How to Mark a Yardage Book in College Golf

This is not another lesson in reading slope percent. How to Read a Green Book already covers the grid, the fall line, and picking an aim. This page is what a college golfer writes in the book, what stays printed, and which sheet is for logging shots.

A StrackaLine combo is two jobs in one 4 1/4 × 7 inch binding: tee-to-green yardage, and a USGA greens guide. Jim Stracka’s 2007 work is the topographic putting map. The yardage pages are a different product lineage — caddie-book measurements, not a second invention story. Mixing those jobs is how players order the wrong book, or write the wrong thing on the right page. The split is on Yardage Book vs Green Reading Book.

College teams do not start in the consumer cart. The NCAA program StrackaBook package is $1,300 for the 2026/27 season: 8 books per event for the schedule, hi-res images or classic drawings, digital access for custom pin sheets, and app access for rangefinder + make putt. High school teams use that same page, not facilities.

StrackaLine greens start as a laser scan of the putting surface, then print at USGA scale.

What is already printed (do not redraw it)

On a yardage page you already have complete tee-to-green measurements, elevation tee to green, cover to bunkers and penalty areas, distance rings, and a compass off the tee and to the greens.

On a USGA greens page you already have dual-view topographic slope in percent (accurate to the millimeter), a 1-yard / 5-yard grid, and surrounding hazards and sprinkler heads so you can rotate the book until it matches the ground. Those greens print at no larger than 3/8 inch to 5 yards. StrackaLine currently only offers the USGA legal version. The Rule 4.3 language is on What’s Legal? – USGA Rules and at usga.org/GRM.

If a sentence in your notebook is just repeating a printed ring, a printed cover number, or a printed percent, it is not a note. It is clutter on a legal-size page.

What to write on the yardage pages

Yardage-page notes are club and target work from the hole you actually played.

In a practice round, confirm the printed cover and the distance rings against the shot you hit. Write the number you carried, the club, and the miss that is actually dead on that hole — not a second map. Elevation is already on the page; add only whether that number played longer or shorter for you that day.

Those notes do not need a putting-green scale. They also do not replace a greens guide once you are putting. You can use green images that fail the scale or size limit for an approach, including general slope into a green, as long as you are not using a putter for a stroke intended to finish on the green. The moment you use the page to help read a line of play on the putting green, both limits apply.

What to write on the greens pages

The map shows slope. It does not pick the start line. Do not draw a recommended line of play from the ball. Rule 4.3 is explicit about that, printed or digital. How to turn percent into an aim you chose is still on the how-to-read page and on How to Read Green Heat Maps.

What belongs in handwriting:

• Today’s hole location, placed on the 1-yard grid. The NCAA book package includes digital access for custom pin sheets. Transfer the hole onto the printed grid. Do not tape an oversized single-green printout into the book and use that to read the putt.
• A hole-location sheet that shows 9 or more holes on one sheet may be larger paper, provided each single green image still meets the scale limit. That exception is already on the legal page. It is a pinsheet, not a license to magnify one green.
• Pace and miss notes from a ball you (or your caddie, or the identified advice giver) actually saw roll. Not a teammate’s photocopy.

Handwritten notes, including a hand-drawn green, must live in a book or on paper that meets the 4 1/4 × 7 inch size limit. Hand-drawn images do not have to meet the 3/8 inch to 5 yards scale limit. CAD output is not handwritten. Photocopying a teammate’s notes and using that copy to read a putt is treated as using another player’s notes. That is not allowed.

Coach notes, teammates, and a fresh book per event

When a coach or captain is identified to the Committee as an advice giver for the round, that person’s book and notes are treated like a caddie’s. The coach may put notes in the player’s book or show the player from the coach’s own book. Ask your coach how they want that handled before the first counting round. Some championship committees also publish extra limits (including Model Local Rule G-11, committee-approved book only). Confirm the local rules for that event. Do not assume last week’s marks travel.

The $1,300 package is 8 books per event for the schedule. Use that. Mark the book for this event. Do not build one season-long copy that accumulates photocopied greens from four teammates.

Hi-res images and classic drawings are both USGA-size options on the college package. Pick one layout for the roster before anyone starts writing, so the team is not mixing two page geometries.

You cannot print a book from the app. That answer is already on Contact Support. The object you mark is the physical book. A phone map of the same green still has to stay inside the same scale and size box, with no pinch-zoom and no line drawn from the ball. That comparison is Printed Green Book vs App.

The Shot Log Sheet is a different sheet

Course Prep + Stats generates a Shot Log Sheet: a simplified graphic of each hole and green on one sheet of paper, with preplanned clubs, targets, and projected dispersions. You mark shots there (“X Marks the Shot”). Those marks convert to geolocation on Stracka maps after you post. Analysis is available after shots and scores are posted. You do not need a sensor.

That sheet is for logging and debrief. It is not the USGA greens guide you take to the putt, and it is not a substitute for handwritten hole locations in the book. Stats for the roster is the separate $1,700 NCAA package. There is no StrackaStats free trial on the college page.

Individual golfers who are not on a team order through How to Order a Yardage Book. The database is 31K+ courses; 13,000+ have full hyper-accurate green data. Checkout is on StrackaLine.com, not on this site. More guides sit on Resources.

College & high school packages How to order a yardage book

FAQ

Can my coach write in my book?

Yes, when that coach has been identified to the Committee as the advice giver for the round. Those notes are treated like a caddie’s. Confirm the local rules for the event.

Can I photocopy a teammate’s green notes and use that copy to read putts?

No. Using photocopied notes to help determine the line of play on the putting green is treated as using another player’s notes.

Do handwritten green sketches have to meet the 3/8 inch to 5 yards scale?

No. Hand-drawn images do not have to meet the scale limit. They do have to live in a book or on paper that meets the 4 1/4 × 7 inch size limit.

Can I print a book from the app and mark that printout?

No. You cannot print a book from the app.

Is the Shot Log Sheet the same as marking the yardage book?

No. The Shot Log Sheet is a one-sheet graphic for preparing a round and logging shots. The book is the USGA-size yardage and greens guide you play from.

Can I read putts from a yardage-only page?

Only if the putting-green images in that book meet both the scale limit and the size limit, and you use them the way Rule 4.3 allows. A yardage page by itself is for the hole, not for a recommended putting line.