Pin Sheets and Rangefinders

[billchao]

On 3/21/2019 at 9:12 PM, TRUCKER said:

Ok. So with the pin sheet you're getting extra details about the green and the pin placement. I'm not sure I'm good enough to use one then. I typically get the yardage and flag color and go for the front, middle, or back more or less. Sounds like with a pin sheet you would need to be good enough to get down to within a yard with your distances all the time to really make use of those extra details.

More information is never a bad thing. There have been times I've been burned by the flag coloring where the greenskeepers accidentally put the wrong flag in for the hole location. As @DaveP043 mentioned, you want to plan for your miss and sometimes a simple yardage isn't enough.

[TRUCKER]

I agree. The more info you have is better. I also agree about the flag color. Now that you mention it, I've said many times, "this should be a white flag not a blue" because like you said the pin is way more to the middle not the back.

[billchao]

On 3/24/2019 at 2:33 PM, TRUCKER said:

I agree. The more info you have is better. I also agree about the flag color. Now that you mention it, I've said many times, "this should be a white flag not a blue" because like you said the pin is way more to the middle not the back.

Right, and there are times I'll hit a shorter club to a blue flag because I know there's trouble long, only to find out the hole is cut in the middle and I could have taken one more club or something.

Happened to me late last year on a partially blind approach and the shot I hit just barely cleared a hazard when the club I would have chosen for the pin location would have landed safely on the green had I known in advance where the hole was actually cut.

[SPJr]

On 3/21/2019 at 8:57 PM, DaveP043 said:

With a good course map, like one I've made for myself for my home club, I have distance to the significant features, ridges and swales.  I might choose to go short of a middle flag, for instance, if I know there's a ridge just behind the pin.  A pin sheet just gives more detail than a red-white-blue flag system might give, is it in front of that ridge, or just past it.

You make your own course maps?

How big of an investment of time is that? How much detail do you go into?

[klineka]

1 hour ago, SPJr said:

You make your own course maps?

I interpreted what @DaveP043 said as that he made the course map only for his home course, not every course he plays.

[SPJr]

1 minute ago, klineka said:

I interpreted what @DaveP043 said as that he made the course map only for his home course, not every course he plays.

Right.

[p1n9183]

I general.. aim for the middle of the green. If you hit it more than good(flyer) it would go to the back of the green, if you hit it ok it would go to the middle of the green. If you hit it poorly it would go to the front of the green, hitting the green it´s N°1 priority on approach shots. Same for left to rigth misses, aim at the middle of the green.
Pin sheet it´s important when the green it abnormally deep. Lets say 40 yards or more. In those scenarios the pin could be 15 (or more) yards longer or shorter to the middle of the green, in those rare scenarios you should club up/down acordingly.

[DaveP043]

9 hours ago, SPJr said:

You make your own course maps?

How big of an investment of time is that? How much detail do you go into?

I only did my home course, but I was pleased with the result.  Here's a sample:

I'd guess I spent close to 100 hours, but it was all hand work.  I used a cheap CADD program, traced from satellite photos for the base, added all topographic information by hand.  Then I made the whole thing to scale based on a single measurement.  Once the drawing was to scale, I could use the CADD program to get distances from specific landmarks.

[SPJr]

2 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

I only did my home course, but I was pleased with the result.  Here's a sample:

I'd guess I spent close to 100 hours, but it was all hand work.  I used a cheap CADD program, traced from satellite photos for the base, added all topographic information by hand.  Then I made the whole thing to scale based on a single measurement.  Once the drawing was to scale, I could use the CADD program to get distances from specific landmarks.

So cool! Excellent job.

[TRUCKER]

On 3/27/2019 at 3:14 PM, DaveP043 said:

I only did my home course, but I was pleased with the result.  Here's a sample:

I'd guess I spent close to 100 hours, but it was all hand work.  I used a cheap CADD program, traced from satellite photos for the base, added all topographic information by hand.  Then I made the whole thing to scale based on a single measurement.  Once the drawing was to scale, I could use the CADD program to get distances from specific landmarks.

👌

[phillyk]

A pin sheet is handy when you can’t see the pin or green at all because of elevation. Or when you’re not sure how much room you have behind or in front of a pin when playing for a certain spin. 

[saevel25]

On ‎3‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 6:14 PM, DaveP043 said:

I guess I spent close to 100 hours, but it was all hand work.  I used a cheap CADD program, traced from satellite photos for the base, added all topographic information by hand.  Then I made the whole thing to scale based on a single measurement.  Once the drawing was to scale, I could use the CADD program to get distances from specific landmarks.

What you need now is to create scaled overlays of your shot zones you can place over top of the layouts ;)

 

[Groucho Valentine]

Ive found pin sheets the most useful on courses i already know. Otherwise, they're sort of vague. So i tend to use a rangefinder more on courses i dont know and refer to a pin sheet if it looks like the pin is tucked behind something. But Ive played in tournaments at courses i know with only the pin sheet and the yardage markers on the course without using a rangefinder at all.