When Does a Golf Course Become Too Long

Since Tiger Woods changed our sport forever with the vast distances he hit the ball when he first arrived on the scene, our sport has become obsessed with distance.

The men in green jackets at Augusta National turned their hallowed turf into a monster in an effort to Tiger-proof it. In truth, it hasn’t worked, other than to convince the legendary Bernhard Langer to call it a day this year because he has concluded that it is simply too long.

Bryson DeChambeau changed his body shape and duly started bombing it in excess of 350 yards. Rory McIlroy routinely drives the ball 320 yards. 

And the men in the corridors have power have decided that enough is enough. Restrictions are to be imposed on the distance golf balls can fly.

That is all well and good for the world’s best professionals golfers, but what about the rest of us? What about us mere mortals who struggle to hit the ball 220 yards? 

Do Golfers Hit The Ball Farther Now?

Average driving distances on the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour and DP World Tour have all increased dramatically over the past 20 years. But no matter what wild claims are made by club manufacturers, there has been no marked increase in how far club golfers strike the ball. 

Driver heads are now much larger and have bigger sweet spots and that means they are easier to hit. But they are also more difficult to control than the old persimmon drivers I grew up with. And that means that if you slice the ball then you are likely to miss fairways by a bigger margin.

For your average club golfer at this time of year, any hole measuring over 400 yards you are talking about two full blows with a driver and fairway wood or rescue club to get anywhere close to the green. 

The 15th hole at my course is a par five measuring nearly 600 yards. It is uphill all the way. During the summer I can just about get there with a perfectly-struck driver, a three wood and a rescue club. At this time of year there is no way under the sun I can get there in three so I play it as a par six. And I can assure you that every senior member does exactly the same thing.

When Do Golf Courses Become Too Long?

Anybody who plays golf at a course that has been extended for the professional game now faces an unrelenting slog every time they play. I have played Wentworth twice, both times when I was in my physical prime. On both occasions there had been a lot of rain before we played. The course was in magnificent condition but my abiding memory of both rounds is of the slog that it was. We all came off the 18th green on our knees. It was simply too long.

Now if you happen to live in somewhere like California, Florida, Spain, Portugal, South Africa or Australia, where you get 50-80 yards roll on the ball for 12 months of the year then you might be wondering what on earth I am going on about. But anywhere in the United Kingdom from October to April is a somewhat different matter. Maintaining a handicap during the long winter months is no easy matter.

I don’t want to be constantly reaching for a fairway wood to hit my second shots at par fours. It is exhausting. It is also very demanding. I smile to myself when I see PGA Tour players tackling 500-yard par fours and reaching the green with a driver and a short iron. This is not the game I play.

The Benefits of Shorter Tees

I play at Dunston Hall Golf Club on the outskirts of Norwich. It measures around 6,300 yards from the white tees. This year, for the first time, winter has seen us playing from blue tees that have reduced the length to well under 6,000 yards. As a result, our handicaps have all been cut, in my case by four shots.

So the big question is: has the reduced length made it any easier? The answer? No it has not! And the reason for that is that this is a golf course that requires pinpoint accuracy from the tee, along with the fact that winter conditions mean there is little or no roll on the ball.

I assumed that every other golf course would be using blue tees during the winter months. Apparently not. I just don’t get it.

Most clubs will introduce winter mats placed just in front of the normal yellow tees and that means that the vast majority of club golfers get absolutely no relief and that winter golf is nothing more than a slog. There is much to commend blue tees - at Dunston Hall it has changed the entire character of certain holes, especially the par threes. And that means that we feel like we are playing a different golf course at this time of year.

For those of us who choose to play golf for 12 months a year, surely it is not too much to ask that every golf club follows the blue tee example? 

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