Contents: 1. Mapping overview 2. Mapping your course o 2.1. Locating the course o 2.2. Mapping the holes o 2.3. Opening the template file and naming the course o 2.4. Mapping the greens o 2.5. Mapping the bunkers o 2.6. Mapping the water features o 2.7. Mapping fairways o 2.8. Mapping other features 3. Uploading the course 4. Downloading the course onto your phone 1. Mapping Overview Pocket Caddy is a Golf GPS system which works on mobile phones, car satellite navigation units and some dedicated GPS hardware. It displays golf course holes showing yardages to the front, middle and back of the green as well as to hazards. Before you can play a course you need to download the course file onto your phone (or GPS device). The course file may not always be available if the course has not been mapped so you can either post a course request (where the course is made for you) or else map the course yourself! The mapping of a course is a fairly easy if you follow the simple steps and should take no more than 20-30 minutes. Course mapping requires a PC with Google Earth installed. Google Earth is free and can be downloaded from earth.google.com. The process of mapping itself involves drawing shapes and lines on Google Earth, directly on top of the features of the golf course. These shapes and lines are then uploaded to the Internet where they are processed and then converted into the exact same shapes and lines of the course within Pocket Caddy. In effect you are making a facsimile of the features of the course. At first glance this document may make the mapping process look complicated and long-winded, but be assured that it is not. The length of this document is due to the fact that the process is explained in high detail with many screenshots to illustrate the steps. Your first course should take about 20-30 minutes to plot and subsequent courses will be mapped within 10-15 minutes! The next few pages will describe making a course in detail. You can download the course that is being mapped and view it yourself in Google Earth at www.pocketcaddy.net/augusta.kmz. You can recreate this tutorial, or map your own course by starting with the Pocket Caddy course template file, available at www.pocketcaddy.net/template.kmz.
2. Mapping your course 2.1 Locating the course Before you start making any of the features you need to start Google Earth and locate your course. This can be done by browsing within Google Earth and zooming in to your course, or else you can use the search facility to search for the course name or post/zip code of the course. Once you locate the course you need to be able to identify each hole. This will be easy if it is a course that you have played before, but if it is not familiar to you then you can visit the course s website where you can usually find a course layout map which will show the location within the course of each of the holes. 2.2 Opening the template file and naming the course You can map a course without the Pocket Caddy template file, but it is easier to use it as it will already have the feature categories and instructions in it and is a good starting point. Visit www.pocketcaddy.net/plot.php and download the Pocket Caddy template file. It will open in Google Earth and you will see the categories of features to be made. You will then see that the template file has opened in the left pane in the Places section and has a top level entry called Course Name. Right-click on this and select Rename. Then type the name of your course and you are ready to start adding the holes and features!
2.3 Mapping the holes The first step of mapping the course is to map each of the holes using the Google Earth path tool. The path tool simply draws a line from one location to another (via any number of locations). We want to use it to draw a line from the tee to the green of each hole. On longer holes (par 4 and par 5) we also include a drive point the point in the fairway where a drive should land which will cater for doglegs. The drive point is used in the statistical analysis to see how accurate the drives are. Follow these simple steps to map a hole: 1. Select the Holes entry in the course details in the left pane and then select the path tool from the toolbar the button with 3 dots and a plus sign: 2. Mark the first point on the tee. If there are multiple tees then select the furthest (championship/medal) tee. 3. Par 4/5 only: Select the next point as the drive point ie the point in the middle of the fairway where a good drive would land. 4. Next mark a point in the centre of the green 5. Finally give the path a name. The name also includes the par of the hole, so as this is hole 1, par 4 you name it 1 4 (ie number 1, then a space, then number 4). 6. Do this for all 18 holes!
2.4 Mapping the greens As Pocket Caddy draws each of the greens in detail we must plot each of the greens using the Google Earth shape tool. The shape tool makes a flat shape on the surface by joining up a series of point. Follow these instructions to map the greens: 1. Select the Greens entry in the course details in the left pane and then select the shape tool from the toolbar the button with a shape and a plus sign: 2. Find the first green on Google Earth and draw the first point by clicking on the edge of the green. The first point can be anywhere on the circumference of the green, there is no set starting point. 3. Draw more points all the way around the edge of the green. Draw enough points so that the shape of the green is clearly defined. A white shape will appear as you do this and will eventually be the same shape as the green. 4. Once the green shape is defined give the shape a name. Call it G1 ie the letter G then the number of the hole. 5. Repeat this for all 18 greens. 6. (Optional) To make the greens look green you can color them all green in one go right click on the Greens item on the left and select Properties. Then select the Style, Color tab and click the Share Style button. This will apply the same Style (color) to all entries in the folder (all green shapes) so you can then apply a nice green color for the greens. By now you may be thinking that this is fun we re more than half way there!
