Abe,
Timely topic as today is "Women's Equality Day".
Is it really possible to cut 2000+ yards off a course and still keep it interesting and enough of a challenge?
I would ask you, "is it possible to have an interesting and challeneging game of golf if you play course with 12-14 holes that cannot be reached in two wood shots?"
My wife is a VERY competitive 13 handicapper, who hits it about 170 off the tee. She hits her nine wood roughly 100 yards in the air
So, for a hole to play as a mid-length par four, it has to be about 270 yards long.
Our home course, which she loves, is 5400 yards from the forward tees, and has
ONE hole that she can reach in two with a good drive and an iron or nine-wood shot.
If you made me play a course that required three wood shots on the par fives, and driver-three wood on 90 percent of of the par fours, I think I'd find another sport.
She's in the top 5% of women's handicaps, and a 5400-yard course so limits the variety of shots and challenges, that this summer she's played a few nines with 6 clubs and has played at or better than her index.
When we travel, she's looking for courses with the forward tees at ~4800 yards. At that length she has some short irons into par fours, can occasionally almost reach a par five in two. In all the game is far more interesting there, than it is pounding fairway woods all day.
For the longer-hitting women, moving back a tee or two is a simple answer.
My mother, who is in her 80s can play with a driver, three wood, chipper, SW and putter. In fact, she pulls out the three wood after her tee shot and doesn't put it away until she's within chipper distance.
Does that sound like interesting golf?
FWIW, until recently she played Mesa CC where the women refused to allow the forward tees to be moved up from 5800 yards.
Ken