The look, feel and even the coating of its scorecard say so much about the self-esteem of a facility. The ideal clubs generally have pocket-size, two-color cards with the name, logo and perhaps founding date on the cover. Key Local Rules and the proverbial line about playing by the Rules of Golf are posted on the back. That’s it.
    
On the other side, the information is limited to hole, par, handicap and yardage. We don’t need the club’s history or book-jacket style blurbs about the layout’s greatness. It is especially embarrassing to see a touched-up color photo depicting the course in an unrealistic state.
    
And all the varnish in the world won’t make the paper impervious to the elements, which is why the exemplary card is uncoated, allowing pencils to mark with ease. This is, after all, a card on which to keep score.

Next: Ideal First Tee