Dan knows my home course -- Oak Glen in Stillwater, Minn. -- as well as I do, but I'll try to make this clear enough to be useful for everyone else:
My wife Barbara and I played the back nine at Oak Glen Thanksgiving morning. I played from the foward tees, used a Sunday bag with 8 clubs, gave Barbara one shot per hole and two on the par fives, and got my clock cleaned.
I found myself trying to overpower the course, and I was out of my comfort zone on most of the tees -- particularly the dogleg lefts, where it was too tempting to take the ball over the trees from the up tees rather than going around them, as I would normally do. That caused me to make some bad swings.
We started on 14, a 500-yard par 5 with OB and a fairway bunker on the left side, then a wetland; and a fairway bunker on the right and then OB. I hit a 5-wood here instead of a driver, and hit the middle of the fairway past the pinching fairway bunkers but short of the drop-off to the wetland. It was one of the few smart, safe shots I executed all morning. I mishit my next 5-wood, pulling it left and short, then chunked a sand wedge and took a six. Nevertheless, I thought the hole was at least as good from the forward tee, since driver was definitely a risk-reward play.
15: From the forward tee, this uphill dogleg left tempts you to take the direct line over the trees in the left rough. My wife played her normal drive to the middle of the fairway, but I tried cutting the dogleg and hooked it into the trees. I had an opening and managed a par with a sandwedge, but I could just as easily have had to punch out. I like the challenge of the tee shot from the forward tee more than the back tees, but it's too short.
16: This terrific downhill par 3 can play 220 from the back tees, but played only 150 from the forward tee. I hit the green with an 8-iron and two-putted. Despite a creek in front of the green a pond right of the green, it's too easy a hole from the forward tee.
17: This slight dogleg right par 4 plays about 280 from the forward tee, so I hit driver and left myself 30 yards from the green, with a great angle to the back left flag behind a greenside bunker. Then I skulled the half-sandwedge over the green and out of bounds. The 45-yard shot is not my specialty, and hitting driver from the forward tee is likely to leave me with this shot most of the time, unless I really nail one. It would be smarter to lay up, but I don't know how often I would. I like this hole better from the forward tees.
18: A severe dogleg left from the white and blue tees, this hole requires that you cut off some of the dogleg to have a reasonable approach to the green. But from the forward tee well to the right, the dogleg is straightened considerably. Now the ideal landing area is just over the intruding trees on the left -- but I hooked my drive OB left. From the whites, on a more sever angle, that drive would have been fine. This is a better hole from the back tees, but more dangerous from the forward tees.
10: The toughest par 4 on the course has a pond left of the fairway, then a creek cuts across the fairway about 280 yards from the tee, and another pond borders the last 100 yards of the hole and the green on the right side. I probably should have tried to clear the creek with a driver from the forward tee, but instead I hit a safe 5-wood, againd putting the ball in the ideal location in the fairway. I hit the green with an 8-iron and two putted. I think this is a better and more interesting hole from the forward tees.
11: 500-yard dogleg left par 5, over the crest of a hill and then over a bit of a hollow to an elevated green. I tried to cut the dogleg but pushed the drive through the fairway on the right. I had a good lie and an open line to the green, and hit a 5-wood that ended up just over the green near the back left pin. Ended up with par after missing a 3-footer. Better hole from farther back.
12: Par 3 plays 175/183 from white/blues, but about 155 from reds. Just short with an 8-iron, up and down for par. Better hole from farther back.
13: A 350-yard dogleg left with a pond guarding the front right half of the green. I normally hit driver and leave it short of the pond, but from the forward tee I hit a five wood, carrying the fairway bunker on the left side of the hole and leaving myself a sand wedge from the rough. Driver would never be an option on this tee for me -- I couldn't reach the green, and it would just bring the pond into play.
My conclusion is that my course, like most courses, would be more fun to play if it had one short, driveable par 4 per nine.