14 Year Old Female Wins Delaware High School Golf Title

[GolfLug]

Even though handicapping is done to make competing 'equitable' in all sorts of amateur competitions, IIRC in reality it was originally introduced to level the 'betting' field only.

IMO 'Equitable competing' is an oxymoron.     

[DrvFrShow]

1000 yds over 18 holes adds up. There are par 3s that instead of 185 yds are 140 yds. There are par 5s that instead of 480 yds are 420 yds. There may be one or two 350 yd par 4s. 

I know a young woman up at the driving range taking lessons from one of the pros - "how did you play?" "Not bad. I had two eagles and two birdies on the par 5s." A 5200 yd course is too short for her. She was in high school and hitting drives with carry distances to 225 - 230. Young women like this usually play from the men's white tees for fun, but if they're on a team they play up from the reds.

[Patch]

I am partial to young ladies doing well in sports. With no sons,  I raised two daughters who did quite well in sports. I taught them to play like the boys. 

These young ladies played the course they were given,  the same as the young men did their course. The young ladies did a better job with what they had to work with. The young men should of, could of played their course better. 

The young lady won with in the rules of the competition. She's the champion.

[newtogolf]

5 minutes ago, Patch said:

I am partial to young ladies doing well in sports. With no sons,  I raised two daughters who did quite well in sports. I taught them to play like the boys. 

These young ladies played the course they were given,  the same as the young men did their course. The young ladies did a better job with what they had to work with. The young men should of, could of played their course better. 

The young lady won with in the rules of the competition. She's the champion.

No one is saying it's the girls fault that they weren't given the opportunity to play the same tee boxes.  She's the champion according to the tournament rules, just not necessarily the best player in the tournament.  

[Jeremie Boop]

21 minutes ago, Patch said:

I am partial to young ladies doing well in sports. With no sons,  I raised two daughters who did quite well in sports. I taught them to play like the boys. 

These young ladies played the course they were given,  the same as the young men did their course. The young ladies did a better job with what they had to work with. The young men should of, could of played their course better. 

The young lady won with in the rules of the competition. She's the champion.

It's entirely possible they did the same job as the young men did if you factor in how much advantage they had playing a 1000 yards shorter course. It is even possible that with that large a difference in yardage they should have shot even better than they did. Obviously she won the competition because that's how it was set up, but I agree with the others who say she may have won, but that doesn't necessarily mean she played the best or was the best player.

Edited June 3, 2016 by Jeremie Boop

[DrvFrShow]

1000 yds over the course of 18 holes makes a huge difference, especially on the par 3s and par 5s. I agree that she's the champion under the rules. Possibly not the best player in the tournament. We'll never know because the conditions weren't equal. 

But here's the thing. It's a known fact that women mature at a younger age than men. I've seen better high school women players driving the ball about 225 yd carry at the driving range with relatively good accuracy. I've heard them talk to the pros about how they did in their tournaments - "I eagled two of the par 5s and birdied the other two." They're still playing from the forward tees. I've seen 7th and 8th grade girls hitting drives that carry over 180 - 190 yds. when they make solid contact. They're still learning. The better high school women play from the white tees when they go play casual rounds. I've seen them. So... what do they do in the tournaments? They play from the forward tees that the tournament tells them to play. This is not like the old days when women were discouraged from playing sports. Some women are encouraged to play and will develop the skill set.

Because women mature younger is why you see a few women getting offered sponsorships and join the LPGA tour at 14 or 15. When you're offered $10 million you take the money. Lydia Ko did and dominated. You don't see young men joining the PGA tour at that age - that happens several years later, but they hit the ball about 50 yds further on average which is why women don't compete directly with men on the professional level.

Perhaps the young men just weren't playing well enough to beat the women at their age and perhaps the observer was right - it wouldn't have mattered what tee they were playing. Perhaps the length of the course wasn't the problem but keeping the ball in play was. Coordination improves with physical maturity. But give the young men another two or three more years and they'll be in a different league.