What tees do women who play college golf or on the LPGA Tour play from?

Question

Do they usually play the red tees? Do they ever make them play from the white?

Answer 1

It depends on how the organizers want to set up the course and the condition of the course.  It also depends on how difficult the hosts want the tournament to be.  Sometimes they move the tees up (if the course is soggy or if there is too much wind) or they move the tees back (if the course is dry or if the weather is nice).  A lot of factors go into placing the tee markers.

The PGA players play from the Championship or Tournament tees which is the tee box in the back.   The LPGA usually plays one tee box or two tee boxes down from the PGA tees.   It may also be referred to as "regular" tees (white or blue) or the ones that men (general players) generally play from.  The same goes for college players.

Answer 2

They generally play from the red tees or "ladies tees" as your local course might call it. It all really depends on the course managers and the tournament if they feel they need to lengthen the course for players, they'd play from the intermediate tees. Generally in pro golf the ladies use the forward tees, while at a mens tournament at the same course, the men would use the back tees.

Answer 3

The Tournament chair person and his/her committee set up the course prior to the first tee time. The calibre of play will usually dictate the difficulty of the set-up and the tee boxes to be used as well as the pin placements.

Answer 4

In tournament play, there really aren't multiple tees. In a multi-day event (three days for LPGA, four days for PGA), the tees change daily as do the pin placements. This is especially true on par threes, because the many divots ruin the teeing area and force the organizers to move the tees for each day.

In this year's US Open, the 17th hole played as a long par four the first three days (around 440 yards), but on Sunday, for added drama, the tees were moved to the usual ladies tees, making it a drivable 275 yard par four. Because there is a cliff immediately behind the green, many long hitters, including Tiger, opted to lay up off the tee with an iron rather than risk driving through the green and off the cliff. Rocco Mediate chose to try for the green, drove into the greenside bunker and got up and down for birdie.

I have attended a few LPGA events at places I have played myself. The women played from either  the member's blue tees or member's white tees on every hole. This is due to the reduced length off the tee for most female players, even professionals.

It has become common for PGA par fours to be 440-500 yards; distances that would have been par fives as recently as ten to twelve years ago (pre-Tiger Woods). Women would never reach the green in regulation (nor would most men) at this length, so the holes are more normal length in LPGA events. Many par fives for the ladies are as short as 450, the idea being to give them a chance at eagle, because that keeps the fans interested.

Take a look a the difference in average driving distance for PGA and LPGA players and it becomes easy to understand the reasons for this. The longest driver on the PGA tour is Bubba Watson, at 313.6 yards. The shortest driver on the men's tour is Corey Pavin, at 261.5. The average PGA pro drives the ball 287.6 yards. The leading LPGA driver is Brittany Lincicome at 270.6 (the same as Olin Browne on the PGA tour, who ranks 191) and the shortest is Danielle Ammaccapane at 221.4. The average for the LPGA is 246 yards, 41.5 yards less than the men. The Champions Tour average is 274.5, with the shortest being Dave Stockton, Sr. at 253.4. Of course, Stockton is 66 years old!

I am a 56 year-old 13.5 handicapper and I average 262 (per my new Sky Caddie), which would rank me 12th on the LPGA but only ahead of Corey Pavin on the men's tour (199th).

Women generally play courses of about 6,500-6,700 yards for their tournaments, men these days play 7,000-7,200, with a few that are 7,600. On most golf courses in the USA, the white tees are about 6,400 and the blues around 6,700. The red tees are about 5,400 on average.

When the Wendy's three-tour challenge is played in December each year, the teams consist of one PGA player, one Champions Tour player and one LPGA player. The tees are set up for each player with the idea of having all three players use the same club for their approach shot. So, a typical par four might be 450 for the PGA player, 420 for the Champions player and about 380 for LPGA player.

College tournaments are typically about the same or slightly shorter than those used for the professionals.

Answer 5

The whole tee color thing is kind of irrelevant. It's far more instructive to look at the course yardages:

At the Jamie Farr this past weekend on the LPGA, the course played to 6,428 yards.

At the John Deere on the PGA Tour this past weekend, the course measured 7,268

The US Women's Open at Interlachen played to 6, 789 yards.

The US Open in Torrey Pines played to a minimum of 7,541 yards.