Read an item in a golf magazine about clubs using coloured flags to indicate the hole position on the green. It seems that many clubs are using this method ,but unfortunately there does not seem to be a standerd procedure for this.
Just a couple of questions to get some idea what system other clubs are using.
Does your club use coloured flags
what colour indicates front, middle, back.
We use coloured flags with red indicating a front hole position ,yellow, in the middle of the green, & white indicating the back of the green. This system works well but is difficult for visitors if other clubs use different colours

My Club uses it but only on a single hole that has a 2-tiered green, red = front, yellow = back.

They even have an engraved plaque attached to the seat at the tee block explaining this.

How do they indicate hole positions on the other 17 greens

My club has 3 flag colours. Red for back, yellow for middle and blue for front.

red, white, blue

How do they indicate hole positions on the other 17 greens

A bad day on the golf course is better than no golf at all. :(

No one who ever had a lesson would have a swing like mine

Lee Trevino

Just a standard yellow flag – wherever the hole is!

Our club has a float on the flag stick which is slid up and down to indicate the position of the hole on the day, i.e high for the back low for the front and in the middle for the centre. Works well

We have red/front, white/middle and yellow/back then blue BGC flags for the gold letter events so you don’t have a clue.

Most courses using this method also have it explained on the back of the scorecard, along with distance markers etc

All courses should have standard colour flags approved by GA indicating front, middle & back, regardless of the size of the green.

I think this thread already illustrates the need for a national system for markingflag positions on greens. I realize that many clubs ( mine also) Explain there system on the back of the scorecard which is ok. if you remember to look at the back of the card but surely a standard marking system should be fairly simple to set up.
Nadg how do youi pick which club to use if you do not know the position of the flag on the greens.
Dave , We used that system before going to the coloured flags, Works well as long as the person cutting the holes remembers to move it.
Patrick , Same question as nadg. How are you supposed to gauge the distance to the flag if you do not know where on the green it is situated, some of our greens are 4 clubs long.

Stuart, I’ve only played one gold letter and to tell you the truth my game is not at the point where I have to worry about it, I’m just happy to hit the green.

frankyb
me too, and to make it harder i am colour deficient (fancy term for colour blind)
Can’t use or see red/orange tee’s, markers (or flags)

Our club has a float on the flag stick which is slid up and down to indicate the position of the hole on the day, i.e high for the back low for the front and in the middle for the centre. Works well

Our club use to do this but to many players complained as the green staff would move the hole position but wouldn’t a just the position of the marker on the stick ,
So the green keeper fixed this by just taking the markers of all together and as the course uses the resort style checked pattern flags . Now you have to look at the flag position on the green and guess where it is on the green.
Makes it tough on those long par 4 holes.

My mate and i were only talking about this same thing the other day, there should be 3 standard coloured flags for every course, say yellow front red middle and white back (well thats what is is at my course) and it should be the same everywhere so when visitors play they still know that yellow is front etc.

I think this thread already illustrates the need for a national system for markingflag positions on greens. I realize that many clubs ( mine also) Explain there system on the back of the scorecard which is ok. if you remember to look at the back of the card but surely a standard marking system should be fairly simple to set up.
Nadg how do youi pick which club to use if you do not know the position of the flag on the greens.
Dave , We used that system before going to the coloured flags, Works well as long as the person cutting the holes remembers to move it.
Patrick , Same question as nadg. How are you supposed to gauge the distance to the flag if you do not know where on the green it is situated, some of our greens are 4 clubs long.

A bad day on the golf course is better than no golf at all. :(

No one who ever had a lesson would have a swing like mine

Lee Trevino

Find the 150 marker, (or distances on sprinkler heads, both show distance to front of green), guess where the flag is situated and hit it …................. !!??

On the 1st and 10th hole they have drilled into the distance markers 3 holes.
These holes have coloured dowell to represent pin position.
From left to right when lookin at the markers, are short on green with appropriate flag colour, mid of green with appropriate flag colour, and rear placement with appropriate flag colour.
One course I went to handed out a photocopy of all greens and pin placement in metres from back/front of gree, and distances from the side, made it a little easier.

Seems Red White & Yellow are the most popular colours but everwhere places them differently. Come on Golf Australia lets come up with a standard system.
nadg Don,t you think this game is hard enough without bringing guesswork into the equation. Think how difficult it is for visiting players that don.t know the greens as well as the members

having played a good few courses i have seen many types of indicators. I think the flag colours are the best. Our course uses the ball on the flagstick which is never where it should be and can easily be moved by some malicious early player wanting to sabotage the later starters. Luckily most of our greens are about as big as an envelope so it isn’t much of an issue.

I saw an interesting one at Queanbeyan where the 150m marker is a piece of metal pipe about 5 ft tall and IT has the adjustable ball on it either top , middle or bottom. Makes it a bit easier as it is much closer to you than the flag stick.

most confusing course i played had distance markers on the sides of the fairways at 100, 150 and 200 that were measured to the middle of the green but also had distances on the sprinker heads – however they were measured to the front of the green!!!!

I agree that the coloured flags are usually the best way to go. I think the simplest way to have a common standard would be to set them up like the tee box markers on most courses: red= front, white= middle and blue=back. I know that a lot of courses do that already.

I agree that the coloured flags are usually the best way to go. I think the simplest way to have a common standard would be to set them up like the tee box markers on most courses: red= front, white= middle and blue=back. I know that a lot of courses do that already.

That sounds like a great idea. Now all we have to do is get every golfclub in the country to implement it.:-)

I played at Asquith (Sydney) today, first time, every hole had a white flag and because there are a lot of elevated greens we had no idea and just hoped for the best. Course though is in excellent condition and was very well presented with some very interesting holes.

Having thought about this, I cannot remember ever playing on a course here in Adelaide that does this – or maybe I just didn’t realise at the time!?

The variety is amazing. My club uses yellow for front, red for middle and blue for back.

I played at Asquith (Sydney) today, first time, every hole had a white flag and because there are a lot of elevated greens we had no idea and just hoped for the best. Course though is in excellent condition and was very well presented with some very interesting holes.

A bad day at golf is still a lot better than a good day at work.

You sooks, it wasn’t that long ago when there was no such thing as a 150m marker, much less an indicator to the flag positions….. be thankful for what you have and when you go to a new course, ASK the Professional when you pay your green fees, he might actually tell you what the deal is with that course…;-)