That little slip of paper in your golf cart isn't just for decoration, it's a treasure map for scoring lower on the course. A hole location sheet, or pin sheet, gives you the precise location of the day's flagstick on every green. This article will teach you exactly how to read it and, more importantly, how to use that information to make smarter strategic decisions, choose the right club, and avoid those costly mistakes that ruin a round.
First things first, a hole location sheet tells you where the committee has cut the hole on each green for that specific day of play. Think of it as a daily update. While your GPS watch or rangefinder can give you a yardage to the front, middle, or back of the green, it doesn't know where the cup is today. That yardage to the flag might be a guess, or just the distance to the center. The pin sheet removes all the guesswork.
But why does a few yards here or there matter so much? Because golf is a game of misses. Knowing a pin is tucked just five paces over a deep bunker should fundamentally change your plan for the shot. Aiming directly at that flag is a low-percentage play. Aiming for the center of the green, leaving a 20-foot putt, is smart. The pin sheet is your guide to playing "high percentage" golf.
Using one is a habit that separates amateurs from serious players. It allows you to transform from someone who just hits at the flag to a strategist who thinks their way around the course. It helps you:
At first glance, a pin sheet can look like a confusing grid of numbers. Let's break it down into a simple, repeatable process. While formats can vary slightly from course to course, most follow the same fundamental logic based on two key measurements.
The vast majority of hole location sheets give you two critical numbers for each hole:
It's important to remember that in golf, one "pace" is universally understood to be one yard. So, if the sheet says "22 paces," that means 22 yards.
When you look at the sheet for a specific hole, say Hole #4, you'll typically see two numbers. For example: 23, 7L.
This is where the magic happens. You’re going to combine the information you get from your rangefinder or a sprinkler head with the information from the pin sheet.
Here’s the simple formula:
Yardage to Front of Green + Paces from Front Edge = Your True Yardage to the Hole
Let's use our example. You’re standing in the fairway on Hole #4. Your rangefinder gives you a distance of 135 yards to the front edge of the green. Your pin sheet for Hole #4 says the hole location is 23 paces (yards) deep.
Your calculation is: 135 (to front) + 23 (pin depth) = 158 yards.
Your actual shot needs to fly 158 yards to get to the hole. Without the pin sheet, your device might have told you the center of the green was 148 yards. That 10-yard difference is an entire club. Hitting a 148-yard shot would leave you woefully short and possibly in a tough spot to make par.
The second number is all about your target line. Our example pin sheet for Hole #4 said 7L, meaning the hole is just 7 yards from the left edge of the green.
This information is your risk assessment. It tells you there isn't much green to the left of the flag. If you have a tendency to pull or hook your shots (for a right-handed player), aiming directly at this flag is dangerous. A small miss left could end up in thick rough or a greenside bunker.
The smart play here is to use this information to pick a safer target. Aim for the center of the green, which would be about 10-15 yards to the right of the hole. This gives you a massive margin for error. A perfectly straight shot leaves you a makeable birdie putt. A slight pull still finds the green, and a slight push is also safe. You’ve just used the pin sheet to take double bogey out of play.
Once you’ve mastered the basics of calculating distance and direction, you can start using the hole location sheet to inform your overall strategy. This is how you really start saving strokes.
A "green light" pin is one that invites aggression. The pin sheet might read something like: "18 deep, 16R". This means the pin is comfortably in the middle of the green, far from the front and the right edge. There’s most likely plenty of room for a miss short, long, left, or right. This is your chance to aim at the flagstick and try to make a birdie.
A "sucker" pin is the opposite. It’s a trap. A classic example is a front pin tucked just behind a deep bunker. The sheet reads "6 deep, 8R". You look up and see a bunker guarding the front-right of the green. The pin sheet has just screamed at you: DO NOT AIM AT THIS PIN. The a mount of skill required to fly the ball just over the bunker and stop it within 6 yards is extremely high. The smart play, now informed by your sheet, is to club up slightly and aim 15 yards left of the flag, toward the center of the green. Play for par and move on.
The best players combine the pin sheet data with what they see on the course.
Some courses use a simpler, visual system. You might get a sheet with nine diagrams of a green, sectioned into a 3x3 grid. The location of the dot within the grid corresponds to the general area of the pin. Top-left square means a back-left pin location.
Another common system is using colored flags on the pin itself. This gives no left/right information but tells you depth:
While simpler, this is still very useful information. A red flag warns you of false fronts or front bunkers, while a blue flag tells you to take an extra club.
Mastering the hole location sheet moves you beyond a basic understanding of distance and into the realm of real on-course strategy. It’s a simple tool that provides the specific data you need to select the right club, pick the smartest target, and manage your misses to avoid round-killing blowup holes.
While a pin sheet gives you invaluable data, turning that data into the perfect shot execution can still be tough. For those moments of uncertainty - when you're between clubs, facing a strange lie in the rough, or the pin position just looks intimidating - I can act as your personal caddie. Simply entering the pin location and course conditions will get you a smart, simple strategy, and you can even snap a photo of a tricky lie to get an instant recommendation on how to best play the shot, removing doubt so you can swing with confidence.
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