[Dennis_Harwood]

As one answer to the issue that the modern game is making the classic courses obsolete, simply revise Rule 11-1--

"The player shall commence each hole by dropping a ball within the teeing ground.  The ball shall then be in play. The player shall not tee the ball."

Think about it!

[JohnV]

Dennis, it is a nice idea, but I'm not sure it would make that big a difference.  I've seen some guys on tour hitting par 5s from 275 to 290 yards out.  If they can do that, you still need 570-590 yard holes to make "real" par 5s.

The manufacturers would probably come up with some form of club that would probably give them some more distance on top of that.

Also, teeing grounds would have to be made bigger because of the increase in divots taken.

[RJ_Daley]

Dennis, Forrest Richardson just posted this topic a few weeks ago, and there was a pretty good discussion about it.  I can't get the infernal search gizmo to work on this site or I'd look for you.

[Rick Shefchik]

I missed Forrest's thread on this subject, but I agree with one part of JohnV's reply -- the tees would be horribly beat up in a very short period of time under this rule. But I disagree with his other observation; sure, these guys can hit three-woods a long way, and many of them are pretty good (and would get better) at hitting a driver off the deck. But I think overall driving distance would instantly drop 20 yards, and maybe more. It's an intriguing idea.

[Forrest Richardson]

This should get you to the thread:

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/YaBB.cgi?board=GD1&action=post&num=1048132672&start=33&title=Post+reply

[TEPaul]

Interesting idea but if those that make the rules of golf decide to do something about excessive distance the place to correct it is in the B&I section of the rules of golf not the "playing rules" of golf such as Rule 11-1. They need to do something with the ball and/or the impliments. The tee has been around a long time and I don't think it's something that should go out of golf or ever will. If the ball is going too far then the ball should be controlled not the teeing ground.

[ForkaB]

Tom

Why do you think that the tee is so fundamental to the game of golf?  It's a fairly recent invention, is it not?  My instinct tells me that this concept proposed by Forrest and Dennis would be the easiest way by far to make our favo(u)rite courses both challenging to the elite player and accessible to the hackers like me and even the golfing studs like you.  I wonder how (and how well) these pro guys would play off the tips of Cypress or Rye if they had to hit all their tee shots off the deck, after a drop and not a place.  No change in equipment (implement) or ball.would be necessary to bring these venues back into the game of golf.  Rather than the putative "two ball/competition ball" rule, why not a "to tee, or not to tee" rule?  Let us hackers use a tee (or a pile of sand....) if we want to, but make competitors (however defind) hit it off the deck.  As a bonus, this change would increase the employment prospects of the greenkeeping staff, who are the unsung heroes of both GCA and the game.......

[Forrest Richardson]

Tom, Correct me if I am wrong, but the tee has been around...let's see...considerably less time than....the....hummmm.....ball, yes, the ball! I agree aboutb the ball being limited, of course the USGA(AATW) will tell us the ball already is regulated and they are just continuing to do their job. But the tee? No one regulates it because it is so simple...and such a simple solution nit is!

(AATW) = Asleep At The Wheel

[Dennis_Harwood]

Larger teeing areas would of course be a problem--But I am sure expanding the areas of the tees is easier than adding 100s of additional yards to courses where no additional land exists--

The manufactuers would love it.  Selling a whole new line of "driving clubs" to hit it "off the deck".

[TEPaul]

Rich:

Not too many golfers even realize there're two sections to the rules of golf--the playing rules and the I&B rules and regs. All I'm saying is I really doubt the USGA would consider the playing rules of golf as the area to counteract a distance excess. I think if they're planning on doing anything about that they'll do it in the I&B area not the playing rules area. But who the Hell knows with them.

Over the years I've actually made a couple of proposals to change some of the playing rules such as the honor proposal and even something as simple as defining more clearly in the rules the distinction between putting out in stroke play and that that's not allowed in match play. Then there was one about touching a ball during search (outside of a hazard). Asking them to consider actually changing the rules they treat as akin to being asked to change the Ten Commandments. They do add decisions all the time and do sort of add to the rules but changing the rules by removing something that's been around they don't like to consider that much. They did consider the honor proposal though in conjunction with the R&A for about six years but turned it down every time under the reasoning that the game has done just fine the way it is so why think about changing anything?

Doing something as simple as banning tees would probably be as drawn out as banning the stymie--something that took about four decades for them to do.  

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