‘Tee it Forward’ introduced in 2011, is a joint initiative between USGA and PGA of America to encourage golfers to play from a set of tees that are aligned to their driving distance.
This is achieved by Golf Clubs offering extra courses for their players, generally a forward tee option to vary the golf experience for its members, young and old.
Traditionally golfers who join a golf club are course ready, but what about those beginners who take part in group lessons and are interested in joining a club but playing a full course is too daunting, so they don't join.
Being able to communicate the pathway of, group clinics or individual lessons, then joining as a beginner member gaining access to a short course, appears to be a very sensible offering as a first introduction to course play for beginners.
The Golf SA Course Rating Sub-Committee has noticed a trend appearing with clubs locally wishing to offer extra courses for their players.
So far Golf SA has completed rating short courses for beginners at the following four South Australian Golf Clubs: Blackwood (3,937mtrs), Kooyonga (3,558mtrs), Royal Adelaide (3,506mtrs) and Tea Tree Gully (4,827mtrs). Generally an ‘Orange’ Course is rated.
Cummins Golf Club has had a forward tee rated to avoid its punishing rough/water carries which were causing grief to its older members. The Golf SA office has also received enquiries from McCracken and Links Lady Bay about rating a short course and Naracoorte has requested a rating for a White course for Men to enhance the playing experience for its members.
Royal Adelaide recently held a ‘Choose your tee’ competition for women, where all women’s tees were available and the results where combined via Golf Link to determine an overall winner on the day.
Golf SA is actively urging more clubs to offer a shorter course targeted towards juniors, beginners and older players.
Short Courses can be used for handicapping purposes, as long as the course measures greater than 2,744 meters. (Adelaide Shores Executive Course was 3,119 metres before it was shortened to 15 holes). A Course can be rated under the USGA system and will have a Scratch and Slope rating, thus allowing a player to gain a handicap, or to use his/her GA Handicap.
Golf Links Tier 1 system, as used by many of the country clubs and Tier 3 systems administered through service providers such as MiClub and Micropower, have the facility to process results from a competition for handicap purposes and then combine these results with those from another competition played at the same time from a different tee or different tees. This would result in some scores being adjusted for the purpose of awarding overall prizes only. The result that would show on a player’s GL record would be the handicapping record.
Providing a short course need not cost a club much, apart from a set of permanent markers from which to rate the course and some tee markers. There is no necessity to have a raised area, as long as the area meets the definition of a teeing ground, To be eligible for rating under the current system, each 9 must have at least one hole which is longer than 230 metres.
Golf Australian Golf Development Director Cameron Wade is all for course variations.
“It effectively allows for a whole range of players to enjoy the same course, not allowing tough set-ups to determine enjoyment” Wade said.
“By offering alternatives that shorten some courses dramatically, we’re finding that more people are able to enjoy their golf and not be daunted by playing holes that are simply too long to enjoy”. Wade added.
A further benefit of this is that it will almost certainly lead to an improvement in pace of play.
Golf SA Course Rating Sub-Committee agree that as many clubs as practical should have forward tees for juniors, beginners and older players
Below are the Scratch and Slope Ratings for a few short courses in SA:
|
|
Length |
Par |
Scratch |
Slope |
|
Kooyonga – Orange Men |
3558 |
62 |
60 |
100 |
|
Orange Women |
3558 |
62 |
61 |
106 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Royal Adelaide – Orange Men |
3506 |
66 |
59 |
92 |
|
Orange Women |
3506 |
66 |
61 |
97 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Blackwood – Orange Men |
3937 |
63 |
60 |
100 |
|
Orange Women |
3937 |
66 |
62 |
104 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tea Tree Gully – Yellow Men |
4827 |
68 |
64 |
117 |
|
Yellow Women |
4827 |
70 |
69 |
122 |
If a Club Committee is interested in having a Short Course rated please refer to the following document: