February 2 — Average woman golfers play courses that are more than 1,000 yards too long for them to reach the greens in regulation, according to the former owners of New England’s Province Lake Golf Club, Arthur D. Little and Jann E. Leeming
A 5,600-yard track for a woman would be equal to an 8,400-yard layout for the average man and an 11,200-yard course for 2010 PGA Tour money-winner Matt Kuchar, say the husband and wife team of GolfWithWomen.com.
Sorry, Dustin. “That’s how the math works if ‘fair’ is defined as having to hit the same clubs to reach greens in regulation from their respective tees,” Little writes in a recent blog post on the GolfWithWomen.com website. “This concept is what we define as the ‘fairness test.’ Sorry, Dustin Johnson, you are at 12,320 yards based on your average drive of 308 yards.”
Little and Leeming believe the average woman player hits her tee shot 140 yards. To reach greens in regulation, she would require a 4,200-yard course, according to the couple’s calculation that involves swing speed and average length of drive. The typical male golfer hits a 210-yard tee shot, while Kuchar’s average 280-yard drive comes within a few yards of the PGA Tour golfer’s average for last year.
“If the woman is at 4,200 yards, the average male golfer should be playing tees at 6,300 and the average PGA pro should be at 8,400 yards, ” Little writes. “These yardages seem much more reasonable, even though 8,400 yards is approximately 900 yards longer than the longest courses played on the PGA Tour. No wonder those guys are good!”
Fairness test. With few 4,200-yard courses anywhere, women play from tees that come up short in the “fairness test” of choice of tees they can use to reach greens in regulation, Little says.
Not convinced? Such renowned courses as Old MacDonald and Bandon Dunes offer such options for women, Little says, as does Province Lakes that Little and Leeming transformed into one of the women-friendliest courses in the country.
For sure, playing shorter courses would likely make golf more enjoyable for low-handicappers of both genders, let alone for golfers who card more strokes on their scorecards. Not to mention how such condensed layouts could speed up play. And we’re all for women — and men — to have the option of playing from a variety of tees.
Could get ugly. Still, 4,200 yards seems rather short even for this golfer, who doesn’t exactly take home the long-distance trophies. Asking many women to play from tees halfway down the fairway would be like suggesting guys who can’t keep up with the big boys (or girls) to tee it up from the forward tees. And we know how well that goes over.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out on the Waggle Room, Boston Golf Examiner, and National Golf Examiner websites. You may also follow Kay on Twitter.)
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- Women-friendly golf makes dollars and sense in New England
- Private golf courses in trouble
