From my perspective, a word to describe what a golfer that has a handicap greater than 25 and doesn’t practice is looking for when choosing a golf course. You know 150 yard wide fairways, no hazards (trees, water, bunkers, out of bounds, rough, etc.) and greens that are pretty much flat that measure about 5 on a stimpmeter.
The debate here is heating up as we’re looking at renovating our complex of bunkers. We have a terrible time with bunkers after it rains – very few drain properly and a cinderblock perks better than the soil here. This means the course superintendent has to divert his crew from daily maintenance chores to pump water out of the bunkers, re-do the sand, and hope for a dry couple of days.
We have been talking about possible solutions to the ‘playability’ issue and I think we’re onto one. Instead of limiting tee box choices to the particular day of the week mixer your playing in (Wednesday, we use the Burgundy tees (66.5/112 at 5536 yards) and Thursday, Gold tees (68.5/128 at 6016 yards)) why not adjust handicaps to match the tees you play from? (Scorecard)
Sounds like a no brainer, right? Well, I promise there’s more to it than meets the eye. Take a look at Joe Golfer – handicap index of 15.6. His course handicap on our Burgundy tees would be 15. If he played a player with an equal handicap index of 15.6 from the Gold tees, his course handicap would be 18. Now, take the difference of both course ratings (68.5 minus 66.5 = 2) so the golfer playing from the Gold tees would get an additional 2 strokes bumping him to 20. Our USGA uses length as the predominant factor when figuring handicaps. The debate here is that the golfer that’s giving up 5 strokes is at a disadvantage even though the stroke differential is figured in accord with USGA guidelines.
Frankly, there’s only a 480 yard difference between the two different sets of tees. That works out to and average distance differential of 26.66 yards per hole. Geez, that’s nothing. No wonder the golfer playing from the forward tees ‘perceives’ being at a disadvantage.
Care to join the debate?
