I wrote a story for Northern California Golf Association’s Magazine on setting up golf courses to suit women better, not to mention juniors and seniors. Even if you’re not a woman, it’s worth the read (especially for design/architect buffs) — it might make you think about tee positioning like you never have before!
Seriously, it might not sound like the most compelling topic in the world, but it was really interesting to report on this and talk to course consultant experts, like Arthur Little, as well as golf course operators, like Ben Cowan-Dewar, who is the man behind Cabot Links and business partners with Mike Keiser.
Check out the full story here (which is a PDF file and might be more “reader-friendly” than the link above). I’d love to hear your feedback!
Nice work Stephanie! This is a difficult subject but the information in your article was really interesting. I think it’s very important to remove gender labels and use gender neutral colors because no matter what, men don’t want to hit from the red tees.
Makes you think. Thanks
Well reported and written.. pity this isn’t in a mag or on a site with wider distribution. Echoing Scott – the simple idea to set up tees based specifically on driver distance is so smart and would be incredibly effective, I think.
Okay, for people whose average drive is 140, the fairway bunkers should be 120-150 yards out, and then the second shots should be, what 90 yards for a woman’s 7 iron? You would have to dig up and remake every golf course to make the fairway bunkers within that distance of the green. Or build thousands of courses for women. Ecologically/financially not too sound. Or else, just accept the fact that a 95 is a good score for most women, and live with it.
My wife hits it slightly longer than the average woman, about 150-160 off the tee. Whenever we travel & play, I scour the internet for courses with a set of tees under 4700 yards for her. The biggest issue in the shots into the green. Quite often she’s hitting 3-5-7 woods, even on par 3s. That’s double tough.
GREAT ARTICLE!! So I’m not the only woman who mixes up tee boxes to make a course more challenging? I was so happy to read that you do, too – I’m in great company! I started doing this on a trip to Myrtle Beach where the choice was 4,800 or 6,100 yards. THANK YOU FOR HELPING MOVE ARCHITECTS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION!!
Stephanie:
Great article. I have been advocating gender neutral tees and better spaced tees for 20 years at my club
in California. Although I’m sure the Executive Committee of my club receives the NCGA magazine, getting them to read this article is another thing. I am asking if I may copy it so I can present it at the next meeting. Thanks again for the great read.