk a little bit out of the way to direct my cart to the landing area on the next hole, and IIRC I was measuring during a round with that cart. Total distance added would probably be ~ 5%, but who knows? Could have been more, maybe less.