One of the reasons that professional golfers get their pitches and long chips so close to the hole is that they practice these shots
A LOT and they're really good at them. The other reason is that they know exactly how far the ball is from the hole.

That's the missing link. Amateurs practice hitting shots, but spend no time charting the courses they play. And they have to do this, because they don't have the yardage books available like the pros do. So here's how to make yours.

Get a notebook. One of those 3x5-inch flippy books. Make a diagram of each green complex to 100 yards out, one for each page. You can make a fairly accurate rendition by zeroing in the the satellite view of your golf course on an Internet mapping site and copying what you see.

The next time you go to the course, draw in any prominent features that can be used as a distance landmark - a particular tree or bush, a rock, bunker, whatever. Starting from a known distance, step off the distance to these landmarks as you walk down the center of the fairway. Write down the distances beside the landmark notation.

The final landmark to step off is the front edge of the green. That's your baseline for the distances of all these landmarks - they're this far from the front edge of the green.

When you get to the green, mark the day's pin placement on the green part of the diagram, along with its distance from the front edge. Measure this distance along a line going directly from the front to the back of the green, and not on a line directly to the pin.

The next time out, you might want to check your distances, just to be sure, and mark the pin placement. Keep marking and measuring pin placements each time you play. After a while, you will find that the green staff has only a few placements it will use on any one green, and you'll know the exact distance to each one from 100 yards in.

Why are you going to all this trouble? Because to get a pitch close you need to know if the pin, not the center of the green as indicated on the sprinkler head, is 40 yards away or 45. Knowing that it's 43 yards away is even better. But you can't tell that by eye, and sprinkler heads run out when you get close to the green, and you don't get a pin sheet when you leave the pro shop. In short, you're on your own.

You work hard to know just how to hit a pitch that goes 65 yards. When you check your diagram and find your ball is 47 yards to the front edge, and today's pin placement is 18 yards from the front edge, go ahead and hit that 65-yard shot right up to the hole.

Back to Tips Index