As an aging golfer who still finds walking a golf course the only way to really understand the strategy, the flow and the overall design philosophy, I am often discouraged by what seems to me to be essentially a rule for new designs- greens must be distant from tees for safety reasons. I play at White Bear Yacht Club, where the 18 holes opened in fall of 1915, and like other courses of this era greens and tees are very close together. Tom Doak and Jim Urbina (Jim continues as our consulting architect) both helped us understand how the course could better reflect its heritage and original feel. My understanding from listening over the years is that there are fairly strict guidelines in the world of course design that make it nearly impossible to create the proximity of the old courses. Much of this I suspect is also a question of length. Today, when the player heads to the next tee, he or she first passes the back tees, then the next ones, and so on, experiencing the full 7000+ yards even if the tees played are 6200 or so. For most older courses, where the overall length was generally 6500 yards or so, the next tee was often the white tee, with back tees often added behind. This probably reflects the sensibilities of the time, when many courses had only 2, or sometimes 1 set of tees. I became acutely aware of this playing at St Patrick's- 18 great holes but a very hard walk for the older players. Similarly, Erin Hills, Chaska Town Course (back 9 especially; comes to mind as I just played there to see where the US Amateur will be played, along with Hazeltine), and others to numerous to list. For me, this detracts from the sense of flow and continuity I love. Is this an issue for anybody else? Any thoughts from our many esteemed architects in the forum?