Add a Golf Course to Open Street Map

Access Open Street Map (OSM) in a web browser at …

https://www.openstreetmap.org

Find the location of your golf course on the map. If using OSM search, usually less is more for a search; use brief descriptions. Zoom in until the golf course nearly fills the display to see the detail.

Features

OSM uses three basic “Feature” types to define all map entities.

1. Point - A single node defining a location - e.g. Trees

2. Line  - At least two nodes defining a line that is not closed - e.g. Holes

3. Area - Multiple nodes that define a closed area on the map e.g Greens, Fairways, Hazards

Above the map you should see a button for each of feature type. Once in edit mode, you will select these to begin adding features to the golf course. 

It usually takes less than hour to define a typical course using the basic elements.

Golf Course Definition

For Calm Golf, a golf course in OSM must be defined with,

1. Boundary - Area - encloses all of the holes and greens on the course.

2. Holes       - Line  - lines define the path from the tee to the center of the green

3. Greens     - Area - a set of nodes enclosing the area of the each green

In OSM, you can define various course features such as tees, fairways, trees, lakes and other hazards, but these are not required for Calm Golf. However, they can improve the look of the course map and may help later to get distances to avoid hazards, but they are not essential.

Boundary

The course boundary must include the course name, but ideally should have other information filled for OSM users e.g address, phone number etc.. 

Holes

The number of nodes defining the lines segments for a hole should be one less than the par for the hole e.g. a par 5 will have 4 nodes representing 3 lines. Each line in the hole's path should roughly represent a shot toward the green. 

The first node, should always be at the tee and the last node should be in the center of the associated green.  The tee location is not important and can be from any of the tees on the hole, but is usually shown from the back tee. 

Once a hole is defined, it must have the hole number set in the Hole Number field.

If a golf course has sub-courses (e.g. three sets of nine holes) then the sub-course name (e.g. Blue Course) should be entered in the name field for each hole in the sub-course group. The Hole name field is used to match holes into sub-courses.

Greens

Each green needs three or more nodes defining the area of it’s shape. Use as many nodes as is reasonable to define the green shape, as these will be used to calculate the front, middle and back distance for any shot into the green. The green must enclose the last node of the associated hole.

OSM Edit Mode

To add and edit courses in OSM, you will need to create an OSM login account.

Once you have an account, you can enter the edit mode with the “Edit” button above left of the map.

When you enter edit mode, you will see all of the editable features change color. Selecting any feature will show its details in the panel of the left of the map.

Golf Course Boundary Feature

Note that most golf courses in OSM already have their boundary defined. If you see the boundary on the map, click on the thick line on the inside of the golf course boundary, and the panel on the left will show it having a “Feature Type” as “Golf Course”. 

Below the feature type it will have several fields describing the golf course, including the name, operator, address, phone number, hours of operation, website and possibly others. Some or all of these may be populated. It must have a name to be useful.

If the boundary is not defined, then you can add it by tapping the Area button and selecting points along the boundary of the golf course. Some course have multiple boundaries areas. It is important the boundaries completely contain all of the holes and greens for the course. Once the boundary area is defined, hit return to close the shape. Tap the features list in the left panel and select the one that says “Golf Course”. This should then show a list of fields that you enter to define the course.

Hole Features

To define a hole, tap the Line button above the map. Select the first node on the back tee of each hole and then select nodes on the fairway and green of the hole as needed. 

The first node should be on a tee and the last node must be in the center of the green. 

Once the line segments for the hole path are defined, press return to complete the line. In the left panel search for Golf Hole and select it. This will bring up a list of features for the hole including Hole Number, Par and Handicap. Fill these in and if this is part of a sub-course, then add a name field and the sub-course name.

Green Features

Tap the Area button and use this to define the shape of each green. Use as many nodes as needed to get an accurate shape. Once all nodes are defined, press return to complete the area. In the left panel, find Golf Green and select it. This will then show some optional fields to fill in but none of them are essential.

How OSM Features Are Used

Calm Golf downloads available golf course names in a selected local region. OSM provides the name that's saved in the golf course boundary. Once a course is selected, the boundary is used to request all of the golf course features within that boundary. OSM sends back a random list of holes and greens. The hole numbers are used to order the holes and any sub-course names are used to combine the hole into sub-courses. Each downloaded green is compared with the last point on each hole and the green enclosing the last hole point is assigned to that hole. 

Additional Wiki Links

Golf Course

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:leisure%3Dgolf_course

Holes

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:golf=hole

Greens

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:golf=green

OSM General

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Main_Page

Feedback and Questions

If you have any feedback, questions or suggestions, please send an email to “eagolfe@gmail.com”.