What is appropriate yardage for women players?

By Steve Gordon

      The USGA and PGA of America initiated the program of TEE IT FORWARD several years ago to get people to play golf courses from a set of tees most suitable for the ability and driving ability. The idea is that it makes the round of golf more enjoyable and it can significantly speed up play. Additionally, more people will gravitate to play golf, at a time when the game has seen a decline in participation.

      In the Summer 2015 issue of the Philadelphia Golf Association magazine, there was an article, “Don’t Be Afraid To Compete From Different Tees – Section 3-5 has you covered.” After reading it, I emailed Executive Director Mark Peterson and asked a simple question. “What tees to the woman players move forward to?”

       The specific issue is that the average woman player, who will play from the most forward set of tees has no option. Which might beg the question, if ladies play from the shortest tees on the golf course anyway, why is that a problem?

       Here is the problem comes out of a quote taken directly from the story: “Doesn’t grabbing a 7 iron for an approach shot feel more gratifying and less intimidating than a hybrid?” Anyone have a response?

       I recently played in an outing hosted by the USGA with an avid woman player and while this very highly rated course did make adjustments by making the longer par-4 holes into par 5’s for the women, it was just as the quote stated. Here were three low teen handicap senior players hitting say 7 irons and the woman player was hitting a hybrid. On some holes she didn’t even have a chance to hit her drive up to ours. She was playing on an uneven playing field.

      It's a problem because generally golf courses are not set up properly for the average woman player. The fact is that, for many women, tees set at 5,000 plus yards are too long. Here is what was written in a recent report (Setting up Golf Courses for Success) from the PGA of America:

      "At the majority of golf courses where the forward tees are positioned at 4,900-5,200 yards or more, women with shorter drives and slower swing speeds cannot reach greens in regulation. At 5,200 yards, we are asking her to play a course that is equivalent to a 7,500 yard course for the average male golfer."   

      Actually, too many men play from the wrong set of tees and don’t care much for the philosophy behind Tee It Forward concept, but that is by choice not design.

       While growing the game is a high priority to the PGA of America, since women golfers make up "close to 40% of the new golfers in the United States," some might argue that golf courses are still set up too long and too difficult for women players, which doesn’t translate to total enjoyment of the game for them.

       "There is a presumption that all women play the same game," says Jan Bel Jan, a female golf course architect, who began her design career working for Tom Fazio. Bel Jan continued to make the point that while a male player can move up from the blue to white or white to gold tees, etc., the woman players do not have that option.

       The USGA says the average woman bogey golfer will hit her drive 140 yards while the bogey male golfer would hit his drive 200 yards. While the 140-yard assumption might be on the short side, let’s still consider for a moment that the women a 60 yard disadvantage off the tee. So for our hypothetical example, let’s make up a short par 4 hole of 360 yards from the white tees and 300 yards from the forward tees.

      The woman hits her 140 yard drive down the fairway and is left with 160 yards to the green. The male golfer hits his 200 yard drive and he has 160 yards left to the green. But here is the issue. We are at an impasse again because the woman player would likely be hitting her 3 wood and can't reach the green while the male player has a more reasonable chance to do so with say a 5 or 6 iron.

       This is assuming there is no hazard to cross to get on the green. That's another issue. So let's put a water hazard in from of the green. Potentially the male player could still reach the green with a good second shot but the woman has a good chance of hitting into the hazard with her best shot.

       In addition to Bel Jan, I spoke with two other accomplished golf course designers, Rees Jones and Ron Garl. All three pretty much echoed each other on the hazard issue saying you can't put those kind of hazards in play for the average woman golfer. Most average woman golfers do not have the swing speed to hit the ball high for the carry and consequently very little chance of the ball stopping on the green if she does.

      Unfortunately, in golf there remains a lot of old school thinking. The traditional three sets of tees of blue (pros), white (men's) and red (women's) was supposed to go away years ago, but the colors remain and so does the mindset even as many (newer) courses have added tee boxes to accommodate all players.

