Course Playability Factor - CPF

[PlaidJacket]

I think the club fitting business is overlooking a big opportunity to help golfers even more. As many of us know; playing properly fit golf golf equipment is important. I believe a large population of this forum already have that and understand the benefits of playing clubs fit to your swing and ability. However, I think club fitters are missing an opportunity to help golfers even more.

At the end of a fitting session club fitter should IMO present a recommendation to their customers for the optimal course length they should be playing. They've already gathered all the data and know how far their customer hits the ball. Driver and irons. Generally speaking a fitting strives to add distance and tighten up the customers shot disbursement. Yes, I know there are many more data points; but increasing a customers distance is usually the King of club fitting. Therefore, at the end of the fitting the club fitter should also be able to present to their customer a range of acceptable yardages they should consider playing from. For example:  6,300 - 6,500 yards. Or perhaps 6,800 - 7,000. Maybe 5,800 - 6,000. The launch monitor will automatically calculate the CPF based on the data gathered.

As we all know - men especially; play from the wrong tee (too long!) all to often. So, at the end of the fitting -  the fitter hands the customer their data sheet with all the information gathered during the session which also includes a recommended or suggested course length/yardage. Perhaps it's called the CPF - Course Playability Factor. 

1.5200 - 5500

2. 5600 - 5900

3. 6000 - 6300

4. 6400 - 6650

5. 6800 - 7000+

 

EDIT: 9-7-2019 In recent months I've discovered the LongLeaf Tee System. This is probably a better system although more expensive. But it sure makes a hell of a lot of sense.

http://www.longleafteesystem.com/

 

[PING Apologist #9]

I like the way you think Plaid! Great idea!

[Shankster]

You should Plaident that.

[GB13]

1 minute ago, Shankster said:

You should Plaident that.

*groans*

[Kenny B]

My feeling is that people that go to a fitting already know what length of course they can reasonably play, or should be playing.  The ones we see that play from the wrong tees probably have never been to a fitting and probably wouldn't go anyway.  But I like the idea!!

[CarlH]

I know which tees I should be playing .... my problem is that the group that I play with (about 24-30) require me to play from the tees further back.  They set an arbitrary age of 70 to move to the blue tees.  Interestingly enough, the club tournaments place me on the blue tees because their age requirement is significantly lower than 70!  I can still play the gold tees (mens) but I enjoy playing the senior tees (blue) much more because I'm not hitting a long iron or fairway metal into every green!

But, I like your idea Plaid!  I think far too many higher handicap players play from the back tees for ego reasons.   If you can still shoot in the 70's from the back tees, good on you -- stay there.  But, if you're struggling from those back tees and the par 3s are requiring you to hit your driver, by all means, drop your ego at the door and move forward and enjoy the game again.

[RickyBobby_PR]

The fitters job is to find the best fit for the customer and sell clubs. The monitor software would need to be tweaked to provide that and there need to be a business need for companies to make that tweak.

Most golfers know where they should play from and ego gets in the way. Course layout has as much to do with playability as does the distance on the scorecard. 

 

[Shankster]

*groans*

What? Just a little play on words.

[DiscipleofPenick]

I think this is on the right track, but ive played with plenty of guys that can hit it 270+ yet don't have any business being on the back tees. There's more to being a highly skilled golfer than how far you can hit driver.

Take Dead Aim

[ED13]

How many men want to be told they should play further up?  Egos can be easily bruised.

[PlaidJacket]

15 minutes ago, ED13 said:

How many men want to be told they should play further up?  Egos can be easily bruised.

None that I know of. But it's funny.... a few years ago I made the decision that I needed to make the long overdue decision to move a tee so to speak. I was consistently playing longer approaches than a lot of guys I normally played with. I was at a disadvantage to them and the course and they loved it. Then one day when I finally moved up they bitched and groaned because now I was with them in the fairway off the tee. Their advantage evaporated. Truth be told... they have also lost distance and a few of them have moved up as well. Funny how that works sometimes. LOL

[bmaru99]

Interestingly enough, I have always played about 6900 yards at my home course. I never realized that it is actually fairly further than most courses. I generally hit the ball pretty far (7 iron from 190 yards- 200 if i hit it hard) so I never really noticed it being an insanely long course. I really want to see and play a course where it would really challenge me and force me to hit 5 irons into greens to see what I would end up shooting.

[fixyurdivot]

I automatically head for the white tees and rarely give it (course yardage, slope, etc.) much thought. For the caliber of courses I typically play, they seem appropriate for my game. Some courses, like Las Barancas in Yuma, have 5 tees and they are listed/recommended based on handicap. It seems most course layouts have the tee lengths matched well to the histogram of player ability - whether the player allows ego to choose the wrong tee is another matter.  Perhaps in addition to a handicap, we should have a "carry length index" (CDI) which you must show to the starter and/or marshals. 

