[Jason Topp]

On Friday our club had a competition from the very back tees (around 7400 yards) and the pins placed in very difficult positions.  We played on a very windy day.  I found the experience great fun, even though my fourball team finished deep in the also ran category.

A few surprises for me:

1.  The extra length did not hurt my game nearly as much as the pin positions.  There were a few holes where I had no chance to reach the green but it took the pressure off - I just hit it within 100 yards short and pitched on the green.  Off the tee, I could reach the fairways but could not reach most of the fairway bunkers so I had a lot of width off the tee.

2.  There were a number of intersting decisions to be made on putts - on one hole if you did not make the putt you were going to roll well off the green.  I had to decide whether or not to try and hole a five foot putt knowing my partner was out of the hole and, if I missed, I was probably going to add three strokes to our score.

3.  I would love to have had a second round in the competition from the front tees and middle pins to see how much of a difference it actually made.

I know a lot of courses have these types of competitions and would be interested in hearing about your experiences.

[Steve Kline]

Or a round to the same pins from your normal distance and then from the front tees. Then the next day rounds from the three distances with easy pins. I'd bet it would show that pin placements make more of distance than distance. Someone actually needs to run a fairly lengthy test of this so that it can be shown once and for all that distance does not really make a course harder but pin placements do.

[Dan Kelly]

3.  I would love to have had a second round in the competition from the front tees and middle pins to see how much of a difference it actually made.

Not a direct answer to your query, Jason, but a thought I've been thinking lately that is a propos:

Probably the number one reason I've been enjoying my new home course (Midland Hills CC) so much is that after 50 rounds or so, I am still encountering new hole locations. Saw new ones yesterday on at least two or three holes.

I can imagine only one thing (at the moment) that would increase my enjoyment of the course's setup: if the back two tee boxes were varied more from day to day. Almost every hole on the course would play dramatically differently if the "back" tees were set up front. (Think how differently No. 16 would play from 160 as opposed to 200.)

I have no idea how scoring would be affected, but the increased day-to-day variety would be most welcome.

Recalling now that, some years ago, I counseled your playing the front tees sometime. I'm going to take my own advice some day this fall.

(But, of course, I'll still be lobbying for the club to set the back tees forward once in a while, so that everyone can enjoy the experience.)

[John Kavanaugh]

I kinda like it when I can't reach the fairway bunkers. Also when you play "up" you run out of fairway far to often.

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