League using multiple tees (black,blue, white..)

Our league historically has used our white tees (slope 133, rating 71.1, 6500 yds) but recently voted to allow use of any set of tees (blue tees at slope 137 and rating 72.8 are the longest at 6800 yds, gold at 129 / 69.0 at 6000 yds and red at 125 /66.9 at 5600). The goal was to allow our aging population to continue to play in the league. The course from the white tees is very very hard if you cannot drive 200 yds, and designed for 230 yd drives. Whites were not designed with short hitters in mind.

We know how to use slope and rating to get the handicaps set up correctly. Our tournaments are minors, played any weekend day which are individual events like syndicate, low net, quota ect. These minors are flighted dividing the members into 4 groups by handicap, each flight gets the same prize pot. We also have team events 2x times per month which are team events and we all play at the same time on teams set up to be equal handicap for all teams. In addition we have season long match play (individual and best ball).

Several members are upset because they do not believe the USGA handicap system will work (we all have USGA handicaps) either in certain events or in general if people are playing different tees. They feel they will have to move down to the gold tees to be competitive and not at a disadvantage. And frankly the gold tees set up to be a poor choice if you can drive 250 yds, turning holes into "stupid" holes. They feel playing from these gold tees will make the course no fun but the must to maintain their competitiveness.

I am looking for experience from the board with a similar situation. We assume the USGA system will work, but looking for data. I found one paper that analyzed the fairness of the system with everyone playing from the same tees, but having a wide range of handicaps.

Thanks in advance

Cam

I play every Saturday with a group of guys and I along with a handful of others play the back set of tees. To compensate we get three additional strokes added to our handicap. I haven't noticed any disadvantages and we are still in the money as much as we had been playing up. I insist on playing back only because I like to be able to hit a five iron into the greens every now and then and I like to play a course @ 6500 rather than 6000. I would say to give it a go for a few weeks and let the results speak for themselves.

I would find another league where we all tee it up from the same tee box,the handicaps are used to make it even.

Yes, but there is a USGA formula so that you can compete on different tees fairly (or as fair as the whole handicap system is). We use this formula to add extra strokes to the more difficult tees.

Let's say we are both a 5. I play front and you play back. To make it fair we adjust to compensate for the difficulty of the tees based on rating http://www.usga.org/questions/faqs/h...r.asp?FAQidx=6 . You may then get 2 strokes on me based on the different tees. This is how we do it with my group and to be honest, I like getting the couple of strokes although the guys hate to give them.