Opinion & Analysis
The Wedge Guy: Is your handicap a real reflection of your ability?
Today’s post is somewhat of a continuation of some prior writings on the subject of the relative difficulty of the courses we play versus the difficulty of the courses the tour professionals play every week. In those articles, I’ve suggested — no, declared — that most recreational golfers are playing much a much tougher game than the tour players, based solely on the difference in strength profiles.
Today’s tour professionals are big, strong athletes who have amazingly powerful swings. Because of that power, they reduce most golf courses to a display of big drives and lots of wedge shots, and there are very few legitimate par-5 holes for them – by that I mean a hole long enough to make them position a second shot to leave a preferred approach shot to the green.
In contrast, that’s just not the course set-ups most of us face when we take to the first tee.
Being 71 years old now, I still find myself desiring the challenge of our men’s regular tees. The course presents me with a through-the-bag experience, meaning all facets of my game are tested, from wedge play to short irons to mid-irons to long irons and fairway woods. It is rare that I come off the course with even one club that I did not hit that day.
I play with many friends who are older and just do not have my distance, so they tee it from the gold, or “senior” tees. But for too many of them, that’s just not enough to let them play the game as it is designed. One friend in particular is bound and determined to be a nine handicap again, though he’s currently playing to a 23. I know his game and he moves it around pretty good for 83 years old, but he just does not have the strength to get to a nine handicap from those tees.
Just last night, I was explaining to him that he’s effectively playing a par 83 to 85 golf course, so his mid-90s scores ARE making him a nine handicap. For him, our longest par five is at least driver, two 3-woods and a mid-iron. The other two par 5s require two good 3-wood shots after his best drive to even have a chance of being on or around the green. One par 3 requires his best driver shot to have a remote chance of reaching the green, and at least 10 of the par 4 holes are out of reach with his best drive and 3-wood. If tour players had to play the game that way, I don’t think you would ever see any of them break 80.
The USGA has long pushed the idea of “tee it forward,” but I don’t think most golf courses have taken that honestly to heart and set up their courses and tee locations for their members with their relative strength profiles in mind. There will always be back tees to challenge those stronger players, but why can’t every golfer find a set of tees that gives them relatively the same challenge?
And while we’re on the subject, why are the forward tees so often labeled “seniors,” “ladies” and “super seniors”? The golf ball doesn’t know anything about you. Should our young high school star — a girl who hits it about as far as I do — play the “ladies” tees? Should my friend who’s in his forties but just doesn’t hit it very far not be allowed to play the “senior” tees if that’s where the game is the most fun and challenging?
This game is supposed to be challenging, sure, but it’s also supposed to be enjoyable and fun. And it’s supposed to offer up this measure of “par” that is difficult, but reasonable to attain, whether on any given hole or any given round.
If you are playing a set of tees that makes anything close to par golf completely out of reach, then move up to a set of tees that better fits your game.
As the editor-in-chief of this website and an observer of the GolfWRX forums and other online golf equipment discourse for over a decade, I’m pretty well attuned to the grunts and grumbles of a significant portion of the golf equipment purchasing spectrum. And before you accuse me of lording above all in some digital ivory tower, I’d like to offer that I worked at golf courses (public and private) for years prior to picking up my pen, so I’m well-versed in the non-degenerate golf equipment consumers out there. I touched (green)grass (retail)!
Complaints about the ills of and related to the OEMs usually follow some version of: Product cycles are too short for real innovation, tour equipment isn’t the same as retail (which is largely not true, by the way), too much is invested in marketing and not enough in R&D, top staffer X hasn’t even put the new driver in play, so it’s obviously not superior to the previous generation, prices are too high, and on and on.
Without digging into the merits of any of these claims, which I believe are mostly red herrings, I’d like to bring into view of our rangefinder what I believe to be the two primary difficulties golf equipment companies face.
