How do Professional Golf caddies measure distances to the hole during a tournament round?

Firefly: How do Professional Golf caddies measure distances to the hole during a tournament round?
I havent seen any caddy carry a golf gps or one of those radar assisted measuring devices to calculate the distances to a particular hole. All they seem to carry is a notepad.. So do they have electronic devices to assist them and we just dont see them use it on television coverage or do they follow some other method?? Or is it a combination of both?? Really interested in knowing this..Thanks guyz..

Answers and Views:

Answer by old man on the hill
that little note pad is actually a drawing of the hole with yardages from landmarks such as front of bunker, back of bunker, stream crossings, trees, etc to the front of the green. the drawing also includes the size of the green. the drawing may even include sprinkler heads and distances

in most pro tournaments gps systems are not allowed

Answer by EdenDD
An important part of the job for pro caddies is to have done proper research on each hole per course played. They refer to their notepads to verify markings so they can confirm distance from hole etc.

Answer by Leafsfan29 loves truculence
They use an old-school yardage book created for the tournament. Typically, the caddies will buy said yardage book before the tournament and then walk the course to verify yardages and add yardages to/from specific points.

They might use a rangefinder/GPS during practice rounds but they’re verboten during tournament rounds.

Either way, the caddie is still walking the course on his own at least once before Thursday.

The players/caddies are given pin sheets which show distances to the hole…it’s a crude drawing of the green with two numbers (one from either the front or back, and one from either the left or right side).

The caddie will always have that yardage book with him/her for the tournament because of the copious notes that they will take, including prevailing wind direction (they’re not measuring wind), and elevation changes.

That way, they can give their player something like this: “okay, it’s 141 to the front of the green, 145 to the centre…147 to the flag- the pin is six yards from the back, and 12 yards from the left.” No sort-of, about, like, maybes.

Answer by Bryan O
the old man is right there is also yardages on sprinkler heads

Answer by Chuck P
The good ones don’t rely on anybody else’s info. They walk the course and write down all pertinent information that their golfer will need, including green slopes and grains.

Answer by Angela
they are not allowed to use “artificial” devices so they walk the course before the tournament begins and mark distances using landmarks on the golf course in a ‘yardage’ book

another trick is to mark distance by the sprinkler locations, which are usually about 30 yards apart