Insights · Week of
Hole-location sheets: what coordinators need the week of
The field plays the pins, not the theme. If the sheet is late or the numbers move, the week feels sloppy before the shotgun.
Week-of is for walking the course. The pin sheet is the one piece of paper the field will actually use. Coordinators who treat it as a print job — something to “get out” Thursday — spend Friday morning answering where the hole is on 7.
What the sheet has to do
It has to match the book. If you handed out yardage or green-reading books, the hole-location numbers on the sheet must be the same language as the book. A second numbering system is not a backup. It is an argument on the first tee.
It has to be holdable. A phone PDF is a courtesy. The player who wants a card in the cart should have one. Print enough for the field plus the scoring desk plus the shop.
It has to be walked. Monday or Tuesday, the head pro and the superintendent walk the routing with the planned locations. If a Sunday pin is on a ridge that will not hold after irrigation, you learn it on the walk — not from the last group.
What coordinators should lock
- A three-day rotation if it is a three-day week: front, middle, back, so Sunday is not Friday again. Annual 3-Day Member-Guest at Merion Golf Club is a different product from a one-day; the pins should say so.
- A no-move rule after the sheet is printed. Weather can force a change. A chair who “likes 14 better on the left” cannot.
- One person who owns the file. If two people can edit the sheet, the sheet is already wrong.
- A copy on the first tee, in the locker room, and at scoring. Hiding it in a welcome packet is how half the field never sees it.
The week a named course is on the card
A week like Centennial Member/Guest at Bel-Air Country Club will be judged against the course the guests already know from television and rumor. The sheet will not make Bel-Air. A late sheet will make the week feel like a club that could not get the small things done. Same for a quieter ladies week such as Ladies Member-Guest at Tualatin Country Club — the field is smaller; the standard is not.
Order print on the 90-day line. The directory lists the official houses for books and pins. Do not invent a vendor the week of.
From the field
- Centennial Member/Guest Bel-Air Country Club
- Annual 3-Day Member-Guest Merion Golf Club
- Ladies Member-Guest Tualatin Country Club
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