One: As Terry Koehler, back when he was the CEO of Ben Hogan, told me at the time of the Ft Worth irons launch, if you can’t regularly hit the golf ball in a coin-sized area in the middle of the face, there’s not a ton that iron technology can do for you. Now, this is less true now with respect to irons than when he said it, and is less and less true by degrees as the clubs get larger (utilities, fairways, hybrids, drivers), but there remains a great deal of golf equipment truth in that statement. Think about it — which is to say, in TL;DR fashion, get lessons from a qualified instructor who will teach you about the fundamentals of repeatable impact and how the golf swing works, not just offer band-aid fixes. If you can’t repeatably deliver the golf club to the golf ball in something resembling the manner it was designed for, how can you expect to be getting the most out of the club — put another way, the maximum value from your investment?
Similarly, game improvement equipment can only improve your game if you game it. In other words, get fit for the clubs you ought to be playing rather than filling the bag with the ones you wish you could hit or used to be able to hit. Of course, don’t do this if you don’t care about performance and just want to hit a forged blade while playing off an 18 handicap. That’s absolutely fine. There were plenty of members in clubs back in the day playing Hogan Apex or Mizuno MP-32 irons who had no business doing so from a ballstriking standpoint, but they enjoyed their look, feel, and complementary qualities to their Gatsby hats and cashmere sweaters. Do what brings you a measure of joy in this maddening game.
Now, the second issue. This is not a plea for non-conforming equipment; rather, it is a statement of fact. USGA/R&A limits on every facet of golf equipment are detrimental to golf equipment manufacturers. Sure, you know this, but do you think about it as it applies to almost every element of equipment? A 500cc driver would be inherently more forgiving than a 460cc, as one with a COR measurement in excess of 0.83. 50-inch shafts. Box grooves. And on and on.
Would fewer regulations be objectively bad for the game? Would this erode its soul? Fortunately, that’s beside the point of this exercise, which is merely to point out the facts. The fact, in this case, is that equipment restrictions and regulations are the slaughterbench of an abundance of innovation in the golf equipment space. Is this for the best? Well, now I’ve asked the question twice and might as well give a partial response, I guess my answer to that would be, “It depends on what type of golf you’re playing and who you’re playing it with.”
For my part, I don’t mind embarrassing myself with vintage blades and persimmons chasing after the quasi-spiritual elevation of a well-struck shot, but that’s just me. Plenty of folks don’t give a damn if their grooves are conforming. Plenty of folks think the folks in Liberty Corner ought to add a prison to the museum for such offences. And those are just a few of the considerations for the amateur game — which doesn’t get inside the gallery ropes of the pro game…
Different strokes in the game of golf, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, I believe equipment company engineers are genuinely trying to build better equipment year over year. The marketing departments are trying to find ways to make this equipment appeal to the broadest segment of the golf market possible. All of this against (1) the backdrop of — at least for now — firm product cycles. And golfers who, with their ~15 average handicap (men), for the most part, are not striping the golf ball like Tiger in his prime and seem to have less and less time year over year to practice and improve. (2) Regulations that massively restrict what they’re able to do…
That’s the landscape as I see it and the real headwinds for golf equipment companies. No doubt, there’s more I haven’t considered, but I think the previous is a better — and better faith — point of departure when formulating any serious commentary on the golf equipment world than some of the more cynical and conspiratorial takes I hear.
Agree? Disagree? Think I’m worthy of an Adam Hadwin-esque security guard tackle? Let me know in the comments.
@golfoncbs The infamous Adam Hadwin tackle ? #golf #fyp #canada #pgatour #adamhadwin ? Ghibli-style nostalgic waltz – MaSssuguMusic
Episode #16 brings us Cliff McKinney. Cliff is the founder of Old Charlie Golf Club, a new club, and concept, to be built in the Florida panhandle. The model is quite interesting and aims to make great, private golf more affordable. We hope you enjoy the show!
