How to print and assemble your Shot Pattern yardage book

Your yardage book prints as a fold-in-the-middle booklet, the same shape as a tour caddie's book: green above the fold, hole below it, pages that flip up. Closed, it's 3.75 × 5.25 inches and fits a back pocket. This guide covers the three print layouts, the two printer settings that decide whether it works, and how to assemble the finished book.

Time: about 5 minutes after the pages come off the printer.

What you'll need

Paper	Regular 20 lb copy paper works but will not survive repeated use. 28–32 lb (105–120 gsm) matte is best. Avoid glossy — it glares in the sun and won't take a pencil.
A cutting tool	A paper trimmer or guillotine gives the cleanest edge. A metal ruler and a craft knife on a cutting mat is a close second. Scissors work but are hard to keep straight.
A stapler	Any desk stapler. The fold is only 3.75 inches long, so a regular stapler reaches it from the side. A needle and thread works too.
Optional	A sheet of cardstock (65–80 lb) for the cover.

Step 1 — Set up the book in the app

Open Course Preview, tap the menu button, then tap Print Book. If you've adjusted tee markers or pin positions during this session, you'll see switches for whether those adjustments are used.

Every book includes distance rings, carry numbers, plays-like elevation numbers, and a green diagram for every hole. The choices left are:

Setting	Options	Notes
Imagery	Satellite (default) or Flat Drawings	Satellite prints the imagery the map shows. Flat Drawings prints the hole as a line drawing — far less ink, and it takes pencil better.
Page Layout	Vertical (default), Fold & Staple Booklet, Book Pages Only	See the table below.
Paper Size	US Letter or A4	The book is the same size on either; only the margins change.

Tap Create Book to build it. The row tells you what you're about to print, for example "5 sheets · US Letter · two-sided".

Layout	Best for	What you do afterwards	Finished size
Vertical	Most people. A true yardage book: green on the top page, hole on the bottom, flips up over the fold.	1 cut, fold, 2 staples	3.75 × 5.25 in closed, 3.75 × 10.5 in open
Fold & Staple Booklet	A side-bound booklet that opens like a magazine, hole on the left and green on the right.	Fold, nest, 2 staples, 3 cuts	3.75 × 6.5 in
Book Pages Only	Sending to a print shop, or reading on your phone.	Nothing — hand it over	3.75 × 6.5 in

The book takes 10–25 seconds to build with satellite imagery and a second or two with flat drawings. When it's done you'll get the share sheet — save the PDF to Files, AirDrop it to your computer, or email it to yourself.

Print from a computer if you can. Printing straight from an iPhone or iPad works, but AirPrint has no scale control, so the finished book comes out about 3–5% small and you can't choose which edge the paper flips on. A laptop and a normal print dialog give you an exact-size book.

Step 2 — The two print settings that matter

Everything else is optional. These two are not.

1. Print at 100% (Actual Size)

Turn off anything called Scale to fit, Fit to printable area, or Shrink oversized pages. If the printer scales the page, the fold and cut marks won't be where they say they are.

Every sheet has a measured bar in the bottom margin labelled 2 in — print at 100% (or 5 cm on A4). Put a ruler on it. If it measures short, the print was scaled.

2. Two-sided, flipped on the SHORT edge

Both home layouts are built for short-edge binding. On the Vertical sheets that means the back of each sheet prints top-for-bottom, which is exactly what a page that flips up over a fold needs. Long-edge binding will pair every back with the wrong front.

Where to find both settings:

Application	Scale	Two-sided
macOS Preview	Set Scale: 100% (don't use Scale to Fit)	Two-Sided: Short-Edge binding
Adobe Acrobat Reader	Page Sizing & Handling → Actual size	Print on both sides of paper → Flip on short edge
Windows (Edge / built-in viewer)	More settings → Scale: Actual size	Print on both sides → Flip on short edge
Google Chrome	More settings → Scale: Custom → 100	Print on both sides → Flip on short edge. If there's no flip option, click Print using system dialog.
iPhone / iPad	Not available — expect a 3–5% smaller book	Double-sided toggle only, no edge choice

If your printer can't do two-sided at all

The PDF is ordered so that odd pages are front sides and even pages are back sides. To do it by hand:

1. Print page 1 only. Put that sheet back in the paper tray.
2. Print page 2 only. Check that it landed on the blank side and passes the flip test above. If not, re-feed the other way and try once more. Remember which way worked.
3. Now print odd pages only (1, 3, 5, 7, 9), re-feed the whole stack that same way, and print even pages only (2, 4, 6, 8, 10).

