I'm catching up on some reading. John Paul Newport reported in Saturday's Wall Street Journal about two new software programs that provide overhead views of most golf courses in America. Since one does not run on Apple computers, at least not yet, and I'm an Apple owner, I'll confine myself here to GolfFlyOver.com, a neat little way to preview course layouts before you play them (or check out holes your favorite golfers might be playing on TV, as they play them). You can read Newport's full article, including his notes on the other program, Never-Search, which costs $20, by clicking here.
GolfFlyOver is free and uses Google's technology GoogleEarth, which provides views in map form, satellite form or a hybrid (roads overlaid on photos) from a satellite hovering over the planet. You provide GolfFlyOver the name of the course in which you are interested - you can search by state or course name - and that's it. As with all Google Maps, you can zoom in if you want a closer look at a particular hole or zoom out if you want to check out distances to the nearest town or what the surrounding community looks like.
GolfFlyOver is a handy tool that I intend to use with future course reviews I post here so that my readers can get the lay of the land. It is almost like owning a yardage book for each course, minus the typical $5 charge.