Last week, I came across a reel from BBC Sport on Instagram featuring Scottie Scheffler speaking to the media ahead of The Open at Royal Portrush. In it, he shared that he often wonders what the point is of wanting to win tournaments so badly — especially when he knows, deep down, that it doesn’t lead to a truly fulfilling life.
View this post on Instagram
“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about it because I’ve literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport,” Scheffler said. “To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling. To get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, I’m not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I’m not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world, because what’s the point?”
Ironically — or perhaps perfectly — he went on to win the claret jug.
That question — what’s the point of winning? — cuts straight to the heart of the human journey.
As someone who’s spent over two decades in the trenches of professional golf, and in deep study of the mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of the game, I see Scottie’s inner conflict as a sign of soul evolution in motion.
I came to golf late. I wasn’t a junior standout or college All-American. At 27, I left a steady corporate job to see if I could be on the PGA Tour starting as a 14-handicap, average-length hitter. Over the years, my journey has been defined less by trophies and more by the relentless effort to navigate the deeply inequitable and gated system of professional golf — an effort that ultimately turned inward and helped me evolve as both a golfer and a person.
One perspective that helped me make sense of this inner dissonance around competition and our culture’s tendency to overvalue winning is the idea of soul evolution.
The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies has done extensive research on reincarnation, and Netflix’s Surviving Death (Episode 6) explores the topic, too. Whether you take it literally or metaphorically, the idea that we’re on a long arc of growth — from beginner to sage elder — offers a profound perspective.
If you accept the premise literally, then terms like “young soul” and “old soul” start to hold meaning. However, even if we set the word “soul” aside, it’s easy to see that different levels of life experience produce different worldviews.
Newer souls — or people in earlier stages of their development — may be curious and kind but still lack discernment or depth. There is a naivety, and they don’t yet question as deeply, tending to see things in black and white, partly because certainty feels safer than confronting the unknown.
As we gain more experience, we begin to experiment. We test limits. We chase extreme external goals — sometimes at the expense of health, relationships, or inner peace — still operating from hunger, ambition, and the fragility of the ego.
It’s a necessary stage, but often a turbulent and unfulfilling one.
David Duval fell off the map after reaching World No. 1. Bubba Watson had his own “Is this it?” moment with his caddie, Ted Scott, after winning the Masters.
In Aaron Rodgers: Enigma, reflecting on his 2011 Super Bowl win, Rodgers said:
“Now I’ve accomplished the only thing that I really, really wanted to do in my life. Now what? I was like, ‘Did I aim at the wrong thing? Did I spend too much time thinking about stuff that ultimately doesn’t give you true happiness?’”
Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
Eventually, though, something shifts.
We begin to see in shades of gray. Winning, dominating, accumulating—these pursuits lose their shine. The rewards feel more fleeting. Living in a constant state of fight-or-flight makes us feel alive, yes, but not happy and joyful.
Compassion begins to replace ambition. Love, presence, and gratitude become more fulfilling than status, profits, or trophies. We crave balance over burnout. Collaboration over competition. Meaning over metrics.
Interestingly, if we zoom out, we can apply this same model to nations and cultures. Countries, like people, have a collective “soul stage” made up of the individuals within them.
Take the United States, for example. I’d place it as a mid-level soul: highly competitive and deeply driven, but still learning emotional maturity. Still uncomfortable with nuance. Still believing that more is always better. Despite its global wins, the U.S. currently ranks just 23rd in happiness (as of 2025). You might liken it to a gifted teenager—bold, eager, and ambitious, but angsty and still figuring out how to live well and in balance. As much as a parent wants to protect their child, sometimes the child has to make their own mistakes to truly grow.
So when Scottie Scheffler wonders what the point of winning is, I don’t see someone losing strength.
I see someone evolving.
He’s beginning to look beyond the leaderboard. Beyond metrics of success that carry a lower vibration. And yet, in a poetic twist, Scheffler did go on to win The Open. But that only reinforces the point: even at the pinnacle, the question remains. And if more of us in the golf and sports world — and in U.S. culture at large — started asking similar questions, we might discover that the more meaningful trophy isn’t about accumulating or beating others at all costs.