Every sheet is labelled in the top margin — SHEET 3 OF 5 · FRONT — so you can always confirm the stack is right before you cut or fold. Some printers stack output face-down, which reverses the order; the labels will tell you.

Option A — Vertical (default)

This makes a top-fold booklet: a stapled fold across the top, a green diagram and your targets on the upper page, the hole on the lower page, and pages that flip up.

How many sheets? Each sheet carries two strips of the book, and each strip folds into two pages. An 18-hole book is 40 pages — a cover, a course plan, a notes page, two pages per hole, and a back cover — so it prints on exactly 5 sheets. A 9-hole book takes 3.

The steps are also printed down the middle of every sheet, in the strip of paper the cut removes.

1. Print

At 100%, two-sided, short-edge flip, on US Letter or A4, in portrait. Keep the sheets in the order they come out of the printer and square up the stack. They are not in reading order, and that is deliberate.

Cover tip: sheet 1 carries the front and back covers, so printing that one sheet on cardstock gives you both. Two hole pages ride along on that sheet's other half, which is fine.

2. One cut down the middle

Follow the CUT ticks in the top and bottom margins. Cut the whole stack at once so every strip lines up identically.

You now have two piles of tall strips. The left pile is the outside of the book — cover, plan, and the first holes. The right pile is the inside.

3. Right pile under left

Put the right-hand pile under the left-hand pile, keeping both in printed order. Don't shuffle or re-sort.

4. Fold

Fold the whole pile in half at the FOLD ticks, top half back behind the bottom half, so the cover stays on top. The fold line is the exact centre of the sheet, so folding corner to corner lands it on the seam between the two pages. Sharpen the crease with a ruler edge or the back of a spoon.

5. Staple the fold

Two staples on the crease, about an inch in from each side. A regular desk stapler reaches, since the fold is only 3.75 inches wide: slide the folded edge in from the side and staple from the outside so the legs close on the inside.

No stapler? A 3-hole pamphlet stitch works: pierce three holes along the fold, one at the centre and one about an inch from each end. From the inside, push the needle out through the centre hole leaving a 3-inch tail, in through one end hole, out through the other, then back in through the centre on the opposite side of the long stitch. Tie the tail and working thread around the long stitch with a square knot and trim.

6. Trim (optional)

Cut to the corner marks: the open end opposite the fold, then the two sides. The fold itself is never cut. Untrimmed, each page is 4.25 × 5.5 in on Letter, which is perfectly usable if you'd rather skip this.

Trim after stapling, not before, so every page comes out flush. If in doubt, cut a hair inside the marks. The hole imagery runs right to the page edge, so a slightly tight cut is invisible, while a slightly loose one leaves a thin white sliver.

Option B — Fold & Staple Booklet

This makes a side-bound saddle-stitched booklet, opening like a magazine: hole on the left page, green on the right.

How many sheets? Four book pages fit on each landscape sheet. An 18-hole book is 39 pages — cover, course plan, a notes page, then a hole page and a green page for each hole — so it prints on 10 sheets, with one ruled notes page at the end. A 9-hole book takes 6.

1. Print

At 100%, two-sided, short-edge flip, on US Letter or A4, in landscape. Keep the sheets in printed order.

Cover tip: sheet 1 holds the cover, so printing it on cardstock gives you a front and back cover in one go.

2. Fold

Fold each sheet in half, matching corner to corner. The two pages meet exactly at the centre of the paper, so a corner-to-corner fold lands the crease on the seam.

3. Nest

Slot the folded sheets inside one another: sheet 1 on the outside, then sheet 2, and so on. The last sheet sits in the middle. Open it up and check the holes run in order before you staple.

4. Staple the fold

Two staples on the crease, roughly 1½ inches in from each end. Open the booklet flat and staple from the outside, or use the pamphlet stitch above.

5. Trim three edges

Cut to the corner marks: the open edge opposite the fold, then the top, then the bottom. The fold is never cut. Trim after stapling so every page is flush.

If your trimmer struggles with 10 sheets folded, cut the flat stack down to 7.5 × 6.5 in before folding — four cuts instead of three, but through half the paper.

Option C — Book Pages Only (print shop)

This exports the book at its true 3.75 × 6.5 in size, one page per PDF page, with no imposition. It's the file a print shop wants — they'll impose and trim it on their own equipment — and it's also the version to keep on your phone.

