Course Measurements

[mikejohnchapman]

We are currently having an active debate in the club about assessed lengths and course rating. I would welcome any thoughts / insight.

Generally we have a lot of small teeing areas with different tees being measured from individual teeing areas. Most of the "plates" (actually posts) are at the back of the tees so inevitably the tee markers are placed in front of the plate but rarely more than 10 meters. Whilst never having measured all 18 holes I'm comfortable the 100 yards rule hasn't been broken.

However, last year the club has moved several tees to different teeing grounds - some back and some forward. This was done to alleviate excessive wear on the tees but they have not been moved back. All of these definitely fall foul of the 10 yard from marker rule but possibly not the overall 100 yard change.

Whilst we are not a position where people are taking extreme positions it would be good to get a reasoned position. The 10 yard from marker is a "should" not a "must" in the guidelines so to my mind is less important than the 100 overall guideline which I do think should impact the CR for that tee.

My recommendation has been to move the tees back but the club seem reluctant to do this. They are certainly not looking to get the course remeasured or re-rated in the near future so we are at a bit of an impasse.

 

[NearHull]

I am not an expert. We have taken the stance that the 10 yard rule is as important as the 100 yard rule and both are mandatory requirements to be met to enable the course to be qualifying.

(Cue a debate on “should’ and ‘must’)

 

[wjemather]

No courses were designed, measured and rated with WHS rules in mind; very few are fortunate enough to be able to move the tee markers around and stay within WHS boundaries. Everyone else just needs to be pragmatic and try to get as close as possible as often as possible. It's also worth noting that ratings teams should have taken many of these issues into account (e.g. lack of room behind the distance marker) and reduced the playing length of the holes accordingly for use in the ratings calculations.

As for what should happen... ideally, permanent distance markers would be moved to allow 10 yards in front and behind, with additional sets of tees being added where appropriate, and courses would be remeasured and rerated. (Well, ideally, clubs would have been advised to do much of this before being rated prior to WHS!) Taking it to the extreme, teeing grounds would be redesigned and/or extended (to be wider). All of this has a cost, so most will not happen (certainly not anytime soon), and some is simply impossible.