Leaves of Change

We all have the power to influence somebody … in five minutes you can change someone’s life. If you embrace it, it can be a powerful thing

- Stacy Lewis

As my career in golf extends, I’m starting to see that this game could look completely different for the better. We have a very simple game - get the little ball in the little hole - yet often we as an industry do many things backwards.

With the golf boom during COVID, we saw many new players who never even considered playing the game start to enjoy it but I wonder if those players will continue to play after the frustration they receive from being forced to play from tees that weren’t designed for their game.

When I go to play golf its awesome cause I have 4 different tees to play from & almost always I can get to every par 4 in regulation with an iron in hand. This sadly isn’t the case for almost every lady that plays the game.

The average drive on the PGA Tour is 295 yards and if you multiply that by 25 it equals 7375 yards. The average drive on the LPGA Tour is 256 yards and if you multiply that by 25 it equals 6400 yards. The average drive of recreational ladies players is 125 yards and if you multiply that by 25 it equals 3125 yards.

The average approach yardage on a par 4 for a tour pro is 175 … which is about a 7 or 8 iron. When I have had the awesome opportunity to caddie for ladies its often a Driver, a 5 wood, and finally a short iron on to the green on the 4s.

The average course length on the PGA Tour is 7200 yards and the average course on the LPGA Tour is 6400 yards … the average course length for Recreational ladies is 5200 yards.

Does this make any sense?

I don’t know about you but playing four drive-able par 4s, eight par 5s, and six par 6s doesn’t sound that appealing unless you compete on the World Long Drive Tour. And yet we are actively trying to grow ladies golf & its a struggle!

I truly believe that if this problem isn’t tackled, then ladies golf will never grow to 50-50 with men’s golf .

The answer is very simple … all courses should have tee markers set up for all golfers.

Some big name resorts & local munis have accomplished this but as I travel to play course I always look at the bottom of the scorecard and see a number that is not quite right. Sure there are Short Courses that I absolutely love and preach about … but they few and far between compared to style of golf that wrongly represents the game.

The people at US Kids Golf and the LongLeaf Golf & Family Club has developed a system to level the playing field much better than the World Handicap System. This is done through the Longleaf Tee System. This system allows me (27 year old Golf Professional who drives it 285) to compete with lets say a Recreational Women’s Golfer at 65 years old who drives it 125. If she has skill and is playing proper tees suddenly it becomes a competitive match as opposed to simply putting a ton of dots on a scorecard.

If you can hit the ball up in the air and straight … you should be rewarded regardless of the distance it goes.

Longleaf has a great chart on their site that gives you a yardage you should play from for 9 holes based on your Driver carry distance and 7 iron carry distance. Any course could have all these tees in place with a few extra plates in the fairways on all holes that would totally expand the possible golfing population for that complex and open up brand new revenue strings.

Whats stopping golf courses from doing this is simply stone age old beliefs that are as simple as these statements that I hear constantly in life in golf:

I would love to see my wife enjoy golf more so we could have an activity to do together

Women can only play golf on these days because they are slower golfers

The same person will make the same comment in the span of an hour. These remarks are untrue and hurt the game.

Forcing someone to play golf isn’t going to suddenly fix your marriage. Women are more likely to play golf more if their friends play not their husband. As well there is no science to backup that women play slower per shot than men. Most women I have caddie and played with honestly play faster than the men. Where the slow play stigma comes from is the higher scores women shoot but this is do to them playing a golf course that is simply way too long for them. Having to hit fairway woods into every par 4 simply slows down the game; plus many egotistical men do this as well because they refuse to move up to playable tee box as well.

Longleaf recommends that golfers who drive 125 yards in the air play a golf course between 3600 and 3900 yards. I have worked at private clubs and I have yet to see our ladies league play any where near this distance and this is how far they hit it. This recommended yardage would give the following hole types:

Hole 1 Par 4 240 yards : Driver and 6 hybrid

Hole 2 Par 3 85 yards: 7 iron

Hole 3 Par 5 270 yards: Driver and 5 wood

Hole 4 Par 4 260 yards: Drive and 7 wood

Hole 5 Par 4 175 yards: Driver and pitch shot

Hole 6 Par 3 110 yards: 4 hybrid

Hole 7 Par 4 230 yards: Driver and 8 iron

Hole 8 Par 5 320 yards : Driver, 5 wood, and pitch shot

Hole 9 Par 4 210 yards : Driver and SW

These are the same types of holes I play when I play in professional events so shouldn’t Recreational Golf mirror the pro game in this way.

The Industry needs to make a change if it wants to succeed. The change is so simple and very cost less. Yet many golf courses have yet to make this leap that could double their business and fill their complex.

I guess its as simple as they are not smart enough to open their eyes to the possibility that they might be wrong for once

to be continued