The best yardage book is the current guide to the exact course you are playing. Start with that course’s professional shop. A beautifully made generic wallet cannot tell you how far it is to a bunker, and a blank golf notebook does not arrive with surveyed hole maps.
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Guide checked: 8 September 2026. This guide uses the linked manufacturer and retailer information. We have not carried out hands-on product testing. Check current specifications, prices and availability before buying.
For an Old Course visit, St Andrews sells its own course guide. For other venues, check the course’s website and ask which guide matches your tee booking. Below are verified choices for different jobs, including a paper guide, online course previews and two clearly identified holders. Buy the course information first; add an accessory only if it solves a carrying problem you actually have.
Table of Contents
Find a course guide or a holder
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Need hole-by-hole yardages? Ask the course for its current guide. The official St Andrews option below covers the Old Course specifically.
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Already have the course information? The TORRO regular scorecard holder carries a scorecard and pencil; it includes no course maps. Check its 18 × 15cm scorecard sizing and stated tolerance before ordering.
Choose the right type of product
| Option | Useful for | Check before buying |
|---|---|---|
| St Andrews Old Course Guide | Paper guide for the Old Course | Exact course and edition |
| Strokesaver eStrokesavers | Browsing selected courses before a visit | Coverage, date and access on your device |
| TORRO yardage book wallet | Carrying a compatible book and scorecard | Book limit: 10 × 15cm; no maps supplied |
| TORRO regular scorecard holder | Keeping a scorecard and pencil together | Scorecard accessory; no course guide |
| Shot Scope H4 | GPS distances across multiple courses | Course coverage, charging and setup |
Start with a guide made for your course
St Andrews Old Course Guide
The official St Andrews Links shop describes this guide as containing imagery and hole-by-hole yardage information for the Old Course. The listing displayed £4 when checked on 8 September 2026, before delivery. It is an inexpensive example of buying directly from the venue, although postage can be material on a small order.
Choose it for the Old Course specifically. St Andrews has several courses, so the name of the town alone is not enough to establish coverage. Confirm the guide matches the layout you will play; do not assume a souvenir or older championship edition represents today’s visitor setup. The listing does not establish detailed green-slope mapping, so that is not a feature we promise here.
For any other destination, ask the club for a current course guide and whether it is included with your round. Request a sample hole if you intend to order in advance. A clear diagram of hazards and reference points may be more useful to you than a glossy photograph with only total hole lengths.
Read edition descriptions carefully. For example, the Prestwick 12-hole Strokesaver is explicitly a guide to a recreated historical layout. It could be a worthwhile keepsake, but that description should stop you treating it as the default guide to a normal present-day round.
Preview the course before you travel
Strokesaver eStrokesavers
Strokesaver’s own directory lists online guides for selected courses, including Carnoustie, Gleneagles and Royal Troon. This is a useful place to begin looking at hole layouts before a trip. The directory also includes explicitly dated championship editions, so check the specific guide rather than assuming every entry has been recently updated.
Open the guide on the device you plan to use. Check that the diagrams and distances are readable and establish whether you can access it when you need it. An online course preview is not automatically an offline navigation tool or a device that measures distance from your current position.
Useful accessories: measure your book first
TORRO leather yardage book and scorecard wallet
This combination wallet is for someone who already owns a suitable book. TORRO specifies space for yardage books up to 10 × 15cm and a detachable scorecard holder for cards up to 13 × 17cm, with the stated scorecard tolerance of approximately 10%. The wallet itself measures 17.5 × 11 × 1.8cm.
If you are deciding which cover to buy, our yardage wallet and scorecard holder comparison separates the document sizes and compartments. Start with the book or card you already have.
Those are different measurements: the outer wallet dimensions are not the maximum book size. Check your closed book, including its cover and binding. The official contents describe a pencil loop but no pencil. You are buying storage, not a course map or an accuracy upgrade. The listed leather construction also should not be treated as a promise that the contents stay dry in sustained rain.
TORRO regular scorecard holder: for scorecards alone
If you mainly want to keep the card tidy and retain a pencil, the regular TORRO scorecard holder is a separate, simpler product. The verified Amazon UK listing specifies compatibility with scorecards measuring 18 × 15cm, with approximately 10% tolerance, and lists an included pencil, elastic corner retention and an external card slot.
Its sizing and contents differ from the combination wallet above. Choose it for scorekeeping; do not buy it expecting a surveyed yardage book, supplied hole maps or the same book compartment. Measure the card supplied by your club before ordering.
When GPS is a better fit
Shot Scope H4 GPS handheld
If you play many different venues and mainly want distances from where you stand, a GPS device may better match the task. Shot Scope describes the H4 as providing front, middle and back green distances, hazard and lay-up distances, plus optional shot tracking. Its official UK page lists more than 36,000 courses and no subscription fees.
This is a different purchase from a paper guide: it needs charging and initial setup. Check that your courses are covered before ordering. A book can still help you study the overall hole, while GPS supplies changing yardages as you move. Neither approach guarantees better club selection unless you also know how far you reliably carry each club.
How to make the information useful
Read the guide’s legend first. Establish whether a number is a carry distance, a distance to a reference point or a measurement to part of the green. Do not assume all publishers use the same symbols or that every number measures to the day’s flag position.
Use the free club-distance worksheet to keep your measured carry distances beside your course notes. The guide to building your own distance chart explains how to collect a representative sample and record the conditions.
For a practice round, keep your plan brief: a recognisable tee-shot target, a hazard to avoid and a sensible area for the approach. Separate a bunker carry from a total shot distance. Compare the required carry with your usual shot, rather than the longest shot you have ever hit.
Keep observations tied to the conditions in which you made them. A dry fairway can produce a different run-out from a wet one, and the wind can change between visits. A note is a reminder to think, not a permanent instruction to hit the same club.
Check competition restrictions
Green-reading materials have specific restrictions under The R&A’s Rule 4.3 clarification, including limits on map size and scale and the use of magnification. Model Local Rules can impose further restrictions. Check the rules adopted for your event and ask its committee before relying on detailed green maps or electronic features. A retailer’s product name or “tour” branding is not proof that every use is permitted.
For most buying decisions, the order stays simple: identify the exact course, confirm the guide’s edition and content, then check how you will carry and read it. That prevents the common mistake of spending more on the cover than on the information you needed.