Great question, doubt that it should be here, but excellent question.
ITs a designer issue. Some do as the crow flies, others do the preferred route. For example, I belive that in my design at Cliff Drive, on hole #1, I believe that I shot the distance from standing on the opening to the person on the tee pad and then turned to the basket, hence not as the crow flies, but rather the method in which you should be throwing to the basket. Same with #13, I shot it from the short baskt to the pad, then shot the basket from the other basket.....
Now had I met that silly guy Slim Belcher before i did the distances, I may have altered how I shot them with the lazer shooter.....

It depends on the designer unfortunately, there is not a solid answer for this.