"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
online golf column
by
Chris Dortch

July 13, 2011

The PGA of America and USGA are on to something with their “Tee It Forward” program.

Actually, I’d started coming around to the fact that my golf game wasn’t good enough for the back tees at my club a couple of years ago. So I started moving forward and generally scoring better.

This season, I’d floated back and forth between two sets of tees, but when the Tennessee Golf Association sent out a press released promoting Tee It Forward, I moved up again. I play a lot of nine-hole rounds by myself so I can quickly get back to whatever project I happen to be working on. It usually takes about an hour and 10 minutes to play nine. Since I moved forward, I’ve played two nine-hole rounds in an hour each, shot par both times and was prevented both times from shooting under par by a bogey on the last hole.

Other than having to figure out that last hole, suffice it to say I’m thrilled with my scores. I’d been shooting four to five strokes higher from a longer set of tees. It’s a lot more fun to have a chance to break par than it is to shoot 42. And that’s the point.

“The Tennessee Golf Association is rallying behind and actively promoting the Tee It Forward initiative because we simply want golfers to have more fun when they play,” said TGA executive director Matt Vanderpool. “The game of golf is difficult enough, and we are seeing too many people leave the game. Tee It Forward provides a great guide for players to use to figure out what yardage they should really be playing from to maximize their experience.

“For some reason we like to punish ourselves with this fascination of playing extremely difficult golf courses at a ridiculously long yardage, and we are encouraging everyone to take a step back, assess their ability, and play from a set of tees that is more appropriate for them. We are not necessarily advocating that everyone move up a set of tees on a permanent basis, but every now and then golfers should feel like they can Tee It Forward, and I promise they will have a much more enjoyable day on the golf course.”

The Tee It Forward concept was originated by one of golf’s great thinkers, Barney Adams of Adams Golf. It was Adams’ Tight Lies fairway woods that helped spark a trend toward today’s utility clubs. Adams, it seems, is all about making a hard game as easy as possible.

"I played a round of golf and I guess it lodged in my memory," Adams told PGA.com. "I was working late at my computer one night and reflecting on that round. It dawned on me that I didn't have a good time, which was crazy. I played in perfect conditions on a great course. Why would my thought process be that I didn't have a good time? I analyzed it less emotionally and more research based. I went on the Internet to learn why people leave the game. It took little to no time to find the answer to that question: it takes too long and it wasn't any fun."

Adams dug around a little more and was startled to find that in the United States, the same number of people were playing the game in 2009 as were playing in 1990. Zero growth in the Tiger Woods era, when new converts from all walks of life were supposed to be storming the gates of every club in America?

Adams wondered how that could be.

“The stewards of the game were stubborn and not making it fun with longer courses and tee locations that most of us have no business playing from," Adams told PGA.com. "There's a lot of people who feel like me. They quit. I've been playing for 50 years and I wasn't going to quit. I was frustrated. A third of the holes, I couldn't get home in regulation. That's not how golf is supposed to be played."

I can sympathize. A couple of months ago, I played so poorly in the closing holes of a friendly 18-hole match that the thought of quitting entered my mind. That had never happened before. I’ve been busier than ever with various projects and not able to spend as much time playing and practicing. It wouldn’t have been much of a leap to just sell my clubs and take up a far less vexing pursuit.

Luckily for me, Tee It Forward, and a slight swing change, came along at about the same time. Years of different instructors giving me swing keys to correct a slight out and over move crystallized one day at the practice tee. I think I’ve got something I can focus on now, and, at least until the change is ingrained, I’m going to keep teeing it forward, and having fun.

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