Historically, golf courses have used different tee colours to denote the level of difficulty and distance, with Red typically representing the forward tees for women, Yellow for seniors, and White for men. While this system has been in place for decades, it often led to gender/age-based assumptions about a player’s skill level and ability.
The traditional ‘Red’, ‘Yellow’ and ‘White’ Tee boxes, whilst are ‘the norm’ at golf clubs, were not conducive to ensuring that people were playing off a tee box which was going to be the right challenge for them. This summer we made the leap and changed our tee colours to ‘Teal’, ‘Silver’ and ‘Purple. By changing the colour of the tees, we can recommend that players play the tee based on their ability, rather than their gender.
In the 2 months of playing off the new tee system we have seen an increased number of men playing from the teal tees and an increased number of ladies taking on the challenge of moving to the silver or purple tees!
We spoke to a beginner about the new system and they’ve said ‘Playing from the forward tee’s is great, there’s less people around watching on the 1st and 10th and it makes the whole round more enjoyable!’
Beginner’s and inexperienced players have been more inclined, either of their own accord or on our recommendation to move forward to the teal tees, creating a more enjoyable and faster paced game for them and those playing around them.
