Goodbye Whiskers... Hello New Yardage Markers

They are here!! The new sprinkler caps have arrived and are being installed as this post is being written. By day's end, we will have all 18 holes completed (nearly 600 caps) assuming the looming precipitation doesn't turn for the worst and run us off the course.

The new caps are similar to the previous ones, with bright white numbering. One difference being the new numbers are slightly smaller due to the smaller size of the new sprinkler heads.

Here is a brief overview of how the yardage markers are positioned on the golf course.

• All fairways have 3 rows of yardage markers; 1 up the center and 1 on each side of the fairway. There is only a few exceptions to this due to varying fairway widths where there may only be 2 markers across (e.g. narrow section in the middle of 11) or as many as 4 (the wide section on 3 by the 150 yard mark).
  
• The side row markers will be located on the head closest to the center of the fairway; which may occur directly on the fairway, or in many cases, at the fairway/rough interface.
• Par 3's - Around tees and from the beginning of each fairway to the last approach heads before the greens. (NOTE: A few tees (e.g. 2 forward tee) have different sprinkler head models and require specialized caps. These will be installed in the near future.)
  
• Par 4's - Roughly 250 yards to the last approach heads before the greens.
• Par 5's - Roughly 300 yards to the last approach heads before the greens.

An example where the head closest to the center of the fairway was given the yardage marker.

As we mentioned in an earlier post this spring, the GPS data equipment ($30k+) used to map out yardages is accurate to the sub-millimeter. Rest assured, if you are standing on a sprinkler head marked 100 yards - it is exactly 100 yards to the center of the green. The GPS data not only gets distances precise, but it can map the center of any area, including our irregular greens, to a pin point.

The new sprinkler head spacing is now closer than the old layout which has increased the total number of heads on the fairways. Because of this, there are an additional 250+ (about 14 more per hole) yardage markers in the fairways which should make things easier for you.

Now go out there and dial in those approach shots!!