What do you think of these tee signs?

[Rastnav]

I'm working on some new tee signs for one of my local courses. Just want to get some general impressions of these first 3 examples. Are they clear? Do they convey information in a straightforward and pleasing manner? Do you like the general concept?

Of special note, think about what the tee signs are saying about the Red/Recreational course vs. the regular layout. Is it clear what is going on?

What do you like most? What do you like least?

 

[ru4por]

I am utterly and completely confused. I like the graphics, the font is plain and clear. I cannot figure out the numbering, tees or direction of play. Maybe a full map of the course would make it more clear.....maybe it is just me? On hole #2, in the third photo there are red tees labeled #3 and #4.

 

[Rastnav]

I am utterly and completely confused. I like the graphics, the font is plain and clear. I cannot figure out the numbering, tees or direction of play. Maybe a full map of the course would make it more clear.....maybe it is just me? On hole #2, in the third photo there are red tees labeled #3 and #4.

The recreational layout/routing is not the same as the the advanced course. The rec course sort of sits on top of the advanced layout, but doesn't use all of its holes.

So, advanced hole one is spilt into rec holes 1 and 2. Rec hole hole 1 plays from advanced 1's tee pad to its own basket. Red hole 2 plays from its own tee pad to advanced 1's basket.

Advance hole 2 is split into rec holes 3 and 4.

You then skip over to the tee box for advanced hole 7 to play Rec hole 5, and so on.

It's a very functional rec layout, and avoids some potential issues with trying to make suitable rec holes from some of the advanced ones, but it's a little confusing to navigate the first time.

 

[DavidSauls]

I think I know where you're going with this, but the yellow basket labeled blue and the white basket labeled red and....well, I was lost at that point.

 

[Rastnav]

I think I know where you're going with this, but the yellow basket labeled blue and the white basket labeled red and....well, I was lost at that point.

Hmmm, on hole #1 advanced there is regular basket (yellow band Discatcher) and a long basket (blue band). Those are for the white and blue courses, respectively.

On hole #2, you tee off from and play to the same yellow band basket for both white and blue layouts, but the par just changes.

Any ideas on how to more effectively convey this?

 

[Rastnav]

One possibility would be to completely separate the tee signs for the rec course from the advanced course and have two tee signs posted wherever the advanced and rec course share a tee pad. Maybe that would be clearer.

 

[DavidSauls]

Hmmm, on hole #1 advanced there is regular basket (yellow band Discatcher) and a long basket (blue band). Those are for the white and blue courses, respectively.

On hole #2, you tee off from and play to the same yellow band basket for both white and blue layouts, but the par just changes.

Any ideas on how to more effectively convey this?

Oh, it may work just fine in practice.

You might take the color labels off the baskets on the map, and trust that the hole info on the left side is clear about which basket to throw to, from each tee. That might be clearer.

Just a thought, with no warranty as to how good it is.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

I am utterly and completely confused. I like the graphics, the font is plain and clear. I cannot figure out the numbering, tees or direction of play. Maybe a full map of the course would make it more clear.....maybe it is just me? On hole #2, in the third photo there are red tees labeled #3 and #4.

Not just you. I looked at his signs... no clue what he's trying to convey. :\


My best guess is there's a single tee, with alt pin locations... but I'm probably wrong, because there are much clearer ways to convey that.

 

[dreadlock86]

it makes sense but it took me until the 3rd sign to get the totality of it all. that might be annoying if i were out there walking from tee to tee.

it might be clearer to label the tees "hole 1" instead of "#1" (i first thought hole 1 had an option of two red tees until i saw the second sign) and the baskets labeled "blue layout" instead of just "blue" (so that it's clear that it is indicating the layout not the color of the basket)

 

[HyooMac]

Took me a while to figure out too. I admire the effort to make one sign do the work of multiple layouts, but I think it would be much clearer to the player to go to multiple signs.

Similar to road signs, the real test is whether the intent can be understood at a glance, not by long study.

