Senior Tees - Length guidelines

[Mike McGuire]

What is a good range for senior tee length (midwest) ? Is there a minimum for shooting your age?  6,000 yards?  

Thanks for the help.

[Mike Nuzzo]

I played with my grandfather earlier this spring - at the Knoll in NJ - good fun.

To give you an idea about his skill level...
A few years ago, we were competing head to head from the same tees, and had several ties - he only has me by about 40+ years.  His short game used to beat me like a drum, 1 putt, 1 putt.  
The point is, he was much better than any of his peers.

Since some surgery last year, he has begrudgingly moved to the Sr. tees.
At the Knoll they were 6,000, it was too long for him.
If it were my course I'd make them 5,500 max.

The ladies should be 4,800 yards, or at least that's what they were at the Teeth of the Dog.  I'm sure Alice had something to say about those.

I'd make the Sr. tees playable for the weaker Sr., and let the better Sr. play from a mixed bag of Sr. and "white" tees.

Lastly,
At Beaumont CC, recently renovated, we put the Sr. tees at 5750.  There are a lot of Sr. members.  I'll try and get some current feedback if you are interested.  They play at sea level.

Mike

[Mike Nuzzo]

Ammendment,

If it were my course, there would only be 3 sets of tees, not including the small junior tees at 3,000 yards.
I would however have 5 scorecards???

The Sr. player's card, would be a mixture of 1 and 2 tees - around 5,400 yards.
The ladies would be the 1 tees - 4,800 yds.
The men and champ ladies tees would be 2 - 6,100.
The amateur would be a mixture of 2 & 3 tees - 6,500.
The scratch would be the 3 tees - 6,800.

And I'd switch them all up from time to time.

Final ammendment,
The above sounds quite complicated, why not just make 5 sets of tees?
Because they look silly.

My course - I'd make it like the Dunes Club - no formal tees -until the championships.

Cheers

[James Bennett]

Mike Nuzzo

interesting thought.  I guess we could have harlequin coloured tee markers, eg for a hole where three courses use the one tee, the tee marker would be a tri-colour.  It would work.  It would be better than 5 sets of tees.

Do you have any comment on maximum carries for these senior tees?

[Steve_ Shaffer]

At LuLu, the senior tees are at 5527y,67.2,121. The whites are at 6032y,69.6,125. Most seniors play the whites.

[Willie_Dow]

Don't forget the ratings from the various tee box locations.

It is very important that the seniors get the proper handicap from GHIN.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Reviewing another project from last year...
With heavy involvement from the sr. members, Baxter and I,  added a set of Sr. tees at Las Colinas CC at 5671 yards.  
Prior, they had some tee markers inbetween the ladies and mens tees, on sloped ground mostly.  
There are some forced carries, most daunting would be a 2nd shot of about 150 yards, for which there are two of those.
Not much we could do about those.
Cheers

[peter_p]

Mike,
I tried to institute "senior" tees a number of years ago at a club with appreciable older membership. Concept was to have nine red and nine white tees. Less than 20 of the 500+ members reported moving to the compositee tees and it was discontinued. Virtually anything you try is destined for failure if the member precedes the change.
Length guidelines - 20% shorter than the champ tees, 10% for member tees. Forced carry-160.

[Mike_Trenham]

They should be 6000 yards.  Anything less and pride will stop many that should use them to move back to the next longer tees.

Second never call them the Senior Tees, Gold (as in golden oldie), Silver (silver fox).  We call the other tees forward tees we need a better standard term.

Mike_Nuzzo, your idea for three teeing areas is terriffic.  All of these tees look bad and are a maintenance issue.  With this reduced number of tees you could afford to have a couple of Amature tees at different angles so your members/loyal golfers can experience something different from time to time.