Selecting the right overall distance only adds enjoyment to the game
By Chris Mile
Owner, Miles of Golf, Ypsilanti
I have wanted to tackle this subject for some time because it is a real big deal, and I have seen some half-baked answers to this question.
In my book, every golfer should have the opportunity to hit par 3s in one shot, par 4s in two, and par 5s in three. If this is not possible, you are playing a course (or set of tees) that is too long, and if you play a course that is too long or too short, you will not get the joy you should from the game.
Computing Your Ideal Course Distance:
The answer to the question of how long a course should be for each golfer is simple: 28.
Just multiply the length of a well hit drive for you by 28 and that, in my estimation, is the length of a course that will be both challenging but enjoyable to play.
The logic behind the “Driver x 28” is that an ideal course will have a combination of easy, moderately difficult, and difficult holes. Knowing the length of your drive, you can estimate how far you hit your other clubs.
The easiest portion of all calculations is to know the distance of your well hit tee shots. This is a more difficult question than you might think, and as a clue, most of us overestimate. To get a real accurate estimate, you can have the TrackMan radar units at Miles of Golf measure your drives. They are accurate to within 1 foot for every 100 yards.
How “Driver x 28” Was Created:
We need to know only two things to create an ideal course length. (1) We need to know how far you hit each club in your bag and (2) we need to define what clubs you hit into each hole on the mythical ideal course. Both of these are a lot easier than you would expect.
No. 1 Determine How Far You Hit All Your Clubs.
By knowing how far you hit your driver, we have good data to predict how far you will hit all the clubs in your bag. Obviously, this will not be exact for each golfer, but it will be close. The hardest part of this is to have a good (and realistic) estimate of your total driver distance for a well struck driver.
No. 2 Designing an Enjoyable Golf Course.
My definition of a course that is fun to play will have a combination of short, medium, and long holes. For example, since the average course has four par 3 holes, one should be easy, two moderately difficult, and one hard. There are generally four par 5s, so the same logic applies to par 5s. There are usually 10 par 4s, so I am saying there are three easy, four average, and three hard par 4s. This course should make you hit a lot of different clubs, which is usually a definition of a good golf course.
No. 3 Compute the Distance of the Ideal Course.
I am arbitrarily defining short, medium and long holes. For example, my definition of a medium length par five is a driver, #3 fairway club, and pitching wedge. I am saying a medium length par 4 is a driver and 6 iron. We need to do this for each hole; namely decide what approach shots we want to hit into each category of hole.
For more details on why “Drive x 28” works, and charts showing a comparison to PGA Tour players, go to this link: https://www.milesofgolf.com/which-tees-should-you-play/
