Planning your Shots before you play

[cdma]

I am looking for an online application that will let you bring up a course do flybys and also check distances so you can determine what clubs to hit off of tees before going to the course.  I know there are a lot of phone apps but looking for something online.

[RandallT]

No fly-bys, but my favorite is ProVisualizer:

http://www.provisualizer.com/

If you install Google Earth, you can do the 3D portion. For my MacBook, that only seems to work with Safari, but perhaps I have some security setting with Google chrome in effect that breaks Google Earth.

It mostly works by creating concentric circles around the points that you plot, and sometimes it's a bit hard to read the yardage circles. But it does the job pretty well.

Once you learn how to find your course on the map, and enter in all the tees and greens (plus best layup points), you can see how you'd play each shot very effectively. It will remember your courses on that same computer, but I don't believe a login is required- so you can't access that from another computer (I think).

Under the profile page, you can select some generic clubs for your bag with your yardages. Those are used when you set targets- it will guess a club to use for each shot that you map out.

You can print out a "yardage book" but it's basically hard to read with just a bunch of concentric circles.

They have a way to see every course for the majors, which is great.

[cdma]

Nice find.  This is great.  I just wish you could actually print the yardage on the book itself.  I think that is the major drawback of it.  But for what I want to use it for i think this will work.  I will just have to create the book and write in the information.

Thanks again!

[Psyber]

Download Hole19 on your phone. You can check out the courses before you play and you can use it to see your yardages and track stats and score if you want.

[DrvFrShow]

A battle plan only survives first contact with the enemy.

[CR McDivot]

  DrvFrShow said:

A battle plan only survives first contact with the enemy.

And the one who is capable of adapting best to the situation exits with the victory!

[mvmac]

Little OT but you would probably enjoy this book @cdma .

http://lowestscorewins.com/

[Pretzel]

I like to use Google Earth, the desktop application, to measure distances on unfamiliar courses. It has a handy dandy ruler feature and will also tell you about any elevation change between two points (so you aren't blindsided by a large up/downhill slope that you didn't account for). I usually only plot my planned tee shots. After that point so much depends on where the ball ends up that it's meaningless to plan beyond that, since obviously the plan would be to stick it to a couple feet and make the putt in an ideal world. But knowing which tee shots will need a club other than my driver, and knowing where I want to aim on each tee shot, is a relief when I have to play a new course in a tournament since it takes that part of the strategy off my mind. I can just focus on the shot instead of thinking, "Was it 294 or 249 to that tree? Can I hit this club safely?" as I'm standing over the ball.

[Grumpter]

I would think there are too many variables to make this worthwhile? I have seen tee's have 50 yards or so of distance added/subtracted, pin placement might change the approach shot by as many as 2 or 3 clubs and wind also might change the distance by a few clubs. Why not just get a GPS where you can plot things out on the fly?

[saevel25]

  mvmac said:

Little OT but you would probably enjoy this book @cdma.

http://lowestscorewins.com/

Pretty much this.

I will say that looking at the course on google earth or maps is good thing if you want to look out for hidden bunkers or hazards. Besides that, just get a feel for your shot zones.

Quick tip, mostly aim for the middle of the green when outside 100 yards, give or take a few yards depending on hazards and bunkers.

[newtogolf]

I use SwingxSwing on iPhone.  It not only gives you an overview of the hole but also provides yardage indicators based on where you anticipate hitting your ball to, so you know how much yardage you'll have left after your drive.

[boogielicious]

  Pretzel said:

I like to use Google Earth, the desktop application, to measure distances on unfamiliar courses. It has a handy dandy ruler feature and will also tell you about any elevation change between two points (so you aren't blindsided by a large up/downhill slope that you didn't account for).

I usually only plot my planned tee shots. After that point so much depends on where the ball ends up that it's meaningless to plan beyond that, since obviously the plan would be to stick it to a couple feet and make the putt in an ideal world. But knowing which tee shots will need a club other than my driver, and knowing where I want to aim on each tee shot, is a relief when I have to play a new course in a tournament since it takes that part of the strategy off my mind. I can just focus on the shot instead of thinking, "Was it 294 or 249 to that tree? Can I hit this club safely?" as I'm standing over the ball.

