Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about Yards Golf Book.
What is Yards Golf Book?
Yards Golf Book is a digital yardage book and course strategy platform. It provides personalized hole-by-hole strategy, shot dispersion analysis, strokes gained mapping, and club recommendations — all tailored to your handicap, club distances, and shot shape. Plan your round at home and play phone-free.
How does strokes gained work on Yards Golf Book?
We run a 1,000-shot Monte Carlo simulation on every hole using your handicap, club distances, and shot shape. The model evaluates expected strokes from every landing position — factoring in water, bunkers, trees, OB, and fairway width — to recommend the optimal club and target for each shot. The same expected-strokes methodology used on the PGA Tour, applied to courses you actually play.
What is shot dispersion?
Shot dispersion shows where your shots actually land based on your handicap and club distances. We model the lateral and longitudinal spread of each club using statistical data, then simulate 1,000 shots to show the probability of landing in fairway, rough, sand, water, trees, or OB. This helps you pick the club and target that minimizes risk.
Is Yards Golf Book free?
You can try 1 course completely free with no account needed — full access to all features including strokes gained, shot dispersion, and the digital yardage book. Full access to all courses is $6.99/month or $49.99/year, cancel anytime.
What courses are available?
About 100 courses are fully mapped right now with shot dispersion, strokes gained strategy, and personalized yardage books. Another 12,000+ courses across North America are in the database and being added — each with GPS hole layouts, hazard positions, and scorecard data. New courses go live every week. You can request any course and we'll notify you when it's available.
How do I set up my profile?
Go to your Profile page and enter your handicap index, select your clubs and their carry distances, choose your play style (aggressive, neutral, or safe), and set your dominant hand and shot shape (draw, straight, or fade). All strategy and club recommendations are personalized based on these settings.
What is Pick Target?
Pick Target lets you tap anywhere on the hole map to place a custom target. Yards Golf Book will find the right club for that distance, simulate 1,000 shots aimed at that spot, and show you the expected shots and outcome breakdown. Use it to compare different strategies — layup vs. go for it, safe side vs. aggressive line.
Can I download a yardage book PDF?
Yes — subscribers can download a personalized PDF yardage book for any course. It includes hole-by-hole maps, your club recommendations, key distances, and strategy notes. Take it to the course and play phone-free.
How do I request a course?
Click "Request a Course" on the home page or courses page. Enter the course name, city, and your email. We'll GeoMap the course and notify you when it's ready. Most courses are added within a few days.
How does the Earn It program work?
Map or improve any course using our satellite mapping tool and you get free access to that course permanently — it's yours forever. On top of that, mapping a new course earns 30 days of full site access to every course, and improving an existing course earns 7 days. Map 5 courses and you get a full year of access to the entire library. Rewards stack, so you can keep contributing and keep playing for free. Most courses are partially mapped already from open-source data — completing one typically takes 5 to 30 minutes.
How is the expected shots number calculated?
Expected shots uses a strokes gained model based on the PGA Tour's expected strokes data, adjusted for your handicap. From every landing position, we look up how many strokes it typically takes to hole out given the distance, lie type (fairway, rough, sand, recovery, green), and your skill level. The number shown is the average across 1,000 simulated shots — lower is better.
How accurate is the elevation data?
Elevation profiles are sourced from a global digital elevation model with approximately 90-meter resolution. This works well for most courses, but may be less precise on holes with steep, narrow terrain changes — such as coastal cliffs, ravines, or sharp ridgelines — where the elevation grid can average land with adjacent water or low ground. The "plays like" yardage adjustment uses this elevation data, so on courses with dramatic terrain features the adjustment may understate the true elevation change. We're working on integrating higher-resolution elevation sources in the future.