What is the proper way to measure hole distance?

[Harpo1989]

Might be a dumb question but...

Do you just measure from the front of the tee straight line to the basket post? Or do you go down what would be the center of the fairway? For instance, if 200 feet out there's a 90 degree dogleg, would you measure straight out and then down the dogleg, which would obviously be longer than a straight line, which may not even be a playable option.

I don't believe the measurements on some holes locally and would like to check them for myself.

 

[Steve West]

If the only information listed is hole length, I prefer front center of tee pad to post. That answers the most basic question: "how far is the basket?"

If the path to the target goes around something, let the players figure out how hard they need to throw. I doubt any player could tell you how many horizontal feet the disc travels over the curved path of a hyzer anyway, so why measure the length of the curve? They just know how far away their disc lands.

Even if the hole actually has a landing zone, where the player will be playing to point A, then making a throw at a very different angle to point B, I would still list the pure straight line distance from tee to target. The distance to point A (and from A to B) is very useful additional information, but I would not list the sum of the two as the distance to the target. The thumbers have rights, too.

 

[Harpo1989]

If the only information listed is hole length, I prefer front center of tee pad to post. That answers the most basic question: "how far is the basket?"

If the path to the target goes around something, let the players figure out how hard they need to throw. I doubt any player could tell you how many horizontal feet the disc travels over the curved path of a hyzer anyway, so why measure the length of the curve? They just know how far away their disc lands.

Even if the hole actually has a landing zone, where the player will be playing to point A, then making a throw at a very different angle to point B, I would still list the pure straight line distance from tee to target. The distance to point A (and from A to B) is very useful additional information, but I would not list the sum of the two as the distance to the target. The thumbers have rights, too.

While I appreciate the thought and neither agree or disagree, is point to point how they measure in the professional tournaments? They give a distance but also showed a curved arrow on the tee signs. Just curious what the 'official' method is for measuring.

 

[DavidSauls]

On doglegs we measure, not the center of the fairway, but cutting the corner as tight as possible. In our case, no one's cutting through the dense woods, or throwing a thumber over them to cut the corner. For all practical purposes, we're measuring the shortest practical route that the throw(s) can take to reach the basket.

I'm not sure we could measure a straight line, anyway. We'd have to measure the way we do, and then employ a little geometry, to calculate the exact distance from tee to basket.

 

[teemkey]

I assume Steve's recommendation is also somewhat based on the PDGA's definition of line of play; that is, from your lie to the center of the target (or nearest mando) -- even if you can't see the target, and are actually playing to a landing zone. This is one of those weird departures from ball golf standards where hole distances are measured by staying in the center of the fairway. I don't understand why some DG standards are justified by adherence to BG standards, and others aren't.

source

Measurements of dogleg holes typically follow the standard playing path. A measurement of a dogleg par 4, for example, will begin at the tee marker and advance to the middle of the fairway at the dogleg's pivot point. A second measurement is then made from the pivot point to the center of the green and the two measurements are added. Section 12-2a of the Handicap Manual advises course officials to select a spot approximately 250 yards from the tee for men and 210 yards for women if a typical pivot point cannot be determined.

 

[Steve West]

I assume Steve's recommendation is also somewhat based on the PDGA's definition of line of play; that is, from your lie to the center of the target (or nearest mando) -- even if you can't see the target, and are actually playing to a landing zone. This is one of those weird departures from ball golf standards where hole distances are measured by staying in the center of the fairway. I don't understand why some DG standards are justified by adherence to BG standards, and others aren't.

I don't know that there is a disc golf standard. Yet.

My personal preference is different than golf's because discs can curve a lot more than golf balls. A disc that lands 400 feet away may fly 500 feet total. It will do that whether you have to throw around a big pine tree or not.

 

[Timeetyo]

If the only information listed is hole length, I prefer front center of tee pad to post. That answers the most basic question: "how far is the basket?"

If the path to the target goes around something, let the players figure out how hard they need to throw. I doubt any player could tell you how many horizontal feet the disc travels over the curved path of a hyzer anyway, so why measure the length of the curve? They just know how far away their disc lands.

Even if the hole actually has a landing zone, where the player will be playing to point A, then making a throw at a very different angle to point B, I would still list the pure straight line distance from tee to target. The distance to point A (and from A to B) is very useful additional information, but I would not list the sum of the two as the distance to the target. The thumbers have rights, too.

Agreed. Just tell me I'm 300 away and I can judge how hard/what to throw based on if its a straight 300, a 300' hyzer, etc.

 

[teemkey]

...
My personal preference is different than golf's because discs can curve a lot more than golf balls.
...

Obviously you've never seen my slice

 

[INTP]

Pick up a cheap diastimeter if you're curious. I use one to mark distance flags I set up for practicing ranging.

 

[Steve West]

Obviously you've never seen my slice

Ha Ha, good point. I drew a crowd of gawkers once playing ball golf on a TPC course. I kept missing the green short right and left, so I would intentionally curve my shot around the protective trees. It just seemed to me to be the natural thing to do.

So, perhaps we should say most ball golfers intend to play straighter shots.

 

[JeremyKShort]

Most of ours are measured from the front of the tee in a straight line to the pin. We have a few exceptions, a couple of doglegs where we made it as straight as possible cutting it as close to their corner as we could, and one over a large water carry that we did our best to estimate.

We used a wheel to measure, then also did a google earth measurement and made sure they were close.

 

[scarpfish]

The official distance for a dogleg hole should be down the fairway line, even if some big arms can cut across. Listing that cutoff distance as additional info on tee signs is nice though.

Now here might be an example of a hole that makes you scratch your head regarding that.

What you see here is listed and signed as a 350' "dogleg" hole, even though the straight line distance from tee to pin isn't even 200'. There is somewhat of a marsh area and whomever installed the designs decided to make you go around it, so they measured it that way. Whatever.
:doh:

I've also seen a few cases where course designer extended their official distance with off kilter teepads. I hate that.

 

[armiller]

For par 3s, I think I'd rather just have the distance be the distance to the basket. If the fairway is curved but I'm still trying to get there in one throw, the fairway distance is less important than the direct distance to the pin.

I've been bagging some new courses, and it's frustrating when a tee sign says 430' (because there's some roundabout line) but the basket is only 330' so my hyzer line can get pin high no problem...