Jeff,
In all the tens of thousands of rounds played on courses you've worked at, how many people come off complaining about lost camraderie because of how far the ball flies?
Also, how many people have seen a legitimate 350 yard (unassisted) drive? I'll take the under on 10.
Jim,
I am a member at Southampton Golf Club built in 1925 when a good drive went 225 yards.
Almost all play the back tees at 6300, and playing a tournament is no problem there as it's quite easy to play the same tees for everyone.
At the Bridge circa 2001, there are the usual #'s of tees you see at a modern course.
the biggest complaint/challenge is what tees to play for a Member-Guest.
Everybody has a handicap based of a different set of tees and if I use a common tee, no one is happy.
If I separate them and let them play their own tees with the bullshit handicap adjustments that often amount to nothing on paper, no one is happy because they are either walking to different tees, or don't like the adjustments and simply play the shorter tees etc....
So I guess the logical extension of those two examples is that all new courses should be built at 6300, but they're not, hence the spread out cameraderie dilemna
people playing different tees can be ego deflating or worse, a player may play them to fit in or maintain cameraderie-but ruin his own game.
There's no doubt in my mind different tees by players in the same group can create cameraderie issues-so to answer your question-quite frequently
So I see it quite frequently at Modern courses I"ve worked at The Bridge, Atlantic, and at Long Cove-and I'm told it's even worse at long Cove now as they've added another set of Tiger tees.
I will say in our renovation work at the Bridge the total yardage has actually gone down slightly , and the walking yardage has gone down by 700 vertical feet and overall walk by roughly 1000 yards.
If I'm in the minority on this site, no doubt golf WRX and mainstream golf disagrees with me.
no worries