Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2014 - 33

She said that architect Alice Dye (wife
of famed architect Pete Dye) authored
a proposal in the 1980s that called for
more tees and shorter courses for women,
but little was done about it. Haug
would like to give women more teeing
options (see sidebar).
" Alice Dye was right with most of her
recommendations, " Haug says. " If we
had just built the tees how she recommended,
we would really have excellent
playing conditions for women. "
Designing the Game's
Future
Like better playing conditions for women,
teeing grounds have been linked to
the future of the game. The expansion
built with younger players in mind. Victory
Links Golf Course in Blaine (built
in 2003) has six sets of tees designed for
golfers of varied abilities, including one
set that is 2,834 yards-more than 4,000
yards shorter than the back tees (7,092).
And while many old and existing
Tee complex at
Grand National GC
of teeing options in the past 20 years has
primarily had to do with combatting the
advancements of golf equipment technology,
but a by-product of the trend
might just be the growth of the game.
Longer tees have been added at courses
to keep up with golf balls that travel
farther, but some courses have also been
courses weren't built with multiple tees,
architects contend that much of their
current design work in the United States
are renovations that include adding new
and shorter tees to golf courses.
" When we're master planning a renovation,
we look at the whole course and
see where we can make it more enjoyable
and more competitive, " Norby says. " Frequently
that means eliminating forced
carries, adding new tees and repositionForward
to the Future
T
he USGA and PGA of
America's three-year
old Tee it Forward program
has met with some success,
but the USGA is about to
ramp things up even more.
It is transitioning into a
administrative role and
is collecting quantifi able
data for better use of the
program.
During the summer of
2014, the USGA started
collecting data on golfers'
habits on the course to
help increase pace of play,
improve implementation of
the Tee it Forward program
and even help courses
determine where best to
build their teeing areas.
" We want to have more
fact-based answers about
the effect of Tee it Forward
on pace of play, " says
Hunki Yun, USGA director
www.mngolf.org
of strategic projects. " For
example, if you go from a
6,000 yard set of tees to a
5,000 yard set of tees (and
all things being equal) how
much faster can somebody
expect to play? "
Yun said that golfers
will be given GPS loggers
that collect data on where
they have been during the
course of their round. The
technology will extrapolate
where they are every fi ve
seconds, which can be
overlaid on a course map.
In addition, the USGA
has already been asking
golfers how much fun they
are having as a result of
Tee it Forward and whether
they would recommend it to
other golfers.
" Those are more general
perception qualitative
questions, " says Yun. " But
we're going to try to dig a
little deeper and get into
some quantitative things.
And in that we'll provide
some guidance to courses
on the effect of Tee it
Forward, information on
what kind of players are
playing Tee it Forward
and maybe the handicap
information they can derive
from it. "
Yun says the efforts are
designed to get both golfers
and facilities on board with
the Tee it Forward program.
" It is as much about
golfers as it is about
educating facilities on the
benefi ts, " Yun says. " If we
can show a positive impact
on pace of play and in turn
The USGA is mining data to help the Tee it Forward
program improve the game.
a positive affect on revenue
and the bottom line of the
golf course, more courses
will certainly make it
available. "
The USGA hopes to
present some of its fi ndings
at a Pace of Play symposium
scheduled for fall. The
new initiatives are in their
infancy, but it could be a
great step in putting facts
behind a program designed
to combat some of the
problems in the game today.
" It's a little ambitious,
but it's a starting point
for us, " Yun says. " And
we're certainly going to
keep studying it, not just
for this year but for the
years to come. We will
fi ne-tune some of our
recommendations and best
practices for Tee it Forward
facilities. " - J.O.
Summer 2014 MINNESOTAGOLFER 31
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2014

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