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Just to clear up any confusion about setting score card yardages, let me explain what happens when you move the "aiming line" around. For the sake of this discussion, I will call the line that you set for your tee shot placements an "AIMING LINE"
To begin with, I'll describe the method I use, and what I believe to be the proper way to lay out a standard sized hole that falls within the APCD's requirements. I used hole 1 at Wakonda. These pictures are a good example of what I would consider a standard hole. The first thing to understand is that I'm creating an actual course, and I have target yardages to set for each tee. When I start to lay out a hole, first I make sure that the yardages I want to achieve will fit properly within the hole from tee to green. I start the "aiming line" at the "Center of Tee" (point A) and draw the line down the middle of the fairway to around 280 yds (point B) And then go from there to the center of the green (point C). I make sure that the total yardage of A to B, and B to C adds up to the exact yardage I want.
(comment: I think that the "Center of Tee" indicator is referring to the CENTER from left-to-right. You can place it anywhere you want on a tee box, but the APCD expects it to be centered in such a way that your tee markers will fall on the tee grass and not off the edge into the rough. The APCD does not care or even sense how long your tee boxes are. If just prefers that you start in the CENTER)
My back tee gets planted at the beginning of point A, (Center of Tee) and my pin-1 gets planted at the end of point C (Center of Green). Once I do a "validate and save" the score card and the hole yardage has been established for that hole. All other tees on that hole are then planted at the yardage you need for that specific tee to pin-1. After a V & S that will establish THEIR score card and hole yardages.
Once they have been established, if you move either pin-1 or ANY of the other tees forward or backwards, the hole yardages and score card yardage will change. The correct scorecard and hole yardages will show up in the "Course Properties" menu under the HOLE INFO tab. Hole yard and score card yardages should be adjusted by moving either the tees or pin-1 forward or backwards. Moving just a single tee will change only that specific tees yardage. However, moving pin-1 will change ALL tee yardages at the same time. Because they are all measured from each tee to Pin-1.
Here is a series of pictures of what takes place when you move the "aiming line" but leave the tees and pin-1 where they are.
PIC 1
This is the original untouched course as it was designed. Notice that the aiming line runs from the back tee to pin 1 near the center of the green
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PIC 2
I moved points A, B, and C way out off line and into the rough to see what changes. Next I did a V&S, and then loaded the course in Links. I created a game and set up 2 AI players and watched them play hole 1. Both of them hit into the left rough, directly to where I had point B placed. However, they both hit from the woods straight at the pin on the green, and NOT toward the right rough where I had place point C. This verifies that the "aiming line" is just that. It gives the AI players a line to aim at.
(comment: My theory and belief is that since the AI's could reach the pin, they shot directly at it instead of over to where I moved point C. That's what they are programmed to do. However, had this hole been an unreachable par 5, I firmly believe they would have hit over to the right rough where I had placed point C. I have seen that happen quite a few times over the years while playing other courses.
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PIC 3
Read the picture comments
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PIC 4
Read the picture comments
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PIC 5
The "Course Properties" HOLE INFO menus for Tee 1 and Tee 2 yardages. These figures will be what shows on the scorecard in the game.
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PIC 6
Here's the score card as shown in Links 2003 during all of this testing. These yardages match the "course properties" menu in the APCD, and are the accurate yardages that I set up when I created the course. Thru all of this testing, my correct score card and hole yardage never changed in Links. Never once did I move any tees or pins. Only the aiming line.
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The bottom line here is that the scorecard and hole yardage is set by the distance from TEE-1 to PIN-1. When I stated it was set from the BACK tee to Pin-1, I was assuming that was under normal conditions where the back tee was tee 1. There are exceptions to that. You could place tee-2 behind tee-1 if you want. But this discussion was about a normal standard hole that works within the APCD's somewhat limited rules.
Dan
) handicap ratings-I'm guessing that that's a systemic issue.