the average golfer shoots 100.
the average golfer who keeps a handicap index is a 16.
the average golfer hits his drives 197 yards.

this is according to golf guru frank thomas and a study he did.

i honestly don't know why courses put "the back tees" out on the weekends?

the average guy is not gonna go play behind the longest tees marked...

so put them out at the "2 ups",

most guys will go there and if you really want and know enough you can walk to the "backs"

it would help the courses get more rounds in and help speed up the pace!

at least i think it would

Yesterday I stood watching 4 mid-late 30's guys tee off in front of us from the 6800yd 139 sloped tees. You can't imagine how ish it looked. After the third hole it was clear 3 guys in that group shouldn't even be on that type of course, even the White tee's are 131. We waited for them to retee and hunt for balls on darn near every shot. I could hear one guy comment as he walked off the tee after putting 2 in the drink, doesn't seem that hard. Talk about poor judgement.

There's a part of me that understands wanting the Full Monte effect of Blue tee's because I like difficult challenges. But, for God sakes the one decent player in the group should have used some common sense. It wasn't so much the carry yardages at issue, it was they had absolutely NO directional control, and one guy just couldn't hit the ball. They slowed the whole field behind.

Stories like this are why I need to be medicated. This isn't golf, this is using the golf course as a driving range. This is the reason so many people, including myself for a time, finally just quit playing.

Five minutes on the driving range, and any professional worth his salary could simply say "the driving range is over there. Here is a free token for a bag of practice balls, we look forward to your business when you've had time to practice. I give free five minute lessons on the driving range every Wednesday for 90 minutes. You can use the practice areas all you want for just one range token. We don't charge much for personal lessons, have a nice day."

LET THEM GO somewhere else with their bruised egos. Like to a ++++ie bar or something. They can spend their 45 dollars one at a time.

I await the day that a course accepts the challenge of creating their own niche market that commands loyalty and a premium price from a dedicated clientele of GOLFER that would never play anywhere else because they love playing at a place where

- everyone they are ever paired up with can swing the club, chip, and putt with enough skill to play...by the rules.
- actually plays by the rules
- within 4.5 hours.
- practices once in awhile
- knows the basic etiquette, and even some not so basic.
- is not on the course to drink a 12 pack.

Notice that no where did I say "can keep up with the group ahead." Because if that was really important to the speed of play, there would be no speed of play problem in America. The problem is not whether someone is able to KEEP up, it's being able to SET the pace of play.

The only way a course can be sure that play is set at 4 hours, and stays that way, is by testing the competence of the golfers. By the time a marshal could remove someone for dragging down the pace, it would be too late.

One single hacker that tees off between 8 and 9 in the morning, that does not finish until 1:30 or 2:30, costs everyone who plays that day an enjoyable round. Is that fair to the 200 golfers that teed off later?

The fact that the couse even adopts that policy, means half the problem goes away all by itself. A few would fear the rejection and never try, the others would try once and then stomp off to somewhere else. A few would pay for a lesson just to see if they could pass, which means they probably would pass, they just need the confidence boost.