Closest to the Pin Contest - Tee Question

[xrayvizhen]

I'm in a golf league whose member's age range from the mid-30's to the mid-80's. Currently, those classified as "Seniors" (75 and up) can play their rounds from senior tees and their handicaps are adjusted per USGA guidelines. No issues at all with that. However, a furious debate has erupted over the weekly Closest to the Pin contest. Currently, seniors are required to play the designated par-3 from the same tee as everyone else, the men's or white tees, however some seniors are complaining, saying they should be allowed to play that hole from the senior tee. Others say that wouldn't be fair to everyone else reasoning that regardless of age, it's easier to hit a ball closer to the pin the closer you are to the green. I'm just curious what other leagues do. 

[DaveP043]

1 hour ago, xrayvizhen said:

I'm in a golf league whose member's age range from the mid-30's to the mid-80's. Currently, those classified as "Seniors" (75 and up) can play their rounds from senior tees and their handicaps are adjusted per USGA guidelines. No issues at all with that. However, a furious debate has erupted over the weekly Closest to the Pin contest. Currently, seniors are required to play the designated par-3 from the same tee as everyone else, the men's or white tees, however some seniors are complaining, saying they should be allowed to play that hole from the senior tee. Others say that wouldn't be fair to everyone else reasoning that regardless of age, it's easier to hit a ball closer to the pin the closer you are to the green. I'm just curious what other leagues do. 

I can see both sides of this.  Are there enough Seniors (and enough prize money) that you could do a CTP for them, and a separate one for the younger guys?

[bkuehn1952]

If the process has always been that everyone plays from the same tee for the one CTP par three, it seems reasonable to finish the season following that process. During the off season, requests for a change can be considered.

Our club has never included CTP as part of our competitions so I am no help.

[SG11118]

We allow our 75+ members to play their entire round from the senior tees including closest to pin stuff.  Our 60+ members also get to play up a tee box for their rounds including the closest to pin stuff.  Two of our par threes are really long, and most of our seniors would have no shot at a CTP on those holes.  I don't have a problem with it.  However, we'll usually only have one or two CTP contests on par 3s, and we'll have another 3 or 4 for second shot CTP on par 4s.  Our pro tries to pick a few holes that give seniors a big advantage and a few holes that do not.  It sounds like you maybe only have one CTP for the entire round which puts a little more premium on the prize?

[pganapathy]

We have different tee boxes you are allowed to play in according to age and gender.  But everybody is eligible for the Closest to Pin from their respective tee boxes.  For open and handicap titles you are only eligible if you play from the furthest tee boxes, except for women from their tee boxes

[jsgolfer]

W

3 hours ago, pganapathy said:

We have different tee boxes you are allowed to play in according to age and gender.  But everybody is eligible for the Closest to Pin from their respective tee boxes.  For open and handicap titles you are only eligible if you play from the furthest tee boxes, except for women from their tee boxes

This is what we do at our club.  Although CTP contests happen very infrequently.

[DeadMan]

My men's club does CTPs on every par 3. Everyone plays from their normal tees - meaning white tee players hit from the white tees, blue tee players from the blues, etc. The seniors don't complain about this (although they all think the back tee players have an advantage because they are so good, which is not true). There is a little bit of bellyaching from the players who play all the way back. Of the 6 par 3s on this course (27 holes), here are the tee differences:

• 60-yard difference between back and white tees
• 40-yard difference
• 30-yard difference
• 30-yard difference
• 25-yard difference
• 20-yard difference

It ends up pretty rare that back tee players win CTPs. But CTPs are only worth $25, so it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. 

In my opinion, there needs to be some sort of difference between tee boxes. A 150 yard shot for me is a 9 iron, but for seniors that might be a hybrid. Personally, I don't like having 210 into a par 3 when the seniors have 150. I think the 30 yard differences are more reasonable. In no way would I want the senior players moving back to 210 on a par 3, though. 

I think having everyone hitting from the same tee box, as long as it's a reasonable distance (meaning you're not making everyone play a 200 yard par 3), is a decent solution. If there is a way where you can get everybody having roughly the same club in, that's ideal. It's not a perfect solution. There will still be outliers. And people will still complain, because that's what people do.

[Ty_Webb]

Amateur Players Tour has different tees for different flights and they have CTP. Everyone plays from their tees. Sure the worse players get shorter shots, but they're also worse, so I think that evens out. They also do $1,000 for a hole in one and $5,000 for a hole in one on one specific hole. On the $5,000 one they put the tees all in the same place, but that's for insurance purposes. Insurance will only pay out if the hole is within a certain window lengthwise. 

I also used to play in mixed events that had CTP. The ladies were always playing the red tees and the men the white tees. Never felt like that was unfair either.

I can see how if you have a 75 year old scratch player playing an up tee and a 40 year old 22 handicap playing a back tee then that could result in some complaints. Otherwise, given that the up tees are reflective of the presumably lesser ability, it should be more fair letting them play the up tees.

[p1n9183]

At my home course they set the blue, white and yellow tees at the same spot for closest to the pin and long drive competitions. Nobody complains.
It's normally placed were the white tee box is placed on regular days so is the closest to a normal day as possible. A bit shorter for blue people and a bit longer for yellow people but is not that much of a difference. 
There is also another red set of tees for the ladies but with a different price.  

[xrayvizhen]

On 7/14/2024 at 11:30 AM, DaveP043 said:

I can see both sides of this.  Are there enough Seniors (and enough prize money) that you could do a CTP for them, and a separate one for the younger guys?

Maybe. 50 guys in the league, 10 seniors (75+), but less than half of them actually play from the senior tees. Perhaps that could solve the problem; a smaller prize for the contest with less people competing.

Anyway, the managers took a poll of all the members and the results were pretty much 50/50 for and against so we'll just do what one responder suggested...table the whole question until next season. 

 

[saevel25]

On 7/14/2024 at 11:30 AM, DaveP043 said:

I can see both sides of this.  Are there enough Seniors (and enough prize money) that you could do a CTP for them, and a separate one for the younger guys?

I would do this first ^

Yea, pending the par 3's it can be a huge advantage. I also get the argument that some seniors may not be able to reach a par 3 if it is like 180+ yards. 

 

[gbogey]

When I played in a golf league, there were separate CTP's for the Senior and Regular divisions. Basically, two par 3's apiece.

On the other hand, I was part of a golf group for a while where you typically had 20 players on the weekend. Players were allowed to pick their tees and since all the bets were based upon net score there were no issues. CTP, however, was the same for everyone. There was guy who was a pretty good golfer with about a "5" or so index who always wanted to play from the senior tees. He certainly had the distance to play from further back as he was just as long as me. I eventually figured out that he did it in order to have an advantage on the CTP contests.

[Vinsk]

Well hell why don’t some of you math enthusiasts just use a formula that factors in distance from the pin with distance from the tee!? Have the formula create a number that gives the winner based on CTP with the distance of the tee included.🙂