I do this just to get an idea how far the hazards are off the tee. Sometime the laser can't get an accurate read. I make a card like the one below. The FW width is for what I think my best tee club is.

Hole	Par	Yardage	Tee Club	Hazard	Distance	FW Width
1	5	522	D or 4W	FWB	170 - 220 L	35
2	4	351	4W	FWB	240	45
3	3	138	8 iron	water	130 clear	n/a
4	4	353	D or 4W	FWB W	175 - 200	52
5	5	454	4W	narrow	n/a	20
6	3	111	PW	bunkers	95 front	n/a
7	4	364	4 iron	Tree	145	20
8	4	351	Driver	FWB	187 clear	40
9	3	148	7 iron	bunkers	right side	n/a
10	4	255	4W	bunkers	230	24
11	4	340	3H	FWB	190 - 210	20
12	5	435	4W	water	230	34
13	4	207	4 or 5W	bunkers	196 front	n/a
14	3	157	7 iron	bunkers	140 front	n/a
15	5	424	D or 4W	none	n/a	42
16	4	370	4 or 5W	water	240	50
17	4	317	4W	water	250	34
18	4	287	4 or 5i	FWB	185	24

[rcwkent]

For an unfamiliar course I look at Swing by Swing on my Ipad.

Since I have a GPS watch , I measure Hazards and FWB's from the middle of the green.

Since the location of the tee as noted earlier is often unknown. Then do the arithmetic in my head.

I also make yardage notes on the bunkers, hazards or OB around the greens. These can be hard

to see or really guestimate from the fairway.

[dkolo]

I remember sitting with my tiny Garmin G3 and its 2" screen and cartoon maps and looking at Bethpage Black in my kitchen and guessing that I would have to carry about 250 to reach the fairway (wait, that can't be right? Which tees are these yardages for?). Now I can pop open Google Earth on my computer and plan out a strategy of attack based on my distances and where fairway bunkers and doglegs are. And right now I downloaded the Black course on game golf on my phone and can see it's only 164 from the white tees to the fairway based on the satellite image. Technology is fun.

[Grumpter]

  dkolo said:

I remember sitting with my tiny Garmin G3 and its 2" screen and cartoon maps and looking at Bethpage Black in my kitchen and guessing that I would have to carry about 250 to reach the fairway (wait, that can't be right? Which tees are these yardages for?).

Working as intended. If you are on the course at a yardage below the maximum distance for that hole then it will adjust the yardage based on your current location. If you are beyond the maximum distance of the hole then it will show the maximum distance of the hole.

I have seen as much as 80 yards difference between the same tee's for any given hole on any given day. If it is a course that always keeps the tees in the same general spot I guess a pre-plan would work but I would still much rather get the distance at the time of play and base my decision on that yardage and given conditions for that exact moment.

[dkolo]

  Grumpter said:

Working as intended. If you are on the course at a yardage below the maximum distance for that hole then it will adjust the yardage based on your current location. If you are beyond the maximum distance of the hole then it will show the maximum distance of the hole. I have seen as much as 80 yards difference between the same tee's for any given hole on any given day. If it is a course that always keeps the tees in the same general spot I guess a pre-plan would work but I would still much rather get the distance at the time of play and base my decision on that yardage and given conditions for that exact moment.

I understand that; I was just walking through the thought process and how much the information available has improved as tech got better.

[isukgolf]

I will google earth a new course. I have never thought about looking at distances, since I am so inconsistent out of the tee box.

[Dave2512]

If I knew exactly how I was going to hit any shot I wouldn't need a plan. I play the same courses all the time and I am always in different spots. I hit everything from 4h to PW for the approach on the first hole of the course I play most. My guess is I've logged at least 250 rounds there in 3 years.