How are holes measured?

[ToddL]

The existence of those golf-style rangefinders slipped my mind. Are they accurate and precise? I'm accustomed to using Leica distos or similar for building and geological surveying, but it seems I'm also out of touch with their current prices which have apparently come down dramatically since I bought my tools.

I enjoy measuring and surveying but this talk about precision is really quite silly in practical disc golf terms. If I were building a new course now I'd simply step off the distances and round to the nearest ten. It's amusing to see tee signs displaying false precision when they were measured by gps or wheel.

The route that gets measured is simply not important to me, but apparently the distance on the sign plays a big part in the emotional experience for many players. Since that's true, I reckon course builders should do the kind thing and provide that information. I suspect though that some may find a course without posted distances or par to be surprisingly refreshing.

They're more than accurate enough for disc golf. For most flat holes I measure with both laser and wheel and typically end up being within 1 or 2 feet of each other. I also round all my distances to the closest 5' before printing tee signs. There's no way a person can dial in a difference of 5' on a throw, and on most holes I might get that much difference depending on the exact route I walk with the wheel or where I define the corner if using a laser.

If there's a dogleg you might have to have two people to run the laser - one person run up to the bend, shoot the distance from tee to person, then shoot person to basket (or use a convenient tree or something). Additionally, it's actually pretty difficult to hit the basket with the laser. It's easier to hit a person, or even a person holding a big piece of cardboard.

 

[Rastnav]

If there's a dogleg you might have to have two people to run the laser - one person run up to the bend, shoot the distance from tee to person, then shoot person to basket (or use a convenient tree or something). Additionally, it's actually pretty difficult to hit the basket with the laser. It's easier to hit a person, or even a person holding a big piece of cardboard.

If I was doing this on anything like the regular, I'd get something like this a regulation height pin flag to have someone hold at wherever you were trying to measure to. That would let the range finders with automatic pin-lock (most of the decent ones these days) help you out by making sure you are shooting to the actual object you want.

Just a thought.