It’s about awakening and evolving to something more than winning could ever promise.
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Wilt
Oct 22, 2023 at 9:38 am
I play a variety of courses in my area. My general observation is that a lot of people, regardless of age should be moving up. That includes a lot of young guys who swing out of their shoes trying to get enough distance and as a result are all over the course. Most people do not reach the green or somewhere around the green in regulation. That is true on most holes. Move up and speed up!
Jim Thomson
Oct 21, 2023 at 11:30 am
I’m 72 and the longest hitter in my regular foursome. Last year, at my insistence, we moved up one set of tees because they matched most of the criteria used for determining an appropriate course length for us and also because I was getting tired of wearing out my hybrids and fairway metals. The game is much more enjoyable now hitting short- and mid-irons into greens and instead of hitting 3-6 greens per round it’s now 6-12. My index has dropped from the high-12/low-13 range to the high-9s/low-10s, where it was five years ago. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the other three guys who consistently hit their approach shots on par-4s and tee shots on par-3s 10 yards short of the green no matter the pin placement. I don’t get it. If you can hit your 140-yard approach shot 10 yards short, why can’t you hit a 130-yard approach on the green? The mind boggles.
Brandon
Oct 19, 2023 at 7:41 pm
I’m 41 and move the ball pretty well, but my short game is terrible. When I play with people who want to play the whites it puts me at a big disadvantage because I’m frequently hitting half or three quarter wedge shots into par 4s when I’m much better taking a full swing. If I was going off just handicap, I should probably play the whites. But I score better and enjoy the game more from the blues.
Stephen Lee
Oct 19, 2023 at 7:41 pm
I agree. I say golf is hard enough m, why make it harder? Lets make it easier by moving up the tee. I always encourage my group to play whites instead of blue and they are skeptical at first but at the end of the day they are all happy to have chance at par and occasional birdie. And also 3.5 hours round instead of 5 hours.
Roy
Oct 19, 2023 at 8:53 am
I appreciate your view but I think your title is a bit misleading. Play from whatever tees you want, you’re not making a paycheck from playing golf. But if you want to truly talk about handicaps, and it being a measure of playing ability then that’s a completely different discussion. It’s independent from driving distance.
Ned
Oct 19, 2023 at 6:12 am
I’m 80 and play from the senior tees but as I age and lose more distance I will move to the forward tees to keep enjoying this great game. I use a sim in my house and it has junior tees on most courses. This is a great idea for young people and super seniors as it runs about 3500 yards. My wife plays from they and can get on most par 4’s in 2. Every golfer should have a change to play the second shot on most par 4’s with a mid iron. This is how the game was meant to be played. I don’t think it would be much of an expense for the course only new tee markers and maybe a little dirt.
Golf Puff
Oct 18, 2023 at 11:26 pm
Years ago, I was asked to establish new yardages for ‘senior’ tees at the private course where I worked. One thing I never really grasped was why the green (‘senior’) tees on one hole, at a par 4 for the ‘men’, played longer than the red (‘women’s’ tees) played as a par 5. There was no possible way anyone playing from the ‘senior’ tees would get within 80 yards of the green in two strokes, yet it was still regarded as a par 4. The handicap system doesn’t help here because, as a golfer moves forward with shorter tees, the associated course rating and slope drops off and does not take into consideration how far the golfers using these tees actually hit the ball. So, the ‘senior’ golfer moves up 500+ yards on the tee markers, but his handicap goes down 3 or more shots. And, there are still holes that he can’t possible reach with two of his Sunday ‘bests’.
Chris
Oct 18, 2023 at 10:53 pm
Agree, agree, agree!! I moved up to the white tees when I turned 65 almost five years ago, and can still break 80 from there. But I know that any par 4 over 400 yards is really a par 5 for me now, and the shirt game has to save me.
