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rrickmf about 4 hours ago 42 commentsRead Article on golfcoursebrowser.com

ZH version is available. Content is displayed in original English for accuracy.

I got tired of Googling basic course info, so I made a free directory of every US course

Google filters for golf course results are terrible so I built a better way to browse courses using OSM as the backbone.... https://golfcoursebrowser.com/

It's a work in progress and mostly US for now, but I want to expand to the rest of North America, the EU, and the rest of the world ASAP.

It's free, no ads, no login, no bs. If you spot anything wrong (bad info, a missing course, wrong scorecard), you can flag it right on the course page. I actually read those and fix them.

Still a lot of missing info, but I'm filling out more and more each day. The goal is the most complete, and current golf course directory in the world, verified and maintained by actual golfers. I think is attainable in the next few months. The base layer is OpenStreetMap, cross-checked against course websites and enriched with scorecards, USGA rating/slope, and public/private status. User corrections from golfers who know their home course have beaten every commercial data source we check against.

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Discussion (42 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

scoofyabout 1 hour ago
So, I started https://golfcourse.wiki in 2020, and I see courses that basically only I’ve mapped.

It’s cool, I want it to be public, if you want to work together, do reach out.

I would also say what you are doing is almost certainly opening you up to liability if you are just scraping other sites and republishing their data. One paper town that you published and you might have a lawsuit on your hands.

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

rickmf37 minutes ago
Nice! Someone shared thAT wiki with me recently on reddit. I had not been aware of it before. Great stuff!

I'm not a lawyer but my stack is clean. My base layer is OSM, which is licensed for exactly this stuff (and attributed). On top of that I used golfcourseapi.com which i also recommend (affordable, and fairly reliable so far, but not always current). Then community notes etc.

I cross reference against other sources but I am only publishing facts, which are not copyrightable in the US.

Would love to touch base one day and compare notes. I work in the golf industry so mostly just made this for myself. But after sharing with some friends and co workers i thought the wider golf community might appreciate it

crossroadsguyabout 2 hours ago
I am not sure how it is in USA but in my country golf courses are abuse of public resources for (almost) private use. For a very few who can lobby enough for renewal of these leases and these are kept out of reach of the normal public, either by rule or by cost, sometimes both. Golf courses are lungs of many of the growing cities, across the world, but I do believe they should not be kept exclusive. Also, this comes directly from feudal/colonial times here. Those also require too much of other natural and public resources to be maintained.
trollbridge6 minutes ago
In the USA they are overwhelmingly public and are desperate for customers.

The handful of private ones near me are also desperate for new members, and several country clubs have ended up closing. Considering some of the golf courses that have closed around me ended up being converted into Amazon distribution facilities, I am not terribly excited about the idea of more golf courses closing.

topatoabout 1 hour ago
Yeah, I could imagine golf being a sore spot for Indians. I never imagined India would even be a hotspot for golf, but given the amount of corruption going on, it would make sense that golf courses would be foisted upon the public. It’s always discouraging to see the amount of upper class Indians who, despite colonial times being long gone, are still very willing to sell out their countrymen to appease whites or to fit a British/white ideal. I hope I’m wrong about this impression, and I’m just seeing cherry picked news articles, but your reaction makes me think otherwise….
rickmfabout 2 hours ago
US is a mixed bag. Where i am from, Michigan, we have over 600 courses and 87% of them are open to the public.
cwilkes20 minutes ago
Missing this one on Bainbridge Island, outside of Seattle:

https://nwhickoryplayers.org/2015/08/ccs/

Believe it is only open for residents in that area

punnerudabout 3 hours ago
Nice job! When I zoom in on Google earth you can easily see if it’s actually a golf course or not, would been interesting to use this to draw up the areas with polygons and some more details.

