HOME IN TWO
What would it feel like if you couldn’t reach a green in regulation. If you were always putting for bogey or double-bogey. If the course you were playing was 10K yards and par was still 72. Would it be fun? Would you keep coming back?
That’s the big question - would you keep coming back?
Why do so many girls and women try and quit the game of golf? What’s holding them back from enjoying a lifetime love affair with the game. I have many thoughts on this matter - but today I’m talking about course length. 100 years ago, golf professionals added forward tees for women and the scientific method they used was to walk a few steps up from the existing tees and drop some rocks. Well, a century later, we’re here to tell you they got it wrong. The difference in swing speed between the average male and female golfer warrants more than a few steps of difference between the tees.
I have watched countless women play the average par four by hitting three great shots to a green: driver, 3-wood, hybrid and then be thrilled with their 2-putt bogey. This just simply isn’t the way golf was meant to be played and enjoyed. Here’s the good news. This is the easiest fix around: Add some forward tees. You don’t need a fancy raised teeing area, you don’t need a bench and a sign. You literally just need two tee markers and a flat part of the fairway.
I have been asked to work with the Oregon Chapter PGA to act as an ambassador for a program we’re calling: Home in Two. We’re starting with the OSAA girls high school golf teams to level the playing field and create course lengths at or around 4200 yards. If we can make golf more fun for more people, think of the impact that can have on the industry. I hope this program will stick around and that more people start playing these forward tees. My hunch is that we’ll start hearing about some great rounds of golf out there.
There will be push-back, we know that. The elite junior golf athletes who are playing on high school teams aren’t going to like it. Their parents aren’t going to like it. But at the end of the day, this isn’t about elite athletes, this is about high school sports and access to the game. Getting home in two shouldn’t be a privilege reserved for elite female golfers, it should be the standard for anyone who wants to give it shot.