Is it a peculiarity confined to the British Isles that fee paying visitors to members courses should be directed to the 'tee of the day" irrespective of their ability and pace of play? I appreciate that members courses seeking to attract daily visitors make for unholy bedfellows but why is the misrepresentation of the course one has paid to play, as opposed to the one actually played, so blatant?
Over the years I have heard so many reasons why the visitor cannot play from the back tee or a tee more representative of the men's card of the course in question, "it is too difficult", "that tee is reserved for members", you will be too slow from that tee".
Divots have no memory and the average grass lie is unconcerned whether it is disturbed by a golfer who paid a subscription or a daily fee. Similarly the repair of the same takes the same expenditure of time and money whether it be located at the front or the back of the teeing grounds. This particular rant has been a while in the brewing nurtured mainly by visits to most courses on the Open rota but it finally got expression following a recent visit to Ferndown, a pleasant heathland course in the south of England designed by Harold Hilton in 1912.
The usual polite request to play from the competition tees was rebuffed by the manager with the "members only' rule and we took to the tees of the day. Ten of these were located adjacent to the ladies tee markers and we spent a happy day trying to avoid the greenside bunkering with our tee shots, the intervening course between tee and green was of little interest and the round took over four hours as we could not drive until the green on a number of the straighter holes had cleared.
From a quick post round calculation we guessed that we played a course comfortably under 6000 yards against a men's card of 6500. Well I hear you say, that's what you get from those prissy English, and I would not disagree except is is also common practice at most courses in GB and I many of which depend on visitor income for over 30% of their revenue. So the moral of the story is that you don't go back and you spread the word and maybe one day the Club will get to wonder why visitor numbers are declining. Let us try to expedite that day by sharing the names of the worst offenders. Top of my list apart from the above would be Carnoustie. I invite further contributions.
By the way in England the Licensing Authorities (alcohol license) view the payment of a green fee as membership of the Club for the day, you are a member! But then again in England at least there are members and "members". remember when planning a trip this way and making course reservations always ask the tee you will be playing, if you don't the course you visit will rarely be the same as the one you have spent so much time reading about.