How it works
The draft gets us started. Your greens staff get it right.
Imagery shows a course from above, not its history. A tee built last season, an edge under a tree, or a zone your staff mow differently from how it looks are things only the people on the course can tell us.
So the review is built into the price. You get six months of revisions within the agreed scope, not one “revision round”, until the map matches the course your staff work on.
The steps
Eight steps. You drive three of them.
- 01
Tell us about the course
Choose a Course Map by hole count, or tell us about the course or site and we will recommend a package. The form asks whether the club is volunteer-run, for the community rate. Nothing is paid or agreed on the form.
- 02
We agree the scope
We confirm your course boundary, the source data for your course and the delivery date before preparing your order. Each course is priced separately, and a course over 36 holes is quoted.
- 03
You accept and pay upfront
Standard orders are paid in full before work starts, by bank transfer, once you accept your order in the customer portal. Your first draft will be with you within ten working days of payment, and we tell you which week your job is booked for before you pay.
- 04
We map from imagery
We map remotely, in our office, from existing aerial imagery: the boundary, every hole and every surface. In New Zealand that is LINZ imagery; elsewhere we use the local sources we identify for your job.
- 05
We add your records, and terrain if ordered
Irrigation and drainage plans, zone plans and existing maps you send us are brought onto the map as supplied. Elevation, contours and slope are an add-on, where suitable elevation data exists.
- 06
You review the draft
Your course manager or head greenkeeper goes through the draft and marks up what we misread. A photo of a marked-up print is enough.
- 07
We deliver the files
The course overview, the hole sheets, the operational sheets, the surface area spreadsheet and the mapped data. They are yours to keep.
- 08
We correct it, for six months
Corrections within the agreed scope, asked for within six months of the first draft, are part of the job. Adding ground or new analysis is quoted first.
You tell us about the course, you accept the order, and you review the draft. Steps 6 and 8 repeat as often as you need for six months: the first draft is never the finished map.
What we need from the club
A few things make the map right first time.
None of these is required to start: tell us what you have, and we work from the imagery for the rest. Send files with your enquiry, or by email once we have been in touch.
- The course’s name and location, and how many holes it has
- Where the course ends: a boundary marked on any map or plan we can read
- Your hole numbering, and any names you use for holes or zones
- Irrigation and drainage plans, as-builts or sketches, if you have them. We draw them as supplied
- How you divide the course for mowing and management, if you already have zones
- Any existing course map, from us or anyone else, that you are free to pass on
- One person to review the draft, usually the course manager or head greenkeeper
- Whether the club is volunteer-run, with no full-time paid staff, for the community rate
- Any deadline, such as a committee meeting or the start of the season
What a typical job looks like
- EnquiryYou tell us about the course and which Course Map
- ScopeWe confirm the boundary, the source data and a delivery date
- OrderYou accept the order in the customer portal and pay by bank transfer
- DraftThe first draft arrives within ten working days of payment
- Your turnYour greens staff review it and mark it up
- Our turnWe turn the corrections around, as often as needed
- 6 monthsRevisions close. Your files are yours to keep
Corrections within the agreed scope do not change the price. Mapping more ground, new analysis or a redesign is quoted before we start.
The review
This is the part that makes the map your course.
When the draft lands, give it to whoever knows the course best, usually the course manager or head greenkeeper. Print it or open it on a screen and go round it hole by hole. The things worth checking:
- Surfaces that have changed since the imagery was captured: a new tee, a reshaped green, a bunker grassed over
- Edges hidden under tree canopy or shade
- Hole numbering, and any names we have guessed
- Where one mowing zone ends and the next begins, as your staff actually mow it
- Ground outside the holes: practice areas, paths and service areas
- Records we have read wrongly, or that you know are out of date
Send it back however suits: a photo of a marked-up print is enough. You do not need special software and you do not need to be precise. Circle it and we will work it out.
When you need a locator or a surveyor instead
A course map is built for managing the course: planning, budgets, briefing staff and contractors. Its accuracy depends on the imagery and your corrections. It is not a survey.
Get the right professional if you are:
- Digging near pipes, cables or drains: have them located on site first
- Settling a legal boundary or an easement
- Designing drainage or earthworks
- Applying for a resource or building consent
If you tell us that is what you need, we will say so before you order.
Supplied records and terrain
Your records, drawn as supplied.
Imagery shows what is on the surface. It cannot show a buried pipe, a drain or a valve. So every Course Map brings in the irrigation and drainage records your club supplies, such as plans, as-builts or a sketch, and draws them onto the course as they are. We rely on them as given and do not check them independently unless your order says we will, though we tell you if something looks wrong.
That makes the records easy to find and to read against the course. It does not locate them: a line on the map shows the record it was drawn from, not where the pipe actually is, or whether it is safe to dig.
Terrain is an add-on for a course we have mapped: elevation, contours and slope, where suitable elevation data exists. In New Zealand this can include validated LINZ terrain data. We assess the source before agreeing the work.
Revision, correction or new work
Which one is it?
