Yardage Markers

Below I have pictured a typical winter indoor project consisting of our yardage plates on our par 3 tees.  When I first arrived at my current facility we did not have any indicators with the exception of a few irrigation heads of what the actual yardage was.  I noticed this discrepancy the first time I played the course, as I stood on the tees trying to guess where the yardage shown on the card was.  Club selection for me is tough enough, standing partially blind did not give me the confidence to play the shot.  Before I go on, I will admit, I probably shouldn't worry that much about the yardage, I'm a 12 handicap, but if I didn't know the exact yardage, what about our better players.  Another note, we cater to mostly senior golfers who are out more for exercise and fun, but we do host some school events, and really the cost for these are minimal.  $1.40 for the block, with paint and labor, we might have $10 wrapped up in each one.  We decided to add the actual yardage, for two reasons, I played another course regularly, and on one of their par 3's that was in the 200 yard range.  They had a blue plate on their tee, but I could not figure if it was 200 yards from the plate or was it the 210 that was listed on the score card?  Also our yardages were measured from the back of our teeing grounds and some of those areas had settled and shrunk, so we used a measuring device and painted the actual yardage from the spot we placed the plate.    

Also when I started here, we did have a plate for our 150 yard from the green marked but not a 100 yards out, or 200 yards out on our par 5's and our 1 long par 4.  We bought patio blocks, painted them the standard red, white, and blue and placed them in the middle of our fairways.  We also added painted 4x4 posts on each side of the fairways since the block isn't always visible from the rough, where my ball usually is.  While a little bit of a pain having to move them when mowing, I sure didn't want to place a post or stake in the middle of the fairway.  I always say, if I ever am lucky enough to hit a drive down the middle of the fairway and it hits a stake that stops it, or knocks it into the rough, I'm using that stake to beat someone with.

We also have irrigation heads with yardage tags on them as my next picture shows.  We will be replacing some of those that are missing with the actual yardage engraved into the sprinkler head top.  We need to replace many lids (tops) anyway, this will serve two purposes.

We do all of this even though since my start here we have added GPS units to our carts.  I still believe in keeping the course marked for yardage for those people that walk all the time, especially the juniors/schools when they have tournaments. 

So when did all this preoccupation with yardages really come into play?  I started playing when I was 9 years old, I really didn't need precise yardages.  I remember the course I grew up on, our 150 markers were Arborvitae bushes.  I was still hitting my Northwestern Chi Chi Rodriguez 2 wood from there.  I don't think it was until I had graduated to my set of McGregor DX's women's clubs that I started having to pay a little attention to yardages.  I don't even remember much in high school if I had yardages dialed in yet, but I think it was at that time when I learned my Lynx (pre Black Cat days) 7 iron was my 150 club.  I had to hit the perfect wedge for 100 yards, and my 3 iron was 200 yards.  I still did not really get at exact yardages yet, as an example, I was working at a course with my mom and dad, and was able to play everyday at about 4 PM, when the regular summer Florida rains had chased people off the course and I would hit the first tee.  More often then not, I would hit my drive, go put driver in the bag and grabbed my club for the next shot.  I guess that was the benefit of playing that course everyday. 

After I graduated from Lake City, I still worked at many courses around that time that was lucky to have a yardage blocks, no yardages on heads, or no GPS units yet.  It was at that time I started dialing my yardages in better, so I started stepping off my yardages more, probably becoming a slower player.  It wasn't until I worked at a NAIA university course that I really wanted more information.  I was the beneficiary of a new irrigation system and our pro asked me about getting yardage tags for the heads.  With college golfers (before they could use measuring devices) we thought it was imperative to provide information so they could play their best rounds.  We also included pin sheets for them, which showed depths of greens.  For the first time I really paid attention to that aspect as well.  It did help as that was about the time I was able to play more consistent rounds.  Ever since that time I have tried to provide as much information to help golfers play their best. 

I do remember one funny story from getting our yardages for heads, on the par 5's I would measure the heads to about 270 yards from the green.  Our pro asked why I did that, these par 5's were not very long, and he and our students would never need those yardage figures since they drove the ball so long, but I told him they come in handy for me, I know what club I needed to lay up with.    

I'm curious of what all yardage tools your course uses for golfers to play their best and also invite you to share your memories of learning when and how you dialed your yardages in?     

Thanks for reading!