New Course Measurement Because Tees Have Moved...

[Aaron_D]

My home course is totally awesome, except the tee locations have moved several times during the first few years of the course's life as it has been tweaked by local players/ clay tees replaced by concrete...etc.

I am about to undertake the challenge of re-measuring the course from the current tee locations.

My question is this: What is the best method of doing this without specialty equipment?

I can get a few of my buddies to help me, we were thinking about using pre-measured string and just measuring from point A (front of tee) to point B (central pole in basket) Should we follow the fairway or should we just go in a straight line from tee to basket? Any tips would be appreciated!

[DAllen]

My question is this: What is the best method of doing this without specialty equipment?

DON'T GET A MEASURING WHEEL.

Get yourself a 300' Stanley Power winder tape - or some other 300' tape. I have one for work and those are awesome. Wheel's are horribly innaccurate over rough terrain - even mowed grass. These tapes generally run about $30 which is less than most wheels. I am a construction inspector for road and sewer projects so I basically measure stuff for a living.

Start at the pad or the basket with one of your buddies holding the end of the tape. Walk out until you either get to the other end of the hole or you reach 300'. Mark on the ground the 300' mark and have your buddy walk past you going toward the other end. Basically while you stay at the 300' mark your buddy walks past essentially doing a giant leap-frog. If the hole is over 600' then make a mark at 600' while you walk past your buddy leap-frogging again.

Once you do it one time it will seem a whole lot simplier than what I am babbling about here. Oh, and by the way, I don't know if I said this already but DON'T GET A MEASURING WHEEL.

-DAllen

[discmonkey42]

There seem to be some decent deals on laser range finders on ebay. Definitely cost more than a $30 tape, but much sexier ! Anyone had any experience with these???

[Aaron_D]

Thanks for the tips Dallen!

discmonkey: It certianly would be sexy, id have to get a 3 peice suit and some aviators for the occasion!

[TexasOutlaw]

D, thanks for the info.

I would like to have something like what ball golfers use to calculate the distance from the pin. Would that be a laser range finder? I'm not sure if I could afford one.

[DAllen]

I'm glad I can help. Laser range finders look like a great idea. The ones I saw advertise an accuracy of + or - one yard which is plenty good for what we need it for. On the other hand they cost $180+ and I don't know if a dg basket would be enough of a reflective object for them to work properly. Would the laser see through the chains and bars? I donno. I guess you could shoot the ground just behind or in front of the basket. Regardles, if I had the money, I would buy one.

Aaron...another thought: If you have a hole that is a dog-leg be sure to get separate measurements for each leg and show that information on the hole signs. In fact, separate distances to obstacles, mando's, trees and other objects would be a nice touch. A lot of ball-golf courses do this and I have always found the information to be quite handy. Of course, you do have to evaluate how much information is enough should you decide to do that.

-DAllen

[gwsisk]

I have a Nikon laser range-finder that I use for both ball golf and disc golf. It's handy, but can be tricky to use. For one thing, it needs a proper quality target to range on--something solid like a tree, rock, garbage can, or passed-out sailor. Thus, a disc golf basket isn't usually an effective target. Also, the circuitry in range-finders seem to give priority to the strongest returned signal. And many models are designed to give priority to objects farthest away, which make the devices useful to hunters who must determine ranges in woods with lots of small trees and undergrowth.

But this feature can also be useful for building your confidence--temporarily. The first time I threw a disc 350 feet, I was on a high for ten minutes until I realized that my range-finder had looked past the basket and targeted instead the bench at the next tee.

So, I suppose the best way to use a laser range-finder would be to bribe a friend into holding up a large reflective target at each basket and at other key spots on the course while you make measurements and notes. Although using a 300 foot tape measure seems just about as easy, and a lot less expensive.