      Here’s an interesting issue that is on the web page of the Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, PA just outside of Philadelphia:

      “As a golf architect, William Flynn was an innovator. He routinely installed three separate sets of tees as early as the 1920’s. He insisted the shortest be called the “forward tees”, rather than “ladies tees” so men would not be discouraged from using them.”

      "At my home course, Eaglebrooke, we don't have colored tees," Garl told me. He said they went away from the traditional colored tees to numbered tees to break stereotypes in order to get players to play the course best suited for them. "It has been a huge success," Garl said. It gives players 6 options of tees ranging from 7,030 to 4,783 yards.

      I asked Garl if a 300 yard hole was fair for the casual woman who drives the ball maybe 150 yards. He said the goal should be to make the holes play different and suggested that the forward tees should reflect par-4 holes varying from 250 to 350 yards. Bel Jan wasn't in complete agreement saying the 350 yards was still too long for a player who hits a 150-yard drive.

      I supposed it depends on the lay of the course because at my home course there is a 250-yard drivable par 4 from the white tees with the forward tees set at 190 yards. The distance of the hole exceeds what the USGA says the bogey golfer hits his or her drive, but with the lay of the hole both men and women players hit the green from the tee with good shots.

      Last year I played in an event with Le Ann Finger, a former college golfer and currently Director of Player Development with the Eastern Women's Golf Association. At Eaglebrooke for instance, she could step back to play a set of tees suitable for her game without some of the old timers grumbling that she should be playing from the (former) red tees while the average woman player has a more playable set of tees.

       The popular phrase is that all players should be hitting the same club into the greens, but is that realistic?  Finger said it isn't so much that, as it is for the women "to have a chance to reach the green in regulation, with shots that are a higher trajectory and will hopefully be held by the greens."

       Sue Delaney, co-head professional at the Basking Ridge Golf Club does not agree entirely with the premise that woman golfers are at a disadvantage. “Probably not enough thought was given to some of the women’s tee boxes at courses built years ago, but you really need to cater to the middle of the spectrum,” she said.

      She also doesn’t agree with the correlation of 5,200-yard tee boxes for women being equivalent to a 7,500 yard course for men. She does however think that for some higher handicap women (over 25) anything over 4,800-5,000 yards is a little too much golf course. And that brings us back to square one.            

      Delaney, who teaches “a nice sample of skill levels” at her club that boasts a sizeable amount of women players says, “You still want to keep it fun for everyone.  I might need to start my beginner golfers at the 200-yard blue stakes on some holes, but we have some more competitive ladies who want to play from the longer length courses. Remember, most of your competitions require a certain longer course setup.”

      The real issue comes down to how to achieve that “fun” goal for all golfers? We know it isn't as simple as just moving up tee boxes.  For anyone who has played golf for any period of time, you know that there are a "lot of variables," according to Rees Jones, the golf course architect perhaps best known as being the "Open Doctor"for his renovations US Open courses to make them competitive for major USGA tournaments so he knows a thing or two about the subject.

      “The concept actually isn't unlike his overall design philosophy of using angles. It’s easy to do on a new design but on an existing course it becomes more of a challenge where you have to find a compromise of tee placement and the features of the golf course. You have to put forward tees in with the proper angles, away from the cart paths if necessary.”  Jones added it might make the women walk a little farther to the tee, but you have to do it.

      A female golfer friend offered this assessment to me. "Courses that are designed in the past 10-20 years were more geared to getting women out to play, so the tee placement is much better." But…there is always a but…she added that older courses "are very difficult for most women and tee placements are generally not that great and the courses are still too long."

      Everyone agrees that there is no black and white answer to address this issue. As long as the golf industry is working in a positive direction, with the goal to make golf more enjoyable and to attract new players, we can hope for continued improvements down the road. Remember, “fun” is the name of the game.