Google Earth to check out a new course

[Lihu]

Ever wondered what it would be like to look down the holes on a course you are planning an outing?

I wanted to get some beta before actually tackling this course on an outing in a couple weeks. At first I thought 5700 yards? No problem. So, I did some research on Game Golf first, and noticed that better players than I were having a lot of trouble on this course.

So out of curiosity and fear, I decided to see if Google Earth terrain works on this course well enough to get an idea of what I am up against.

Sure enough, it works, and I determined that I'm going to have the crap beaten out of me by this short course. At least I know to tee off with my hybrid and practice tee shots with that club until the match.

260 yards which is my median drive if I can thread that needle. I don't think 3W or hybrid would do any better.

2 more holes I anguished about because they are really long and only 40 yards wide!

All I can think is "Oh, crap." because these are kind of the wide open "easier" holes. The hardest hole is 406 yards with a narrow 30 yard opening between OB and the other fairway between 220-280 yards. Obviously, I'm shooting for the trees between the two fairways, which is my forte. I also learned that the rest of the par 4 will be a 4i or less tee shot.

The lesson learned is that Google maps works great for this type of look at golf courses, and I plan to use it in the future. Fantastic tool.

[chilepepper]

Talk about threading a needle.

Cool idea on the google maps view

[No Mulligans]

Two questions for anyone that knows:

On a PC,

1) How do you get google maps distances to display in yards

2) How do you get that distance box that Lihu displayed in the first photo.

 

[Dave2512]

It's a golf geek thing but yeah I've done it if I don't get enough to satisfy looking at their site.

[Papa Steve 55]

Isn't part of the fun of playing a new course seeing it for the first time? I don't know if I want this much info for a casual round. Even for an important tourney I would rather get there a day early and play.

Maybe its just my inability to process any important golf info from Google earth. 

[Lihu]

1 hour ago, No Mulligans said:

Two questions for anyone that knows:

On a PC,

1) How do you get google maps distances to display in yards

2) How do you get that distance box that Lihu displayed in the first photo.

 

The ruler icon, then select yards in the pull down menu.

29 minutes ago, Papa Steve 55 said:

Isn't part of the fun of playing a new course seeing it for the first time? I don't know if I want this much info for a casual round. Even for an important tourney I would rather get there a day early and play.

Maybe its just my inability to process any important golf info from Google earth. 

I'd like to play it but it's a country club, and coordinating with a friend is not easy to do in the two weeks left. We'll see how it plays. Looks scary.

[No Mulligans]

45 minutes ago, Papa Steve 55 said:

Isn't part of the fun of playing a new course seeing it for the first time? I don't know if I want this much info for a casual round. Even for an important tourney I would rather get there a day early and play.

Maybe its just my inability to process any important golf info from Google earth. 

Yeah, it's for us nerds.

Here's a hole that was interesting for me to look at on Google maps.  If you only can carry 200 yards (600 feet on the map), like me, then you have little margin for error with the landing area given you probably won't clear the last large tree if you hit a wee bit right and you're in the hazard if your hit a wee bit left..  That tree ends at about 180 yards.  So, if you only carry 200 then you want to lay up to the left of the hazard.  Laying up is no picnic though as that area slopes towards the hazard, the best shot for the short hitters is to lay up with a draw (if you can pull that off).  Or, hit well left of the hazard into the rough near either side of the lower cart path and hope it rolls down.

But if you can carry 230 (about 700 ft. on the map) then you can easily clear the height of the tree and you have a wide landing area.  If you can carry 230 then you'd want to use whatever club that carries 230 to 250.

This hole probably played easier when it was designed however many decades ago before that tree grew up.  Designed by Robert Trent Jones and Sam Snead.

[chilepepper]

1 hour ago, No Mulligans said:

Yeah, it's for us nerds.

Here's a hole that was interesting for me to look at on Google maps.  If you only can carry 200 yards (600 feet on the map), like me, then you have little margin for error with the landing area given you probably won't clear the last large tree if you hit a wee bit right and you're in the hazard if your hit a wee bit left..  That tree ends at about 180 yards.  So, if you only carry 200 then you want to lay up to the left of the hazard.  Laying up is no picnic though as that area slopes towards the hazard, the best shot for the short hitters is to lay up with a draw (if you can pull that off).  Or, hit well left of the hazard into the rough near either side of the lower cart path and hope it rolls down.

But if you can carry 230 (about 700 ft. on the map) then you can easily clear the height of the tree and you have a wide landing area.  If you can carry 230 then you'd want to use whatever club that carries 230 to 250.

This hole probably played easier when it was designed however many decades ago before that tree grew up.  Designed by Robert Trent Jones and Sam Snead.

Tecolote, #11. I lay up if the tees are back. They were up today

[boogielicious]

@Lihu,

Have you tried Google Earth? I use that all the time when I'm going to play a new course. It's free and has much better features than Maps.

[mcanadiens]

When going to a new course, I can't resist but look at it online. Google Earth always seems to load slow on my computer, but I've used it and occasionally will take some measurements to get an idea for any forced carries or doglegs. Of course, you are sort of guessing where the tees actually are in the box. 

More often, I'll take a quicker look on the Bing Maps, bird's eye view. Usually I need to figure out how to get to the place anyway.

[Lihu]

1 hour ago, boogielicious said:

@Lihu,

Have you tried Google Earth? I use that all the time when I'm going to play a new course. It's free and has much better features than Maps.

Oops, my title is incorrect. That was Earth.

[jamo]

4 minutes ago, Lihu said:

Oops, my title is incorrect. That was Earth.

Fixed.

[Lihu]

2 hours ago, jamo said:

Fixed.

Thanks.