Four examples of how a request is treated. Clause 3 of our terms of trade has the full wording. On Forever, update hours are only used after the six-month revision window closes.
A revision
You tell us a bunker was grassed over last winter, or that a collar is wider than we drew it. Within six months of your first draft we correct it as part of the job.
Our mistake
We missed a bunker that was clearly visible in the imagery. We fix it at no charge if you tell us within a reasonable time, and it never uses your update hours. Your legal rights are unaffected.
A Forever update
Seven months after your first draft you build a new tee. We estimate the time, you agree it, and only then does it come off your update hours.
New work
You want ground outside the agreed boundary mapped, or new terrain analysis. Neither is a revision or an update, so we quote it before any work starts.
What you can rely on
Which version it is, how fresh it is, where it came from and who can see it.
Versions
Each sheet we deliver carries the date this version was last drawn. When we correct a map, you get a new dated version. We do not quietly swap out a map you have already approved.
How fresh it is
Each sheet states the imagery date, which is when the photos it was drawn from were taken. Anything built or changed since then, or hidden from above, may be missing until you tell us, which is what the review is for.
Where the data came from
For a course in New Zealand, the aerial imagery comes from Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), published for re-use under CC BY 4.0. Elsewhere we use the local sources we identify for your job. The sheet names the source and carries the attribution.
The customer portal (open now)
The customer portal is open. You sign in with a link we email to you, and we give you access course by course. The main contact is the Manager, who can give someone else Editor or Viewer access and take it away again. A Manager can also send an adviser a read-only link that ends on its own after 7, 30 or 90 days. The hosted course map and tables for Forever are still being built, and are separate from this.
The fine print, up front
Things we’d rather you heard from us.
Imagery shows the surface, not its history. A tee built since the imagery was captured, an edge under a tree, or a zone your staff mow differently from how it looks are things only you can tell us. That is why corrections within the agreed scope run for six months, not one round.
Irrigation and drainage layers show the records you give us. They do not locate buried services or show whether it is safe to dig. We rely on records as given and do not check them independently unless your order says we will, though we tell you if something looks wrong.
Use it to plan, budget and brief your staff and contractors. Areas are approximate and depend on the imagery and your corrections. It is not a legal survey, an engineering survey or a certified plan, and it does not replace agronomy advice.
Remote mapping depends on suitable imagery and source licensing. We check your boundary and the source data for your course first, then prepare your order with a delivery date. If your course cannot be mapped well from what is available, we tell you before you pay.
Common questions.
What does a golf course map cost?
A Course Map is $950, $1,750, $2,700, $3,500 for 9, 18, 27 or 36 holes, excluding GST. A course is priced at the biggest size that is not more than its hole count, so a 12-hole course is priced at 9 holes. A course with fewer than nine holes is priced at 9. Courses over 36 holes, and tree inventories, are quoted. Community rate for volunteer-run clubs with no full-time paid staff (self-declared): $475, $875, $1,350, $1,750.
Do you visit the course?
No. We map remotely from existing imagery, terrain data and records you supply, so there is no site visit. We do not currently offer drone or GPS capture. That is why the review matters: your staff know the course in a way imagery cannot show.
Can you map a course outside New Zealand?
Often, yes. Golf and turf mapping is remote and worldwide, subject to suitable imagery and source licensing. Send us the location and we will check before you pay. The price is the same and is in New Zealand dollars, and no New Zealand GST is charged on a course outside New Zealand.
How long does it take?
Your first draft will be with you within ten working days of payment, and we tell you which week your job is booked for before you pay. After the first draft you have six months to send corrections, so the total time depends partly on how quickly your review comes back.
Will the irrigation layer show where our pipes are?
It shows where your records say they are. We draw irrigation and drainage from the plans and as-builts you supply. The layer does not locate buried services or show whether it is safe to dig, so have services located on site before anyone digs.
What files do we get?
Print-ready PDF sheets (the course overview, a sheet for every hole, and the operational sheets for zones, irrigation and drainage), a spreadsheet of surface areas by hole and by surface, and the mapped data as GeoPackage, shapefiles and KML. They are yours to keep.
What counts as a revision, a correction or new work?
A revision is a correction within the agreed scope, asked for within six months of your first draft, and it is part of the job. If we made the mistake, we fix it at no charge if you tell us within a reasonable time, and your legal rights are unaffected. Mapping more ground or new analysis is new work, and we quote it before starting. On Forever, update hours only come into play after the six-month window closes. Clause 3 of our terms of trade has the full wording.
Our club has two courses. Is that one order?
Each golf course is priced separately, so two courses are two Course Maps, and Forever is priced per course too. Tell us about both in one enquiry and we will scope them together.
Do we keep the maps and data?
Yes. Under clause 9 of our terms you can use, copy, change and share your delivered maps for your own purposes, including with a contractor or another provider. Third-party material, such as imagery, stays under its own licence, so keep the attribution on a sheet when you share it.
Around a Course Map
Ready to start?
Tell us about the course and we will confirm the scope, the source data and a delivery date before you pay.