Stupid Question

[ioaz81]

Ok, this may be dumb, but I was just curious and thinking about it last night around 330am watching highlights. Are there yardage markers and such on the courses then the Pros are playing them. They always talk about how they are guessing and how they have to go out and figure the yardage in practice, but I was just curious if there were also markers that are out there at the same time. Anyone got some inside information on this. I am sure some people have been to the local tournaments at some time or another.

[Andy_Mac]

imagine that... a guy in a Louisville hat asking a stupid question ;)

I have heard announcers talking about the sprinkler heads being marked with distances on occasion. Im sure there is something out there the guys can use as a reference.

[ioaz81]

Hey now, leave the Lville hat out. I was just curious, becausethey talk about how much of a mystery it is and the guys carry yardage books and such. I was just curious if its like when people like us go and play and they still have the blocks and stakes....I mean does it not just boil down to them hitting their distances. LOL

[RC]

Tour courses (and many others) have detailed yardage books, but caddies usually double check and also make determinations of how yardage change with the different location's elevations and how each hole's elevation changes. Then they factor the wind conditions for each shot. It is a detailed science now-a-days.

[iacas]

  ioaz81 said:

Ok, this may be dumb, but I was just curious and thinking about it last night around 330am watching highlights. Are there yardage markers and such on the courses then the Pros are playing them. They always talk about how they are guessing and how they have to go out and figure the yardage in practice, but I was just curious if there were also markers that are out there at the same time. Anyone got some inside information on this. I am sure some people have been to the local tournaments at some time or another.

Yes, the courses have yardage markers on them. Almost every modern course does. The pros know whether they're accurate or not, too - something might say 171 to the front but the caddie will know it's 169.

The sprinkler heads - just like bunkers or certain trees - are marked in their yardage books. You'll sometimes see a caddie pacing off from a sprinkler head (which has a yardage in it that they'll ignore) to their player's ball. That sprinkler head is in their book and whatever yardage is in there they use.

[ioaz81]

I was just finding it funny the announcers play it off like they pull it from their butt. :)

[Marinemike]

Don't forget that they go out and gun down every yardage possible earlier in the week. I can't imagine what their yardage books look like.

[retexan599]

Wonder if it would be legal for them to have their yardage 'book' in electronic form, such as a PDA type of electronic organizer?

[Surefire]

I know some of you really dislike Ian Poulter, but his tweets on twitter are actually quite interesting. A while back, on one of them he actually posted some pictures of his yardage book. Worth looking up if you are interested, I'll see if I can find the link too.


*EDIT* Found the link. Here is yardage book and greens book.

You can also buy yardage books here .

[ioaz81]

Thats pretty epic to have that kind of yardarge book and be able to actually use it. Thats awesome.

[Chilli Dipper]

I remember being able to see the red, white, and blue yardage markers in the middle of the fairways at Colonial very clearly from the blimp shots earlier this year.

[billm408]

Pros play the same course as the members or public- some are well marked, others not so much. What the yardage books are good for is specific yardages based on hole locations. ie; distance to carry a bunker, a ridge, backstop behind the hole, etc...

Poulter's ydg book looked kind of off-the-rack standard. I've seen some covered in hand written notes (I have a couple like that myself).

One of the great things (IMHO) about courses like Cypress Point or SF Golf Club... not a single yardage marker on the course and they don't have books either.

[ioaz81]

See, when I was little, I was always in the thought process that pros great shots came from just using eye sight to see the yardage and to hit like that. Talk about making the game tough....

[flanagan]

  ioaz81 said:

I was just finding it funny the announcers play it off like they pull it from their butt. :)

What announcers are you talking about? There aren't any golf announcers on any of the networks covering tour events that don't know that all of the players know the yardages. Any time there is a question you see the shots of them discussing with their caddie and looking at their book. Nobody pretends it's a mystery when pros know the right yardages.

[ioaz81]

Sometimes they play if off like, Oh he knew that was exactly 161 and hit one club up and it was great. :) I know they are making it exciting, so that is what I was talking about.