[Hook DeLoft]

On 6/19/2019 at 12:59 PM, bmaru99 said:

Interestingly enough, I have always played about 6900 yards at my home course. I never realized that it is actually fairly further than most courses. I generally hit the ball pretty far (7 iron from 190 yards- 200 if i hit it hard) so I never really noticed it being an insanely long course. I really want to see and play a course where it would really challenge me and force me to hit 5 irons into greens to see what I would end up shooting.

Occasionally use only hybrids or long irons off every tee.  That would give you an idea how you would play longer courses.

[Dr Strangelove]

On 6/9/2019 at 11:25 PM, CarlH said:

I know which tees I should be playing .... my problem is that the group that I play with (about 24-30) require me to play from the tees further back.  They set an arbitrary age of 70 to move to the blue tees.  Interestingly enough, the club tournaments place me on the blue tees because their age requirement is significantly lower than 70!  I can still play the gold tees (mens) but I enjoy playing the senior tees (blue) much more because I'm not hitting a long iron or fairway metal into every green!

But, I like your idea Plaid!  I think far too many higher handicap players play from the back tees for ego reasons.   If you can still shoot in the 70's from the back tees, good on you -- stay there.  But, if you're struggling from those back tees and the par 3s are requiring you to hit your driver, by all means, drop your ego at the door and move forward and enjoy the game again.

I'm trying to convince our regular group that 50 should be the cutoff for shorter tees.  After all, the pros move onto the Senior Tour don't they?

[perseveringgolfer]

10 minutes ago, Dr Strangelove said:

I'm trying to convince our regular group that 50 should be the cutoff for shorter tees.  After all, the pros move onto the Senior Tour don't they?

its about ability not age- imagine a 4 ball of Tom Watsons all being told they need to move up....lol

[CarlH]

45 minutes ago, Dr Strangelove said:

I'm trying to convince our regular group that 50 should be the cutoff for shorter tees.  After all, the pros move onto the Senior Tour don't they?

I've always liked the idea of "age plus handicap" to determine tees for events.  For recreational rounds, play whatever tees you want. 

[PlaidJacket]

As a side note to this topic I've become very interested in the Long Leaf System. I've mentioned it before in another post somewhere.

Take a look at this and see what you think... Makes good sense to me.

http://www.longleafteesystem.com/#our-purpose

 

[revkev]

This wasn’t what I was thinking it would be when I checked in - it’s actually better.

The soft ware could be tweaked to show a guy what clubs the average tour player uses for his approach shots and then the course length that particular guy would need to be at to play like a pro.

Instead of playability factor or tee if forward how about play it like they do. Or some other title that gets a guy pumped for the challenge - he’s trying to equal what pros do.

I like the idea


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[Rickp]

I think the club fitting business is overlooking a big opportunity to help golfers even more. As many of us know; playing properly fit golf golf equipment is important. I believe a large population of this forum already have that and understand the benefits of playing clubs fit to your swing and ability. However, I think club fitters are missing an opportunity to help golfers even more.
At the end of a fitting session club fitter should IMO present a recommendation to their customers for the optimal course length they should be playing. They've already gathered all the data and know how far their customer hits the ball. Driver and irons. Generally speaking a fitting strives to add distance and tighten up the customers shot disbursement. Yes, I know there are many more data points; but increasing a customers distance is usually the King of club fitting. Therefore, at the end of the fitting the club fitter should also be able to present to their customer a range of acceptable yardages they should consider playing from. For example:  6,300 - 6,500 yards. Or perhaps 6,800 - 7,000. Maybe 5,800 - 6,000. The launch monitor will automatically calculate the CPF based on the data gathered.
As we all know - men especially; play from the wrong tee (too long!) all to often. So, at the end of the fitting -  the fitter hands the customer their data sheet with all the information gathered during the session which also includes a recommended or suggested course length/yardage. Perhaps it's called the CPF - Course Playability Factor. 
1.5200 - 5500
2. 5600 - 5900
3. 6000 - 6300
4. 6400 - 6650
5. 6800 - 7000+

Great post;
This process is “encouraged” in The Villages.
The teaching Pros I know, local News Paper and Starter Shacks has this posted.
We have WAY too many guys who believe they’re the 30 year old studs from 49 years ago. Our golf groups have adopted this type of thinking and has somewhat worked. There’s always that 10% that want to play poorly from the tips instead of decently from the proper yardage.



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