2.5 Mapping the bunkers Mapping the bunkers means that in Pocket Caddy not only do you see all the bunkers but also the shape of each one! Mapping the bunkers is exactly the same process as mapping the greens again we use the shape tool to trace the outline of each bunker. The bunker shapes should be drawn in the Bunkers folder and should be called B1 etc ie the letter B and then the hole number. Bunkers can be in play in more than one hole and in this case all the hole numbers should be part of the name with commas separating them eg B1,2,17. Once all the bunkers have been mapped they will be white and can be changed to a nice yellow color by rightclicking on the Bunkers folder, then select Properties, then the Style, Color tab and Share Style. Select a nice yellow for the area and maybe a brown for the outline. Once you have mapped the bunkers and made them yellow it will look something like this:
2.6 Mapping the water features Water features come in 2 forms: bodies of water (ponds, lakes, rivers) and streams. These are treated differently in the mapping process bodies of water are drawn with the shape tool and streams with the line tool. Bodies of water Select the Water folder on the left and draw a shape for each body of water. Call each one W and then the hole number again using commas to show multiple holes. So a pond on the 5 th hole would be called W5 and one that covers the 2 nd and 14 th would be called W5,14. Once you have added all the shapes you can color them a nice blue: Streams Streams are drawn with the path tool. Draw a path that follows the stream and name it S and then the hole number that it comes in to play on. Multiple holes as always are separated by commas, so S2,13 would be a stream that comes into play on the 2 nd and 13 th hole. Note that you can increase the line width of the stream to make it easier to see (optional).
2.7 Mapping the fairways The final major feature to add is the fairways. These are very simple and are made using the shape tool. Select the Fairways folder on the left and draw a shape for each fairway. You can have more than one fairway per hole where it has a section of rough across it. Call each one F and then the hole (eg F1) and each item can only belong to one hole, so even if two holes share a fairway you should draw one for each hole. Note that you can draw fairways behind or even on top of bunkers and greens. When the hole is drawn in Pocket Caddy the fairways are drawn first and then the bunkers, greens and hazards are all drawn on top of the fairways. Fairways are optional, especially on Par 3 holes where there may not be an established fairway to map.
2.8 Mapping other features Now you really have the hang of adding shapes and paths, here is a list of other features that you can add. These are all optional, they will add to the visual effect of seeing the hole on the course, but are not crucial elements such as greens, bunkers and water: Roads: (and cart-paths) Add using the path tools, name the element R and then the hole(s) that it applies to. Trees: (forests) Add using the Shape tool, give the name T and then the hole(s) that it applies to. Hazards: Hazards such as quarries, beeches and out-of-bounds areas. Add using the Shape tool, give the name H and then the hole(s) that it applies to. 3 Uploading the course Once you have made the course you can upload it to the Pocket Caddy website. It will then be processed and converted into a Pocket Caddy course, ready for download. Uploading is simple and involves copying and pasting the course: 1. In Google Earth, right-click on the course name in the left pane and select Copy. 2. Visit www.pocketcaddy.net/upload.php and you will see a text-box. Right-click on the text-box and select Paste. This will paste the course details into the text-box. Don t worry about the actual text that has been pasted in there, the processing system will be able to interpret it all. 3. Click on the upload button and the course will then be uploaded and processed.
4 Downloading the course Once the course has been uploaded and processed it will be available to download onto your phone. The process is easy: 1. Start Pocket Caddy the startup procedure will end at the select course screen 2. Select the Download Course link at the top right of the screen 3. Your new course should now be on the list of courses select the course and then click OK 4. Your new course will be downloaded and is then installed on your Pocket Caddy system Once your course has downloaded you are ready to play! You have mapped your own course and within minute can be out there playing it. Pocket Caddy is the only system available that allows users to map their own course in such detail.