“Do you wish your approach shot to the green was just a bit easier? Would you rather hit an iron into the green vs. a fairway wood or hybrid? If you want to play faster and have more fun, move up a set of tees and TEE IT FORWARD!
Many amateurs are regularly hitting approach shots on a par-4 hole from 185 to 205 yards. The fact is , most bogey golfers only hit approach shots generally with any accuracy from within 170 yards. When you TEE IT FORWARD, you have the potential to hit approach shots from 145 to 165 yards. You will be hitting more lofted irons that will help you play faster and have more fun!
Join your friends and look forward to a new, positive experience on the golf course and move up a set of tees and TEE IT FORWARD”
Today’s article is written by Mike Woods, Head Golf Professional for Morton Golf at the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex. Recently, we experimented with adding new TEE IT FORWARD tees to both 9-hole courses on our Arcade Creek Golf Course (located at 3645 Fulton Avenue in Sacramento, CA).
The Arcade Creek Golf Course at Haggin Oaks was built in the late 50’s with traditional yardages for Championship, Men’s and Women’s tees:
Old Tees Course Yardage Avg. Par 4 Yardage
Blue 6,800 390
White 6,500 380
Red 5,800 370
The course is broken up into two nine hole courses, and golfers are able to book a tee time throughout the day on either nine. Over 90% of golfers play just nine holes on this value priced golf course. Our core golfers tend to be seniors, women, juniors, recreational golfers, beginners and golfers wanting to play a quick nine. Yet, the White and Red tees make the course very long and challenging. Most of our core golfers can not reach the greens in regulation and struggle to keep up with our recommended pace of play.
On April 1st, Morton Golf opened our “Tee it Forward Tee Boxes” on the Arcade Creek GC. Our goal is to provide more teeing options for golfers to encourage golfers to choose a set of tees to make their golfing experience more enjoyable. We also chose tee box colors that do not carry the typical “men’s” or “ladies” connotations. The next important step is education! We have met with the home clubs and provided education to our 1st tee greeters to ensure the proper message is being conveyed to each golfer. Our message is simple:
“Want to have More Fun, Shoot Better Scores, Play in Less Time? The game of golf recommends choosing tees based on your driving distance”
As a result of the change, golfers are absolutely raving about their experience. About 50% of our golfers are open to trying a tee box that matches their driving distance. Of those golfers, 100% of the golfers tell us that they love it. Some of the quotes we have heard are as follows:
“I had a great time today, best round of golf I have played in years”
“Today was really fun from the new tees, I actually had a few birdie putts”
“My experience today was really fun, I can’t wait to come back and play again”
With all the happy golfers, we are positive this will equate to more rounds in 2012 on the Arcade Creek GC. We are also finding that every golfer, regardless of skill level, is able to play at our recommended pace of play when playing the appropriate tee.
The Tee it Forward Program Works! Want to try it? Schedule your next tee time on the Arcade Creek Golf Course and then let us know how you like the new tees! Click HERE to schedule your tee time.
