Tag:leisure=golf_course
 leisure = golf_course
|
 |
| Description |
|---|
A golf course 
|
| Rendering in OSM Carto |
|
Rendering in OSM Carto 
|
|
| Group: leisure |
| Used on these elements |
    |
| Implies |
| Useful combination |
Status: de facto
|
| Tools for this tag |
A golf course is the grounds where the game of golf is played.
How to map
Draw an area around the boundary of the course including clubhouse, car park & any other ancillary features, and tag it leisure=golf_course.
If you are not sure of its border you can place a single node in the middle and tag it leisure=golf_course but the area is preferable.
Tags used in combination
name=*name of the club/grounds where the facility lies.addr:*=*Addressoperator=*phone=*website=*opening_hours=*fee=*- whether the use of a golf course is charged or not
Features within a golf course
For details on how to map/tag features, refer to their specific pages.
Applies to all features:
- Do not use
sport=golforleisure=pitch. - Avoid using
landuse=*ornatural=*tags to indicate its surface, usesurface=*instead.
List of features: Key:golf.
| Number | Feature | Element | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tee |
 |
An area where play begins on a golf hole. |
| 2 | water_hazard |
|
A natural obstacle designed to add difficulty to a golf course. Nowadays known as Penalty Area marked with yellow stakes. |
| 3 | rough |
|
Areas within bounds which usually have longer length of grass. |
| 4 | out_of_bounds |
 |
Usually defined by white stakes or lines. |
| 5 | bunker |
|
A type of hazard in the form of a depression in the ground filled with sand. |
| 6 | lateral_water_hazard |
|
A natural obstacle designed to add difficulty to a golf course. Nowadays known as Penalty Area marked with red stakes. |
| 7 | fairway |
|
An area between the tee and green where the surface is smooth usually grass is cut even and short. |
| 8 | green |
|
An area of smooth ground surrounding a pin flag usually of short grass. |
| 9 | pin |
|
The location of the pin flag. |
| 10 | hole |
|
A hole is represented by a way along the standard playing path from the tee to the green. |
driving_range |
|
A driving range is an area where golfers can practice their golf swing. | |
clubhouse |
|
The building dedicated as a clubhouse. Always tag building=* for the building itself.
| |
cartpath |
|
Path for golf vehicle. |
Common mapping pitfalls
- Adding
name=*to objects like name=bunker, name=fairway 1, name=18th Hole, ...name=*should only be used if an object has a specific individual name and not for generic descriptions. See: Names are not for descriptions. - Adding duplicate ways on top of already existing highway ways and tagging them as
golf=cartpath. - Changing existing
highway=*tags tohighway=pathor mapping new roads ashighway=patheven if the tag is not appropriate. [1] - Drawing ad-hoc building shapes that don't resemble the real structures.
- Deleting objects and redrawing them instead of improving the shape. If there is already a hole/fairway/etc. there, update it.
- Creating "lollipops" (wrapping polygon areas around a feature and leaving a tiny open gap). Use multipolygons instead.
- Duplicating existing water areas (or parts of existing area) and tagging them as water hazards. Just because a fairway parallels the ocean doesn't make the ocean a penalty area (previously known as water hazard.)
- Overlapping green/fairway/rough polygons (see graphics below). If there is no fringe, or the imagery isn't clear enough to say one way or another, butt the fairway and green together and share nodes. If there is a clear "fringe" around the green, the fairway should extend around the green and be combined with the green into a multipolygon.
Courses in a facility
One or Mutiple courses inside of a leisure=golf course can be represented by creating a Relation 
using route=golf and adding the golf=holes as a member.
Another way of tagging one or multiple courses inside of a facility is to put the golf:course:name=*, golf:course=*, golf:par=* and other tags on the golf=hole directly.
Tags for courses:
golf:course:name=*- Name of the coursegolf:course=*- Number of holes.golf:course=9_holegolf:course=18_hole
golf:par=*- Difficulty of a golf coursefee=*
It is not recomended to use these on the leisure=golf_course itself becuase leisure=golf_course represents the facility/grounds where golf courses lies. It is also hard for data consumers to compute which course a golf=hole lies inside of with a spatial query if the tags are tagged on the leisure=golf_course itself. It is better to use route=golf. If you are sitll tagging the course tags on leisure=golf_course , only do it on facilites which only have one course and one can assume that all golf=hole belongs to this course.
Courses which consists of different "loops" for each day
See golf:loop=*
Two or more disjunct pieces of the facility
Many courses is split with e.g. a road in the middle, containg some odd number of holes in one piece and the other. Although this wiki page advises against using the leisure=golf course on Relations , Relation:multipolygon is an exception.
Two areas are drawn and associated as 
outer with the leisure=golf course tags. No other tags should be on the two areas .
Similar tags
leisure=miniature_golffor a mini-golf/crazy golf centre.leisure=disc_golf_course- Disc Golf Courseleisure=golf_course+golf:course=driving_range- a driving range that stands aloneleisure=golf_course+golf:course=pitch_and_putt- pitch and puttleisure=soccer_golf- Footgolfsport=croquet- Croquet
See also
golf_cart=*For paths for golf carts- golf course on Wikipedia
- FairwayMapper Global Golf Overview - infrequently updated stats overview for global golf on OpenStreetMap.
Applications using OSM data
- fairwaycast.org/ Fairwaycast: climate insights for golf course managers. A website using OSM data for climate prediction and the ability to export a course map.
- CIVIC golf. Apple Watch and iOS app.