Knowing how far you have to the flag is a crucial aspect of playing golf, but depending on where in the world you find yourself, it can be measured in either yards of metres.
While yards is the most common measurement we see on the PGA Tour and other televised professional golf tournaments, the sport does not universally use either the metric or imperial systems exclusively.
We've likely all had it where we've played golf in a foreign country that uses a different system to the one we're used to, and it can quite easily cause confusion - although the two are fairly easy to convert and using a laser rangefinder sorts it straight away.
A metre is just over 1.09 yards, while a single yard is just over 0.9 metres. That essentially means golfers who regularly use yards but find themselves on a course measured in metres can add 10% to convert it to a number they're familiar with, while a player who works in metres can subtract 10% from the 'yardage' to get their distance.
So, which countries use which?
The United States, which is home to over 25 million golfers (the most in the world) and over 16,000 courses, uses the imperial system and works in yards when it comes to golf.
It is the same in Canada and Mexico, meaning the entire of North America uses the imperial system for the sport.
That's the same in the United Kingdom and Ireland, whose golfers can very easily go and play in the US with no need to work out any yards to metres conversions.
Like a number of countries, the UK uses an array of different metric and imperial systems in everyday life, like measuring vehicle fuel in litres but then using a miles per gallon conversion to identify fuel efficiency. It's a little confusing but thankfully we've all become very accustomed to yards and feet when at the golf course.
The UK is an outlier in terms of Europe, though, as the rest of the continent, like Germany, France, Spain and Scandinavia, plays their golf in metres.
That's why you'll find many DP World Tour pros speaking of how far they hit their clubs in metres and not yards, and also why many international pro circuits like the DP World and LPGA Tours have tee box signs displayed in both imperial and metric.
Australia and New Zealand are two other countries who use the metric system of metres when it comes to golf, as do South Africa, Singapore and Malaysia.
Japan, the second-biggest golf market in the world with almost 11m golfers, predominantly uses yards and feet, as does Korea, the third-biggest with almost 7m players.
South America is another continent that predominantly uses yards for its golf courses, although Brazil mainly uses metres.
So while the global golfing world is not united in using the imperial and metric systems, the biggest markets of the US, Japan, Korea, Canada and the UK all use yards, which means that is by far the most common system.
Do you play golf in yards or metres? Let us know in the comments section below.
Yards |
Metres |
USA |
Continental Europe |
UK |
Australia |
Japan |
New Zealand |
Korea |
South Africa |
India |
Singapore |
China |
Malaysia |
UAE |
|
Ireland |
|
South America |
|
Vietnam |
|
Philippines |