 

[jupiterboy]

If you have the choice, you might rethink the shape of the sign. I'd also consider starting with the longest hole, creating a scale, then making all the holes proportional. I think you have a great deal of wasted space as it is. I'd also consider some type that was created for wayfinding that is made to read from a distance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_1451

Try printing them out at full size and consider how close you have to be to read the sign. The larger and clearer it is, the further people can stand away from it and still read it. If the information is too small, only one person at a time will be able to see it.

I'd also not place the signs at the front of the tee pad where they may obstruct shots. Kinda obvious, but some courses do this wrong.

 

[ray1970]

I suppose the signs aren't any more complex than the actual course layout so I guess it has that going for it.

 

[DavidSauls]

Another thought might be to make the map background light green, instead of white; and add lines of flight paths (blue, white, & red) to connect tees to baskets.

 

[biscoe]

Another thought might be to make the map background light green, instead of white; and add lines of flight paths (blue, white, & red) to connect tees to baskets.

This.

 

[Tripper]

Hmmm, on hole #1 advanced there is regular basket (yellow band Discatcher) and a long basket (blue band). Those are for the white and blue courses, respectively.

On hole #2, you tee off from and play to the same yellow band basket for both white and blue layouts, but the par just changes.

Any ideas on how to more effectively convey this?

Navigation at Leigh Farm has been problematic since the course opened. I am glad you are trying to improve the situation. Just when I had finally figured it out, the course was re-designed due to apartment construction and now I have issues again.

I think the most confusing part is the rec course tee pads in the middle of the advanced course fairways. Good luck.

 

[Tripper]

Another thought might be to make the map background light green, instead of white; and add lines of flight paths (blue, white, & red) to connect tees to baskets.

This approach may make it clearer which baskets and tee pads are for which course.

 

[jupiterboy]

Another thought might be to make the map background light green, instead of white; and add lines of flight paths (blue, white, & red) to connect tees to baskets.

Local club I was working with got on a tear of deleting these from the maps. They ended up just keeping on central line. When we got to the end and they decided they needed a master map of the whole course, it was essential that these were in place. Because the holes were to the same scale we just shrunk them all proportionally and layed them over each other. That's maybe not super clear, but had the lines not been in place the master map would never have worked right.

We were able to use a white background, but that's largely because the whole look was based on some vintage signage that was part of the local history.

 

[Rastnav]

Another thought might be to make the map background light green, instead of white; and add lines of flight paths (blue, white, & red) to connect tees to baskets.

That's an excellent idea.

I had also thought about trying to create a colored circle for each green as well. I may try out each idea.

I think I also need a way of indicating at a glance which tee pads are for the next rec hole.

 

[DavidSauls]

My point in changing the white background to green, was to allow for white lines. If you don't/can't go with lines, it doesn't matter.

Our (private) course has 2 overlapping layouts, which are much more confusing than these. We created course maps that only show one layout each, and tell people that if they see something that's no on the map, it's the other layout. With signs showing hole numbers & layout, and baskets showing hole numbers, it seems to work pretty well.

I'm not sure if that will work any better for you, or not.

 

[Rastnav]

Navigation at Leigh Farm has been problematic since the course opened. I am glad you are trying to improve the situation. Just when I had finally figured it out, the course was re-designed due to apartment construction and now I have issues again.

I think the most confusing part is the rec course tee pads in the middle of the advanced course fairways. Good luck.

I'm not sure when you've been out there last, but a ton of work has gone into the course in the last two years. (all hail Mike Weeks). There is now quite a bit of signage that both mark and distinguish the various tee pads as well as provide direction to the next hole. (Also, all of the advanced tee pads have been redone from rubber to turf, and some new long tee positions have been put in.)

It should be relatively easily navigable for anyone who has played out there before and knows what's up with the rec course. One of the biggest issue still remaining is getting tee signs that accurately reflect the long tees and baskets. We have temp tee signs that textually describe what's going on, and this is the next step, so we are ready once we have a few more layout changes complete and we can get approval for permanent tee signs.

If you have played it this year, do you remember what you still found confusing?