mikeintopeka
The first private club I joined back in the mid 2000's was an older club, (original 9 holes were designed back in 1917) with tighter fairways and smaller greens (compared to today). When they added the additional 9 holes some 70 years later they increased the square footage of the greens, but nothing like what some clubs have today. I absolutely loved that place. Not that it wasn't challenging, but that I knew that if I could simply find the middle of the green with my SkyCaddie gps yardage - that was all I needed for a 20 footer for birdie, and sometimes less. The greens weren't large by no means, not even the newer nine holes.
There are no doubt certain courses I still play each year where an approximate middle-of-the-green yardage would suffice. But it's worth noting that these courses are older courses designed prior to the 50's and 60's. Yet I still have the luxury of knowing what the exact yardage is.
Here's the deal, without trying to be smarmy or elitist.
Players who can control their golf ball aren't lasering the pin that reads 165 yards from their approach and assuming that they simply need to use their 165-170 yard club. Players who can control their ball are also considering the landing spots and subsequent rollout after the ball hits the green, especially if it happens to be a middle or back pin. Front pins? Different story. We'd rather be a tad long than short, because putting is always the better recourse versus chipping.
Only to say that some of us can actually take advantage of that data based on our abilities.
It's where your ball ends up, that matters.