Kansas Disc Golf Association

How do you measure the distance of a hole. Do you do it as the crow flies or do you measure along the fairway?

Down the fairway. People say laser range finders work well, but thats probably expensive.

I use the old-fashioned wheel. It's sometimes impossible to take a straight line, which you wouldn't be doing with the disc either. GPS could give you straight distance, where laser & wheels couldn't (though you can usually get close with a laser by breaking the total distance into peices). I think you should take the tightest line that is a reasonale flight for the disc. The crow flies distance is no good if it is impossible to throw it straight.

mrsenortyler wrote:Down the fairway. People say laser range finders work well, but thats probably expensive.

Find someone that uses a rangefinder for hunting. The length measured in a straight line seems to be what most courses try for. Adding curves is sort of like weather forecasters adding wind chill. If you take curves into account what about elevation? Maybe you could do each hole as the design group This hole has 45%tree coverage,an elevation increase of 50 ft. and plays around a 90 degree blind curve It's only 200ft. but we estimate it to be a par 3.5

It actually is pretty cool when a tee sign includes the net elevation change. From that, I think I remember it being a 1 to 3 ratio on elevation to effective distance change. A 200 foot hole going 50 feet uphill, for example, would have an effective length of 200+(50x3)=350.

So is it Fairway, or as the crow flies? Most of the holes on Running Horse have bends and turns in them and putting the distance as the crow flies would do nothing to discribe to the player the challenge they face. If we are measuring as the crow flies what about a mando? If the goal of putting distance on a hole sign is to help the golfer make better decisions then shouldn't the distance be as the hole will most likely be played?

If the hole is wide open, you measure straight to the basket. Like on "Three way" at your place. But if the hole dog legs, you measure down the fairway for distance. There could be a U-shaped hole somewhere that the Tee pad is 200ft from the basket as the crowflies, but if there is no over-the-top-route, you might have to travel 600ft around the U. That is the distance people need to know.

There is some information on this PDGA thread, (one of many on the topic)
http://discussion.pdga.com/msgboard/sho ... =1&fpart=1

You measure straight on with a laser ranger finder (not hard to come by really). If the hole dog legs you use the Pythagorean theorem - measure pin high to the hole, take the distance to the first mark, then the first mark to the pin and use the formula to find the hypotenuse - that is the distance for the hole; a.k.a. as the crow flies.

Which is more important, the fact that Winfield is 36 miles from Wichita, or the fact that I have to drive 50 miles to get there?

Great Analogy!

Interesting that we have different schools of thought on what proper measurement is. I think a great deal of disc holes are seriously off their posted distance, but my weenie arm perspective may have something to do with that.

Let me provide some examples here and see what you guys think.




In each example there's a straight "as the crow flies" route, and a not so straight "fairway" route. Along the fairway routes, I've posted numbers. Does it make any distinction if an expert player can only reach '1' in any of the examples as opposed to '3' or '4'? What about a not so expert player?

Also on the dogleg example, take consideration into how penetrable that teal colored area is, as in the different types of obstructions/hazards I've listed on there.

In my oppinion:

The distance posted on the tee sign should always represent the path a par golfer would take to get to the basket.

For instance #17 at Pratt. The fairway travels straight North for say 200ft then doglegs left 90 degrees to the West for another 250-275 to the basket. Total throwing distance = 450- 475ft. However if a pro player has enough in his arm, they may attempt to throw it over the tall tall trees to shorten the distance to 300'. The tee sign should definitely NOT say 300'. Players playing for the first time need to know how far they are going to be throwing, and not how far it is to the basket.

Maybe each tee sign needs to have two distances. "Travel Distance" and "Straight Line Distance". This would be to give golfers the option of going the straight line distance if they feel they have the arm and want to chance the obstacles.

When in doubt, look to the godfather of our sport, ballgolf for the real answer.

Friz-Rocker wrote:When in doubt, look to the godfather of our sport, ballgolf for the real answer.

Ballgolf says use survey equipment,electronic measuring device,or gps.
Measurement must be accurate to +\= 1 yard at 250yards.
Person using equipment must be competent.[probably the biggest problem]
Measure in straight lines from tee to pivot points in the center of the fairway.[dogleg would be 1 point,double dogleg would be 2 points]
Elevation is measured indepently from distance[not factored into distance]
Basically not as the crow flies nor on a radius.