SET THE BRAVADO ASIDE AND PLAY THE COURSE FROM A LENGTH YOU CAN HANDLE
by Blaine Newnham
illustration by Calder Chism
We gathered for dinner near the Sandpines along the Oregon Coast. The group of 16 was headed to Bandon Dunes Golf Resort for our annual spring fling. People were feeling pretty full of themselves.
I announced that at Bandon I would be playing the forward tees and thought there were some first-timers who ought to join me.
They didn’t, of course.
Too macho, if not moronic.
The reality would be that they’d struggle to break 100 from the regular tees at Bandon.
Pacific Dunes? Forget it.
This is not simply an old man’s plea for compassion, but for an understanding that allows us to continue enjoying the game even when we can’t honestly hit the ball 200 yards in the air, when we have time and money to enjoy the game but fear the game and technology may pass us by.
I don’t see this as whining on behalf of the elderly.
I say it on behalf of average players of all ages.
After all, the United States Golf Association through its handicap program enables us to not only play from different tees but compete from them.
It isn’t as awkward and socialist as you might think.
I think it has the potential to help save the game because we’re all getting older, aren’t we?
Many newer courses with large teeing areas are offering a set of forward tees that ask you to play between 5,700 and 6,000 yards. The problem is most players won’t consider playing them, often flailing away from 6,400 yards or more.
In the collaboration to build Old Macdonald, the fourth course at Bandon Dunes, architect Tom Doak sought the advice of George Bahto, who literally wrote the book on C.B. Macdonald, one of America’s first golf architects. In looking at the course, Bahto was impressed with the authenticity of the design, but had a look that said, What about me? He is approaching 80.
“I realized we needed to consider him,” Doak said, adding that there will be tees that Bahto and others of his generation can handle. What a concept.
I mean you go watch college golfers play and are astounded how far and high they hit a golf ball. How is it that we all play the same game? On the same course?
Simple answer? We don’t.
First of all, I don’t think technology has been all that great for the average player. We aren’t hitting it any farther because as much as the clubs and balls have improved, so have the irrigation systems. We don’t get the roll we did once upon a time. And too many courses nowadays protect their greens with forced-carry bunkers, taking away whatever roll we can muster.
So my admonition to all of you is move up a set of tees, to where you still play the course the way it was designed, where the bunkers come into play as they do for the scratch player hitting from the back tees.
To be involved in our competitions at Bandon, rather than play to my 13 handicap, I was adjusted to an 11. The margin was the difference in the course rating from the two sets of tees. Not the slope, but the rating.
So if from one set of tees, the rating is 67.2 and 69.4 from the next, the difference is two handicap strokes. Round it off.
Did I gain an unfair advantage?
I don’t think so. What I got is a chance to play real golf, a chance to have fun. And I wasn’t out there hitting a 3-wood for my second shot on every 4-par.
Surely, it’s awkward to be the only player hitting off a set of tees. But the guys got used to it. I took a little abuse, but not that much. As I said, everyone is getting older.
When I hit it well, I scored well. I shot 83 at Bandon Dunes, but with tougher conditions and a poor ball-striking day, I shot 93 at Pacific Dunes.
At no point was I a threat to win low net of the day.
Way back in 1992, on our first trip to Ireland, the pro at Royal Portrush greeted us warmly and asked only that we play from the “society tees.” And at that point I was slightly offended. He hasn’t even seen me swing, I thought, and has us on the women’s tees.
Well, the society tees are for groups of outside players of unknown ability. The home club doesn’t want to slow play to bother its members. Longer holes mean longer rounds.
There’s a formula for what tees you ought to play, although you probably don’t want to hear it. Take the actual distance your 5-iron travels, multiply it by 36 and there’s your yardage. I hit a 150-yard 5-iron in the Northwest air ... when I hit it well. By that formula, I’m looking at a golf course of 5,400 yards.
But who wants to hit short irons into greens all day? Naw, wouldn’t want to do that. Instead, you hear all the bravado, “I want to play it where the pros do,” or “I want to play the whole course” or “I want to get my money’s worth.”
What you get are five-hour rounds.
And not much fun. Is that your money’s worth?
The problem is that most players won’t deal with the realities of how far and how well they hit the ball. If the course is too long for them, any mistake is exacerbated. Hit a drive behind a tree and you’re forced to chip the ball to the fairway and still can’t reach the green on your next shot. It is too bad, frankly, that so many new courses in a search to be championship and ranked and highly publicized add length well beyond what 95 percent of the players will ever use. Or, in my case, want.
The 6,000-yard golf course serves most of us well.
It costs less to maintain and is much quicker to play. In fact, one of the appeals of links golf is that the hard surfaces mitigate the distance difference. It is where you hit the ball, not how far you hit it.
Wrote Frank Thomas, former USGA technical director, “The appropriate challenge is playing a course which makes it possible — not necessarily easy — to par each hole. ... If you are playing a hole where it is impossible to reach the green in regulation, then you are not playing from the right set of tees. The course setup should be such that tee boxes on all 18 holes are considerate of the skill level of those who intend to use them. A suitable par 4 would allow you to reach the green with a very good drive followed by an equally good mid-iron approach.”
I have a friend who’s a member at Edgewood Tahoe, where his partner for the member guest finally yelled uncle. “I’m 70 years old,” he said, “and can’t handle the blue tees anymore.”
Golf isn’t about keeping people from playing.
Or at least it shouldn’t be.
Edgewood developed a policy that if your age and handicap equal 80 or more, you can move up a set of tees, losing handicap strokes but hopefully no dignity in the process. FG
Published in FG Magazine, July-August 2010
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