Tee it Forward: Bah Humbug!: Editors' Blog: Golf Digest

Tee it Forward: Bah Humbug!

Monday, May 30, 2011 Comments

The USGA and the PGA of America are promoting the idea that golfers will have more fun, play faster and score better if they play tees more appropriate to their games--that is, play forward from where their egos suggest. Golf Digest, reporting on a similar argument by Barney Adams, the retired founder of Adams Golf, made the point that as a rule average golfers are playing so far back they're facing the equivalent of a professional playing an 8,000-yard course. Sound convincing? Not to this reader, who thinks "the golf industry is in love with itself!"

Play It Forward? I totally disagree with this concept. Most golfers already play the tees that give them a fair challenge. and they play tees that are best for the group. In tracking my scores over a series of years on courses in my locale, I often score better from longer tees as fairway hazards tend to not come into play. The golf industry is in love with itself. First, you sell me $500 drivers to bomb it out there and $500 yardage devices to tell me how far, and now you want me to go to shorter tees to speed up the game for a bunch of self-entitled malcontents who don't even know how to spell 'etiquette.' Most people will end up in the trees and rough all the same. The best way to speed up play is to sharpen your skills and your short game and to play ready golf. Moving up to tees where yardage signs, benches, ball washers, water coolers etc., are all behind you just means some moron with a laser yardage finder is going to spend more time figuring out his new yardage while still bitching about his crappy slice and his bladed wedge shots as he walks backwards to the tees where all of the amenities are standing. From the tips! Bring your 'A' game to the course or stay home!
Mychael Ritterhoff, Austin, TX

Strong letter, Mychael. My own feeling is change it up. Play where you can play approach shots of all lengths. Hitting 3-wood after 3-wood with the occasional 4-iron thrown in may be fun once in a while--see the Golf Digest U.S. Open Challenge--but a steady diet of that is slow, torturous golf. I think Adams makes a great point about matching the tees you play to the length of your drives--no matter what you paid for your driver. (You didn't really pay $500, did you?!)

Bob Carney