Then you could start providing a lot more details about each one automatically.

rickmfabout 2 hours ago
yeah i am pulling from OSM. I can probably draw those polygons. It;s been an OK source for number of holes etc but I need to cross reference to get other detailed info
fsckboyabout 2 hours ago
that's the University of Minnesota Les Bolstad golf course

https://www.uofmgolf.com/teetime

rickmfabout 2 hours ago
Its actually present, but listed as closed (auto toggled off).

the tee time link is dead and google reports as permanently closed. However if its open i'd love to know!

rickmfabout 2 hours ago
You can report these right in the site and they should get cleaned up in 24-48 hrs or so,
totetsuabout 2 hours ago
This is fascinating not because I’m interested in visiting any of these. But to see the communities in Alaska with courses, or to look at the most concentrated places and wonder what so many people in Florida get out of having a fairway and one hole right in their backyard..
rickmfabout 2 hours ago
retirement communities in florida have a lot of these weird mini private courses.
AshamedBadger5615 minutes ago
Yep, old people in Florida love to golf and really love it when they can drive their golf cart from their garage straight to the clubhouse, finish a round of golf, and ride it right back to their garage only ever having to get out to hit the ball.
cheeaunabout 2 hours ago
Polygon areas would be cool to see how big they are. I made this few years ago for Singapore https://observablehq.com/@cheeaun/golf-courses-in-singapore
NSPG911about 2 hours ago
That seems slightly pointless no? I mean Singapore is small enough already, there probably is 10 courses maximum. The one I've seen is the Changi course, and I don't think it can compare to the average course size in the States
rickmfabout 2 hours ago
good idea!
adm4about 3 hours ago
great! have you seen https://openskimap.org/ and https://openskistats.org/... maybe change name to open golf map?
rickmfabout 2 hours ago
Not a bad idea i have not heard of those
mercurywellsabout 3 hours ago
I was going to say you were missing this one but I'm not sure if it's still open after the county purchased it.

https://www.pga.com/play/ny/rome/mohawk-glen-golf-course/033...

Now add mini golf courses.

rickmfabout 2 hours ago
yeah mini golf would be a nice add. I'd like to get all practice facilities and indoor/ sim golf as well eventually.
abhishek_aiengabout 1 hour ago
Are you planning to do somthing similar other than US?
rickmf34 minutes ago
Yes. After i work out best pipeline in North America id like to expand worldwide.

It will take some time i'm just doing this in spare time.

thomasswiftabout 2 hours ago
This is badass. Thank you!

Near my area, there is a driving range and a simulator place as pins. both nice but not courses. Do you want reports on that?

rickmfabout 2 hours ago
Yes. You can report any missing or bad info right in the course info drawer that pops up when selecting one. There is a button for sending corrections with a few fields but you can also just make a comment.
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aren55555about 2 hours ago
Would be sweet if it also had membership status (private/public/etc)
cortesoftabout 2 hours ago
If you expand the filters, you can see it allows you to select public or private.
rickmfabout 2 hours ago
it does! pins are different color and it should label them. Might be some inaccuracies, but its pretty close. report any if you see any wrong
prologicabout 3 hours ago
Any plans to expand this to other parts of the world?
rickmfabout 2 hours ago
Yes. Canada and Mexico next. Then will move to EU Asia etc. Want to work out all the hiccups in US first
prologicabout 2 hours ago
How are you populating the dataset here? Anything we can to do help crowd source and contribute?
proxy_skateabout 2 hours ago
so thats why lebron wanted to go to philadelphia or miami
rickmfabout 2 hours ago
100
elpakalabout 3 hours ago
clicked on a website link for a course near me and it took me to a weird site wopraja
rickmfabout 2 hours ago
probably and old site that now redirects.. you can report issues right on the site. community reports are going to be the most reliable for me over time.
markdownabout 1 hour ago
FYI:

2101 Sneath Ln, San Bruno, CA 94066, United States

https://i.imgur.com/DP6SOtr.jpeg

ryan_laneabout 2 hours ago
It would be interesting to map this to parkinson's data.
andrewstuartabout 2 hours ago
Why free? Golfers have money.
verdvermabout 3 hours ago
are we able to estimate water usage and other statistics from this data set?
bruce511about 2 hours ago
The amount of water used is somewhat less important than what the source of the water is.

And it's important to understand that "using water" isn't like "using coal". In other words, while coal can be burned once, water is in a cycle that means water can be "used" infinitly.

But back to the source. A golf course near me takes effluent water (ie treated sewerage) destined for pumping out to sea. They spread it over a large piece of land. What is not consumed by plants, or evaporation, ends up in an underground aquifer.

So it "uses" a lot of water. But it's not using tap water.

Obviously this is not true for all courses. Hence the issue of "source", not "quantity" is material.