Weird distances at my home course

**picrig** · March 3, 2009

I just started playing my home course from the tips regularly after I had no problems playing another local course at 6400 yards. There aren't any forced carries at my course, so I figured it wouldn't be a huge transition. I didn't realize, though, that my course (from the tips at least) has some weird hole yardages. It seems like they made the par 5's extremely short (barely any longer than from the middle tees), but severely lengthened the par 3's and some long par 4's. Here are the yardages:

Par 3's:
169/190/178/204/212 (Average = 190.6)

Par 4's:
417/415/401/341/382/351/410/358/388 (Average = 384.8)

Par 5's:
484/506/525/488 (Average = 500.8)

Are these normal breakdowns of yardages? I feel like the par 5's should be a little longer (even from the the 1st and 4th par 5s are reachable b/c they're downhill). The par 3's seem really long to me, and so do the par 4's. Even using the USGA's definition, a "scratch golfer" (250 yard drive), would have over 150 yards to go on over half of the par 4s. As another note, the course rating is only 70.5/114 from the tips, so it's not as if it's a really hard course.

Just curious what other people thought.

**Big Padrigo** · March 3, 2009

There are obvioulsy lots of different ways of lengthening a course, or making it more difficult, but I don't see anything particularly unusual in your course's yardages apart from the fact the par 5s are short. I usually play off the golds at my course, so second longest tees, which measure 6600-6800 yards depending on the combinations of 9s you play. We have several 450 yard plus par 4s and 550 yard plus par 5s.

I'd saw enjoy it for now and when you outgrow this course, start looking for another.

**picrig** · March 3, 2009

I guess it's not so much that I see anything particularly unusual about 400 yard par 4s (I have no problems reaching them unless I'm into a strong headwind), it just feels at least like the par 4s are long comparatively speaking. Maybe I just want to complain about it b/c I shot an awful back 9 today (41/47)

**denver_nuggs_15** · March 3, 2009

I just started playing my home course from the tips regularly after I had no problems playing another local course at 6400 yards. There aren't any forced carries at my course, so I figured it wouldn't be a huge transition. I didn't realize, though, that my course (from the tips at least) has some weird hole yardages. It seems like they made the par 5's extremely short (barely any longer than from the middle tees), but severely lengthened the par 3's and some long par 4's. Here are the yardages:

The course that I usually play at (6942 yards from the tips, 6526 from the 'men's' tees) has a break down of:

Par 3's: 189 tips, 168.8 men's Par 4's: 416.1, 391 Par 5's: 536.3, 516.7 We have 3 par 5's, 4 par 3's and 11 par 4's, so it's slightly different than your set up. Compared to our men's course (6500 yards), your course has way longer par 3's, but slightly shorter par 4's and 5's. It just putts stress on different parts of your game. That's not good or bad, just different. I know I'd be under a lot of stress on the par 3's, but very little on the par 4's and 5's. I guess that's just the course design. At my course, I'm under stress mostly on the par 4's, rarely on par 3's and almost never on par 5's. It's just different. It would be interesting if more people could post their average course distance per par x. We could see how we all compare and what's "normal".

**picrig** · March 3, 2009

It would be interesting to see. For comparison, the private club I played at the other day measured as follows (from the men's tees)

Total Length: 6425 (par 72)
Par 3's: 170.3
Par 4's: 369.8
Par 5's: 511.5

The Par 3's and 4's were definitely no problem. Hit 3W most days, and in fact hit 5I/8I on an extreme downhill par 4. I feel like this course was much shorter than my home course, even though they measure basically the same. I think it will be good to keep playing from the tips. I should have the distance (avg. about 235 off the tee), plus, it'll make going back to the "men's tees" with my buddies seem like a breeze. In addition, I'm moving to Orlando in August and Orange County National will be my home course...it ranges from 6300 up to 7350 (although it'll be a while before I'm ready for the Q-school tees ).

Anybody else want to share the average breakdown of their home course?

**tjy355** · March 3, 2009

I don't know that there is anything "normal." The overall length of a course is typically reflected in the rating/slope.

I'm not sure of what is the usefulness of averaging the hole lengths in evaluating a course? You could have two courses that both have average par 4 length of 390 yards - Course A has 10 holes that are all 390 yards long and course B with 10 holes that run the gamut from 290 yards to 470 yards.

I like a course that mixes up the hole lengths, short medium and long. Courses that have all long par 3's to make up for a lack of length in the par 5's are less interesting.

**Big Padrigo** · March 4, 2009

I don't know that there is anything "normal." The overall length of a course is typically reflected in the rating/slope.

Totally agree it's not the overall or average length, it's how much you have to think when you're playing each hole. We have 3 9s at our club and they are all pretty close in terms of length but most people agree that in terms of "interest" one of them sadly lags behind the other two.

**picrig** · March 4, 2009

I don't think there's necessarily a "usefulness," per se. Just more of an interest/curiosity. I mean, you can look at my home course and know that the par 3s are probably going to be tough since they average over 190 yards. The par 5s (most likely) will be easy since they average just over 500. Useful? No, but it might be interesting just for comparison sake.

Also, I don't know if rating/slope always reflect difficulty well. I thought the private club I played last week (6425, par 72, 71.0/126) was a lot easier than my home course (6419, par 71, 70.5/114). Part of it might be that living in TX, it's usually pretty windy, and the private course is extremely forested while my home course is pretty open and you can definitely feel the wind.

**Quinn07** · March 4, 2009

Perhaps lengthening the par 3's and 4's at your course was done so with the idea of protecting par. My home course isn't overly long either, however they have some long par 3's. In terms of the par 5's they have two that are pretty much unreachable, and 2 that you can get there in two with a good drive.

There's obviously different ways to set up golf courses to make them more difficult / easier from the different tees boxes when the course plays a little shorter...lengthening the par 3s and 4s is just one way.

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