What to ask for at the counter:

Saddle-stitch booklet. Print double-sided, trim to 3.75 × 6.5 inches. 32 lb text stock, 80 lb cover, matte.

Any FedEx Office, Staples, or local print shop can do this, usually for a few dollars. Ask for matte, not gloss.

Reading the marks on each sheet

Everything printed in the margins is a guide, and all of it is cut away or hidden in the finished book.

Mark	Where	What it's for
Corner marks	Around each strip or page	Where to trim
FOLD (dashed ticks)	Vertical: side margins and the middle, halfway down. Fold & Staple: top and bottom centre	The fold line
CUT (solid ticks)	Vertical: top and bottom centre	The one cut, down the middle
Assembly steps	Vertical: down the middle of the sheet	The short version of this page; the cut removes it
Measured bar	Bottom margin	Check your print scale — it should measure exactly 2 in (5 cm on A4)
SHEET 3 OF 5 · FRONT	Vertical: top left. Fold & Staple: bottom left	Keeps the stack in order, especially for manual two-sided printing
Course name	Vertical: top right. Fold & Staple: bottom right	Identifies a stray sheet
Layout and paper size	Vertical: bottom left. Fold & Staple: top left	Confirms which file you're holding

The guide ticks stop short of the pages, so nothing is left behind on a finished page if your cut lands a hair off.

Troubleshooting

What you're seeing	Why	Fix
The back of every sheet is paired with the wrong front, or reads upside down	Two-sided flipped on the long edge	Switch to short-edge binding, or print manually (odd pages, then even)
The measured bar is shorter than 2 in	The print dialog scaled the page	Set Actual Size / Scale: 100% and turn off Fit to printable area
The book came out noticeably small	Printed from an iPhone or iPad, which always scales	Send the PDF to a computer and print at 100%
The pages seem out of order	That's the imposition, not a bug	Check the SHEET labels, keep the printed order, and follow the cut, pile and fold steps
A green and a hole don't match up across the fold	The piles were mixed, or a strip was flipped end for end	Re-stack: left pile in order, right pile under it, every strip's cover-side label facing the same way
A thin white strip along the edge of a hole map	The cut landed just outside the page	Cut a hair inside the corner marks — the imagery bleeds off the page edge
Pages don't line up front to back	Printer feed drift, or a scaled print	Confirm the scale bar, then cut the whole stack at once so any drift is shared
Ruled NOTES pages in the book	Normal — every book has one after the plan, and books pad out to whole sheets	Use them for wind notes or a running score

Paper, weather and wear

• 28–32 lb (105–120 gsm) matte is the sweet spot: stiff enough to write on one-handed, thin enough to fold and staple.
• Laser beats inkjet in the rain. Toner is fused to the paper; inkjet ink runs. If you're on an inkjet, let the sheets dry fully before folding and keep the book in a sandwich bag when it's wet.
• Flat Drawings use a fraction of the ink of satellite pages and take pencil better.
• Cardstock for sheet 1 gives you front and back covers with no extra work.
• Pencil, not pen. Matte paper and a pencil is the classic combination, and pencil still writes in the rain.

Common questions

How many sheets of paper does one book take?

Vertical: 5 sheets for 18 holes, 3 for 9. Fold & Staple: 10 sheets for 18 holes, 6 for 9, because the hole and green pages are side by side rather than stacked.

What's on each spread of a Vertical book?

The green diagram with its depth, width and edge numbers, plus your targets and notes, on the upper page. The hole number, yardage and map on the lower page.

Why are there ruled notes pages?

Every book has one after the course plan. Books also pad out to a whole number of sheets, and a ruled notes page is more useful than a blank one. An 18-hole Vertical book needs no padding; a 9-hole book gets two notes pages.

What's on the back cover?

On a Vertical book, a plain back cover with the Shot Pattern logo. On a Fold & Staple book, a notes page.

Can I print at A4?

Yes. Choose A4 under Paper Size before you tap Create Book. The book is the same size either way; only the margins around it change.

The pages come out in a strange order — can I fix that?

No need to. Both home layouts deliberately print out of reading order so that one cut and one fold put everything back in sequence. If you want a plain reading-order file, choose Book Pages Only.

Can I re-print after moving a pin or changing tees?

Yes. Adjust the tees or pins in Course Preview and generate the book again — the new book reflects whatever is set when you tap Create Book.