Spring is right around the corner and the golf season is rapidly approaching. Many courses have their agronomic plans in place and southern courses have already begun applying preemergence herbicides. It’s a time of year when many are easing into the season and thinking about how to deliver the best experience for golfers in the coming months. While superintendents are rightly focused on their plans to optimize putting green quality, weed control, and other agronomic factors that deliver better playing conditions, there are other ways to help improve the golfer experience at your course this year.
The hole location (pin sheet) function within the DEACONTM platform is a great example of an easy way to elevate the golf experience at your course. This feature allows your facility to create hole location sheets that have the same style and quality as the ones given to competitors at the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur and other USGA championships.
The pin sheet feature is ideal for national championships and the golfers at your course for several reasons:
- The pin sheets are easy to produce. This is key for users at the facility who will be entering hole locations and printing them for golfers.
- The images on the sheet illustrate greenside bunkers so golfers have a better idea of what to expect around the green. This is a huge plus for guests or golfers that are not familiar with the course.
- The gridlines overlayed on each green on the pin sheet allow golfers to know how close the hole location is to bunkers and other features. This information is something a rangefinder can’t provide.
- The hole location feature, and all of DEACON, are available at a fraction of the price for similar products.
- If desired, a course can have their greens scanned to enter slope data into the system. This might be very useful information when dealing with undulating putting surfaces.
- Using the tool allows you to document hole locations over time. This is valuable for courses that want to set up the golf course in a similar fashion every year for certain events or when committees want to study results from past setup decisions.
The hole location function is just one feature of DEACON that may be useful to superintendents, but it is one of the easiest ways to elevate the experience for golfers at your course, especially during special events. If you would like to discuss DEACON, the hole location feature, or any of your agronomic programs, contact your USGA agronomist.
Central Region Agronomists:
Paul Jacobs, agronomist – pjacobs@usga.org
Zach Nicoludis, agronomist – znicoludis@usga.org