In Belgium, most courses have four sets of tees:
	White (Men Back Tees)
	Yellow (Men Front Tees)
	Blue (Ladies Back Tees)
	Red (Ladies Front Tees)

I have played on a number of these courses and it occurred to me that the 
clubs had wildly varying handicap suggestions for playing from the back 
tees.

I have not been able to find any "objective" guidelines to determine the 
handicap suited to play from the back tees. 

Is there a 'magic' formula (involving Slope Rate, Course rating, Course 
length, etc.) to come up with a required handicap?

"20feetputt" <someone@somewhere.invalid> wrote in message 
news:9Dlpk.2995$Ft5.2932@newsfe29.ams2...
> In Belgium, most courses have four sets of tees:
> White (Men Back Tees)
> Yellow (Men Front Tees)
> Blue (Ladies Back Tees)
> Red (Ladies Front Tees)
>
> I have played on a number of these courses and it occurred to me that the
> clubs had wildly varying handicap suggestions for playing from the back
> tees.
>
> I have not been able to find any "objective" guidelines to determine the
> handicap suited to play from the back tees.
>
> Is there a 'magic' formula (involving Slope Rate, Course rating, Course
> length, etc.) to come up with a required handicap?



If there is, then I am not aware of it.

Each golf club or course owner will set their own regulations as to who may 
play from the back tees.
In my experience, at most courses, visitors and visiting societies will be 
required to play from the front tees irrespective of handicap.
At some courses the back tees are only used for recognised club 
competitions.

If there are restrictions based on handicap, it is usually fairly divisive 
! - - The Captain plays of 14 so anyone 14 or under can play off the back 
tees!
Sometimes play from the back tees is restricted to Category 1 handicaps (<6) 
but if the club only has one player with a handicap <6 its not much fun for 
him!
Categories 1 & 2 (<13) is likely to be more common.
If a pay and play course wants to apply the restriction it would probably 
opt to restrict play from the back tees to <21 or <25  handicaps but often 
only the forward tees are set out anyway.

There are many ways of restriction tees, and private clubs and pay and play 
courses have differing objectives.

HTH,
Malcolm

M L Wadsworth wrote:
> Each golf club or course owner will set their own regulations as to who may 
> play from the back tees.
> In my experience, at most courses, visitors and visiting societies will be 
> required to play from the front tees irrespective of handicap.
> At some courses the back tees are only used for recognised club 
> competitions.
> 
Which of course is scandalous as most courses where visitors are 
'welcomed' advertise the course measurements from their so called 
competition tees but don't allow visitors to play from them.

All the nonsense about keeping them in good condition for members to 
play competitions is just insulting. As a visitor, I am a temporary 
member and as such should enjoy the privileges of being one for the 
course of the round. Should members be allowed to play from them during 
social golf (which of course they should be) then so should visitors.

Not that I have strong feelings on the matter ;-)

-- 
Durram

I do not think that the hole yardage matters as much as the 150 yard marker 
posts.


"Durram"  wrote in message 
news:g8bs8p$fvv$1@registered.motzarella.org...
>M L Wadsworth wrote:
>> Each golf club or course owner will set their own regulations as to who 
>> may play from the back tees.
>> In my experience, at most courses, visitors and visiting societies will 
>> be required to play from the front tees irrespective of handicap.
>> At some courses the back tees are only used for recognised club 
>> competitions.
>>
> Which of course is scandalous as most courses where visitors are 
> 'welcomed' advertise the course measurements from their so called 
> competition tees but don't allow visitors to play from them.
>
> All the nonsense about keeping them in good condition for members to play 
> competitions is just insulting. As a visitor, I am a temporary member and 
> as such should enjoy the privileges of being one for the course of the 
> round. Should members be allowed to play from them during social golf 
> (which of course they should be) then so should visitors.
>
> Not that I have strong feelings on the matter ;-)
>
> -- 
> Durram