Yardage Book

MAKE YOUR OWN PGA TOUR-STYLE YARDAGE BOOK

Gene Andrews is known as the “Father of Playing by Yardage.” Andrews, who won the 1954 U.S. Public Links Amateur championship, used to walk the course before a tournament and write down yardages from various key landmarks in a little book.

Years later he passed the idea to Dean Beman, who went on to become commissioner of the PGA Tour. Beman passed the idea on to Jack Nicklaus and ultimately it was Nicklaus who made yardage books a necessity on the PGA Tour.

Nicklaus was meticulous about his game. He created a yardage book for himself when he played in the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach in 1961. That week Nicklaus played 12 rounds at Pebble Beach – all under par. That was enough to convince him of the value of creating yardage books.

When Nicklaus joined the PGA Tour in 1962 he was the only player charting the yardages on the course. He is credited as being the first PGA Tour player to use a yardage book when he won the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont.

Since then nearly every pro on Tour as well as their caddy has adopted the use of yardage books. The yardage book Nicklaus originally created for Pebble Beach is now in a museum. If the Tour pros think yardage books are so valuable they rely on them for nearly every shot, wouldn’t you think yardage books would benefit the average golfer as well?

Of course.

This book has complete instructions on how to create your own yardage book. You’ll make better decisions and play with more confidence when you make your own yardage book – even if it is a course you play every week!

The Yardage Book will detail the programs you need and the step-by-step instructions for capturing Google Earth images of your golf course, measuring yardages, and transferring both fairway and greens images into a pre-formatted template (the templates are free when you purchase the book).

Yardage Books are fun projects.  Get the book and give it a try. You’ll forever look at golf courses in a different light.