How to Keep Disc Golf Course Maps and Tee Signs Up to Date

Disc golf courses change all the time.

A basket gets moved. A new tee is added. An OB line changes. A hole is redesigned. A sponsor sends over a new logo.

Making the change on the course is usually the easy part.

The annoying part comes afterwards.

Now the tee sign needs an update. The course map might be wrong too. Maybe the caddie book still shows the old layout. The information board by the parking lot could be outdated as well.

One small change can quickly turn into several separate design jobs.

That is a problem we think should be easier to solve.

Making the first sign is not the hard part

Creating a tee sign from scratch is fairly straightforward.

You map the hole, add the tee and basket, show the fairway, enter the distance and par, place a few logos and get the design ready for print.

Then it goes up on the course and looks great.

Until the course changes.

Say the basket on Hole 7 is moved 20 metres to the left.

The tee sign is now outdated.

But the same basket might also be shown on the course overview, in a caddie book and on an information board.

So you open one file, make the change, export it, then find the next file and do the same thing again.

Assuming you can find the right files in the first place.

After a few seasons, it is easy to end up with folders full of PDFs, Illustrator files, old exports, spreadsheets and filenames like course-map-final-v4-really-final.

At that point, the problem is not designing signs.

The problem is knowing which information is correct.

The same course information gets used everywhere

A disc golf course contains a lot of information that gets repeated in different places.

Each hole has a tee, a basket, a distance and a par.

There might also be OB areas, mandos, drop zones, hazards, alternative tees and multiple basket positions.

Then there is everything around the holes. Paths, parking, practice baskets, toilets, course rules and sponsor information.

Most of that information appears more than once.

The basket shown on a tee sign is the same basket shown on the course map.

The distance printed on the sign might also appear in a caddie book.

The same fairway shape could be used in several different layouts.

Still, clubs often end up recreating that information for every new format.

It works, but it also creates more work and makes it easier for things to get out of sync.

What if the course was the starting point?

Instead of treating the tee signs, course map and caddie book as separate projects, we think it makes more sense to start with the course itself.

Map the course once.

Keep the important course information in one place.

Then use that information wherever you need it.

A tee sign is one way of showing the course.

A course map is another.

A caddie book is another.

The design can change, but the underlying information should stay connected.

That is one of the main ideas behind Teedly.

When Hole 7 changes, update Hole 7

Imagine Hole 7 gets redesigned before the new season.

The basket moves. The OB changes. The new distance is 112 metres instead of 98.

In a traditional setup, someone has to remember every place where Hole 7 appears.

The tee sign.

The course map.

The caddie book.

Maybe a tournament layout.

Miss one of them and players start seeing conflicting information.

The sign says 112 metres.

The course overview says 98.

The caddie book still shows the old basket position.

That is not a great experience for anyone.

We would rather have the change start with Hole 7 itself.

Update the hole, then use the updated information wherever that hole appears.

It sounds simple, and that is the point.

A course is never really finished

Course signage is often treated like a one-time project.

Design it, print it, install it and move on.

But most courses do not stay the same for very long.

Layouts improve.

Trees fall.

Safety issues come up.

New tees are built.

Basket positions change.

Sponsors come and go.

Tournament layouts are added.

A course that looked finished two years ago might look very different today.

That means good course signage should not only look good when it is installed.

It should also be practical to update later.

That part is easy to overlook when everything is new.

A few seasons down the road, it matters a lot.

Clubs already have enough to do

A lot of disc golf courses are maintained by volunteers.

The same person making the tee signs might also be clearing branches, running tournaments, talking to the municipality, finding sponsors and answering questions from players.

Nobody wants to spend an evening updating the same basket position in five different files.

And when updates take too much time, they tend to get postponed.

That is usually how outdated signage happens.

Not because people do not care, but because there are more important things to do.

We think the tools should make that job easier.

Less time fixing files.

More time improving the course.

Players notice when information is wrong

Good course information is especially important for people playing a course for the first time.

Regular players probably know where the next tee is.

Visitors do not.

They rely on the tee signs and course map to tell them what is happening.

Where is the basket?

How far is the hole?

What is OB?

Where do I walk next?

Which layout am I playing?

A good sign answers those questions quickly.

An outdated sign creates new ones.

When the same course information is used across signs, maps and other material, it becomes much easier to keep the player experience consistent.

Why we built Teedly

Teedly came from a pretty simple idea.

Managing disc golf course information should not be harder than it needs to be.

We wanted a way to map a course, keep the course data organised and use that same foundation when creating tee signs, course maps and other material.

So that is what we are building.

The goal is not just to make it quicker to design the first set of tee signs.

The real value comes later.

When a basket moves.

When a new layout is added.

When a sponsor changes.

When the course is different next season than it is today.

Because courses change.

The information around them should be easy to change too.

Map your course once. Use it everywhere.

Your course is going to evolve.

Your signs, maps and other course information should be able to keep up.

That is what Teedly is built for.

Map your course once. Use it everywhere.