Course Notebooks

[tulefog]

I notice that professional golfers and their caddies each carry notebooks with notes on each hole of the course. I am wondering if anyone here has seen one of those notebooks and might know what kind of information might be in there. I am assuming distances are in there. Do they also make note of landing areas depending on pin location or prevailing winds?

With respect to greens in particular, I am wondering if there is a way to make note of slope and grain which may give some indication of how far a putt will roll or break in a given distance or direction.

Thanks for any input!

[sean_miller]

I notice that professional golfers and their caddies each carry notebooks with notes on each hole of the course. I am wondering if anyone here has seen one of those notebooks and might know what kind of information might be in there. I am assuming distances are in there. Do they also make note of landing areas depending on pin location or prevailing winds?

[clubchamp]

That's what a caddie's book would look like with yardages and pin locations. The pro's book is more notes and descriptions of the hole.

[ChipShot]

I've thought about doing this but with the use of a skycaddie it seems like a bit of overkill. I do tend to go and "scout" a course on google earth if I've never played there before.

[hero12]

During practice rounds in high school I would play a hole, then look back and find the best way for me to play it. I would write down where to tee up, where to hit my drive, lay up clubs and distances, and break of the greens. On my home course now I have a similar book, but I've added yardages and a lot of other notes.

[Bigtank]

Those books with notes are very valuable. Tour pros keep them year over year, and transfer notes to the new ones. I know there is a compnay started by a guy that goes out and does all the yardages and sells them to the touring guys. Makes a dang good living doing so.

[TourSpoon]

I had a similar "flip" book (laminate spiral bound) of the course I worked at in the early 90s. It wasn't quite as detailed as the one above, but it had some vital information. I would use a sharpie to write in any changes, or distances that weren't noted over the years. I went back to this course the other day and showed the Pro my book and he wants to take it to the printer and have it duplicated for framing in the clubhouse. The book has mostly nostalgic value as the nines were reversed, some greens were redesigned, bunkers removed, and after 3 hurricanes, many trees are gone. I am not sure how it will come out, but when it does I want to have a copy. I think that it will show the original course layout, with all its tough bunkering and trees. It should be pretty cool when its done.

[SeanMcFarlin]

I use one but I'm too lazy to write down everything for each hole like pin positions, yardage to hazards, front middle and back. What I do have is my club yardages for draws, straight, and fades with driver thru 9 iron. I also have the green sizes of my local nine hole course.

[tulefog]

Thank you for replying. With respect to the pictures, I am assuming that the distances are all from the front of the green. Also, are the arrows intended to show break with the more severe turns showing more break? It looks like someone diagramed the green and then went and rolled golf balls off the shelf or ridge to figure out how severe the break is. Very cool.

[WUTiger]

Tournament courses, country clubs and many upscale public access courses have these course books. Some are more detailed than others.

Books with the contours of the green are most informative, as long as the slope lines are accurate.

Some courses show hole-by-hole renderings of their coursebook on their websites:
http://www.pevelyfarms.com/?page=14051

[The Recreational Golfer]

I make a notebook for courses I know I'll be playing repeatedly. The first thing is to identify the spot where I want my tee shot to land, which I find by picking the spot from where I want to hit into the green and which I can reasonably get to. Sighting back to the tee, then back again in the other direction on the same line, I find the aiming mark.

I'll step off distances to hazards to find if I can play beyond them, or if I can play short or wide without handicapping my next shot too much. I'll find out how far away the green is from my tee ball on a par 5, since sprinkler heads aren't labeled that far out. Helps me pick my second and third shot combo.

I'll write down what irons I played into a par 3 and any particulars of the shot.

I have a green diagram for each hole where I note the pin position. The green staff has customary positions you can recognize from the fairway if you know what their patterns are. Helps picking your approach shot, and really helps dialing in the distance on a pitch.

I'll note the path of a putt on the green diagram only when what I read and what happened are quite a bit different.

It doesn't take much time to build up a guide like this as you play, and only a few rounds to acquire a pretty good course profile. I don't know how many strokes it saves me, but it does give me lots of confidence in the shots I choose to hit.

[Ben]

Walmart sells a 4-pack of the perfect sized, spiral bound notebooks for only $1.97. Fits easily in a back pocket. Top page is notes on what clubs and type of shot needed off the tee. Bottom page is a diagram of the green highlighting breaks and tiers with yardages marked off. I am always updating each time I play that particular course.

But yeah, the pros get some great ones. Tons of yardage info, (to the front of the green, yes) and to hazards. At Asian Tour Q School they were being sold for competitors. I also play courses that hold PGA Tour and Nationwide qualifying, those places have the good books as well.

[tulefog]

Thank you for all the insight. With all the how-to books and magazine articles out there, I can't believe there is not more devoted to this topic. The reason that I raised the question is that I cannot tell you the number of times I have made a putt and then said to myself "Oh yeah, I remember this green is deceiving, it breaks radically right even though it looks even." Or "Oh yeah, this green is deceptively fast." I kept thinking that if I had some way of keeping a record, I might have some hope of remembering. The problem is that when pin locations are changed daily, you are not always playing the same part of the green, so it may be months before you relive the experience of any particular pin location or general area on the green. Also, the course diagrams give you yardages, but they don't necessarily help you determine the best approach, especially where the best approach may vary based on pin location. Based on all this, and given the prevalance of notebooks on tour, I was wondering if there were some uniform or recommended way of keeping notes. Again, I really appreciate everyone's input.