Finding your Yardages!

[tomvk77]

What i never saw here and what i used alot to get my distances is a indoor golf facility, works great.

I just book the simulator for a couple off hours and start off with the range. after warming up

i just start with PW and hit like 15 off them, i don't hit my gap and sand wedge because they hit the roof, resulting in some scary stuff hehe

i hardly hit full shots with those anyway.

just go like this with all the clubs and you have a good idea on your distances.

I'm never more than 5 yard off whenn i play on the course ( i miss left or right but not on distance ) only on bad shots

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by tomvk77

What i never saw here and what i used alot to get my distances is a indoor golf facility, works great.

I just book the simulator for a couple off hours and start off with the range. after warming up

i just start with PW and hit like 15 off them, i don't hit my gap and sand wedge because they hit the roof, resulting in some scary stuff hehe

i hardly hit full shots with those anyway.

just go like this with all the clubs and you have a good idea on your distances.

I'm never more than 5 yard off whenn i play on the course ( i miss left or right but not on distance ) only on bad shots

Yeah, if your simulator is calibrated properly it's very accurate. I've had wedges bent based on Golftown sim data and was very pleased.

[Zeph]

Maybe you walk funny, but when I walk past the 200, 150, or 100 mark to my ball, it takes exactly the same anount of time to pace it off as just aimlessly walk without counting. It's accurate within a couple yards per 50 yards paced. In other words, well within the accuracy of the average golfer's iron shots.

True, but I still don't know how far it is to the flag. The rangefinder is also useful for finding the distance to carry a hazard or how far I definitely don't want to hit it. I've also had experience with course markers being far enough off the yardage that it leads to problems. Also, my ball is not in the fairway all the time, which makes the guesstimation a bit more unreliable. Picking up the rangefinder and pressing the button takes a couple of seconds, and I don't have to second guess my pacing. I know the distance to the flag within whatever amount of error the device allows, which give me good feedback on exactly how far I hit the ball. Add or take 2-3 yards here, 2-3 yards there and you are suddenly half or even a full club short or long.

[sean_miller]

True enough, and I was joking about walking funny. I thought you were one of the "always aim for the middle of the green" guys, but I must have you confused with someone else. Considering how particular you are with the minutae angles (swingpaths, clubfaces, and angles of attack), I find it difficult to believe you couldn't visualize a semi-circle intersecting the yardage markers on both sides of the fairway (assuming there's no peg in the centre of the fairway) and fairly accurately estimating where your ball lies relative to that circle - in about 5 seconds. I love my rangefinder, but if playing the same course very often the accuracy is not required and it's not faster.

Quote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by sean_miller

Maybe you walk funny, but when I walk past the 200, 150, or 100 mark to my ball, it takes exactly the same anount of time to pace it off as just aimlessly walk without counting. It's accurate within a couple yards per 50 yards paced. In other words, well within the accuracy of the average golfer's iron shots.

True, but I still don't know how far it is to the flag. The rangefinder is also useful for finding the distance to carry a hazard or how far I definitely don't want to hit it. I've also had experience with course markers being far enough off the yardage that it leads to problems.

Also, my ball is not in the fairway all the time, which makes the guesstimation a bit more unreliable. Picking up the rangefinder and pressing the button takes a couple of seconds, and I don't have to second guess my pacing. I know the distance to the flag within whatever amount of error the device allows, which give me good feedback on exactly how far I hit the ball.

Add or take 2-3 yards here, 2-3 yards there and you are suddenly half or even a full club short or long.

[Zeph]

True enough, and I was joking about walking funny. I thought you were one of the "always aim for the middle of the green" guys, but I must have you confused with someone else. Considering how particular you are with the minutae angles (swingpaths, clubfaces, and angles of attack), I find it difficult to believe you couldn't visualize a semi-circle intersecting the yardage markers on both sides of the fairway (assuming there's no peg in the centre of the fairway) and fairly accurately estimating where your ball lies relative to that circle - in about 5 seconds. I love my rangefinder, but if playing the same course very often the accuracy is not required and it's not faster.

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I can visualize a semi-circle, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'll be accurate. And again, what use is it if the flag is 10 or 20 yards from the middle of the green? Why is the accuracy not required on a course you play regularly? Some courses are well marked, others are not. I'd rather think about my upcoming shot than pacing up 40 yards while approaching my ball. There is just no way that I can pace off and judge the position on the green any faster than it takes to shoot the flag with the rangefinder. I've done both, and I'm much faster today. If the hole got a dogleg, you will be walking at an angle towards the ball, but not towards the green itself. Which means the pacing will be a bit off. Unless you walk a detour, which again will take more time. We can argue back and forth about this forever, but the bottom point is that I'm faster with the range finder, period.

[DublinMeUp]

Originally Posted by MiniBlueDragon

Just to clarify with my Google Maps suggestion above, there's a hidden little feature (which I forgot was hidden as it's constantly on for me now) called Distance Measurement Tool which you can enable from http://maps.google.com/maps?showlabs=1&ftr;=misc.distance - It allows you to plot a path between two points on Google Maps and then display the distance between them in many different measurements.

I frequently use it for a straight point to point measurement, however you can continue adding points to plot complex shapes if needed.

Very cool! thanks mate