OT-sort've...Interestingly, as I played at Bandon the last 4 days, I never once saw anyone play anywhere but the "one set from the back" tees, despite there being tees all over the place (5 sets) Our two ball played with 8 other random pair ups and everybody ranging from a scratch in his 30's, to me at 56, to my son at 20 to two accountants that were mid teen handicappers, to a 75 year old 25 handicap played these tees. Not once looking forward or backward did I see another group playing any other tees.
This is true.
We've been discussing how many sets of tees to have on our new course at Sand Valley, and the client favors five sets, because that's what they have on all of their courses, to give visitors a choice. But their data shows that 85% of the men play from the same tee and 5% play from each of the other tees.
Even so, they want to provide the five tees so nobody feels they didn't have a tee that was catered to them - even if their buddies won't let them play from it
Doesn't 5 sets of tees fly in the face of what you're trying to accomplish at SV on the smaller scale course?
Another semi OT-I have no problem with free form tees and unlevel tees providing aesthetics, drainage variety and even the ability to shape shots off of them..
But many,many of the tees at bandon this weekend were placed on downhill lies(2-5 degrees), often right at the base of a much steeper hill(7-20 degrees) leading up to another level as in your right foot was much higher than your left.
It was especially noticeable on holes where a severe uphill carry was required such as #9 upper on Pacific and #3 at Old Macdonald.I merely teed my ball higher to compensate for lost launch but others in my group hit solid drives launching predictably lower than they expected, crashing into the hills.
Not once did I encounter an uphill lie on a tee(surely a tee could drain that way as well), and only once a sidehill lie, which I used to produce a large sweeping hook on the wind on #4 at OM.
Seemed as if the tees were often obviously sloped and draining towards the front of the tee (especially 9 at PD)but usually it was simply consistently sloppiness on the part of the setup crew, hell bent on the course playing shorter, and using the worst part of the tee nearly every time. What was a bit shocking was that it was the "one from the back" tee that EVERY player was playing and they were so poorly placed. The back tees looked well placed and the unused senior tees, which were frequently near where our tee had been placed, were usually in dry levelish spots as well.
It rained hard both nights before we played and maybe the idea was to pt the tees in the driest places, but at the base of a steeper slope wouldn't seem the best place for the tees 90% are playing.
Surprising at a place that gets nearly everything right.
edit-in respomse to a few PMs
I love Bandon and think it is the greatest gathering of courses on the planet and run very well.
I like the variety and the fact that I can't pick a favorite is telling.
I rarely like anything modern and am not a fan of corporate run anything(especially golf)...yet.....
it all works.
Seeing 500 daily players walking, carrying, pushing carts -n JANUARY!-is incredibly refreshing-especially with all the doom and gloom about golf
I only wrote the above about the tees because it surprised me-that's all.