But why, on a 430 yard par 4, are the white tees only 20 yards ahead of the blues? And there are courses without “senior” tees, although seniors play more golf than any other demographic.
Thanks for a great article. Golf should be fun first, challenging second.
Bob Jones
Oct 18, 2023 at 10:43 pm
Twelve years ago,when I was 62, I played to a 9.5 handicap. Now, I have the same skills. I hit the ball straight, and am just as good around the green. But because I can’t hit the ball as far anymore, my handicap makes it look like I took up the game last week because I’ve moved up to the tees that are rated much lower so I can make the same scores from as before. Something about that isn’t right.
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Mason
Oct 18, 2023 at 3:12 pm
“he moves it around pretty good for 83 years old, but he just does not have the strength to get to a nine handicap from those tees.”
It is true that you can get potentially lower your handicap from playing a specific set of tees, but usually not by much, I’d estimate a stroke or two on average, and not much more BECAUSE THE RATING DECREASES AS THE DISTANCE OF EACH SET OF TEES DECREASES and adjusts your handicap. So yeah the author’s friend may shoot a few strokes less from the forward tees, but most of that gain will not be reflected in his handicap due to the decreased rating. In fact I wouldn’t surprise me if many golfers handicaps would actually go down if they played longer tees, couldn’t reach greens, and simply played smart. They could effectively hit easy layups, short irons/wedges on and make a lot of bogeys instead of trying to hit greens with long irons and fairway woods, putting themselves in bad spots, penalty strokes… Even if their score was a stroke or two higher, their handicap would sti
1 hcp
Oct 18, 2023 at 1:54 pm
I am a 1 hcp and I can’t remember the last time I played from the back tees. I can’t remember the last time I hit a par5 in two, so why would I add an additional 200 meters to the course length? A buddy of mine is a plus handicap and he plays solely from the longest tees because he’s capable of hitting one par5 with the driver and the hybrid. The idea I am pointing out is that everyone should play their own length so that they are reaching par3 in one shot, par4 in 2, and par5 in 3 shots. Are you a 70 years old who plays from red tees? Who cares?
Sean Gregory
Oct 18, 2023 at 12:21 pm
In addition, I regularly encounter forward tee boxes 10-20 yards ahead of the white tees. What is the point of 10-20 yards? This is no advantage. Develop tee boxes that really give an advantage to move up.
Chuck
Oct 18, 2023 at 1:11 pm
There is not supposed to be an “advantage”. The point is equity. The tees are supposed to be separated by using average driving distance. The average senior drive is about 30 yards less than the average male. The same for the forward tees. The objective is to have equitable tee shots that end up in relatively the same place, equalizing the approach.
Golf Puff
Oct 18, 2023 at 11:19 pm
No, I have to disagree. If my drives are shorter than another golfers, but the tees are only adjusted for this distance, then my approach will play 2-4 clubs longer than the other golfers. That is not equity, it is false equity. If you don’t believe me, let’s go play when I am hitting wedge approaches and you are hitting 6 irons.
James Kendzior
Oct 18, 2023 at 11:51 pm
Except that ending up in relatively the same place doesn’t equalize the approach since the person who hits it 20 or 30 yards farther than me with his driver is probably going to hit a couple of clubs less than I need for the approach shot from the same distance.
Another problem is that a lot of the courses I play have regular tees that are too long and senior tees that are too short. It’s almost like the courses don’t want you to be able to play the proper length.
garyt
Oct 19, 2023 at 9:35 am
Not true at all. If the forward tees allow a person to end up at the same place as my drive from the back tees he’s at a severe disadvantage. I may have a 7 iron into the green while he’ll have 4 hybrid. The drives of a person playing the forward tees should finish well ahead of the drive of the person playing the back tees so they both have relatively the same club in.
H
Oct 18, 2023 at 11:29 am
The handicap system is completely skewed and incorrect for the public. It doesn’t relate anywhere near to what the Pros are doing, even for scratch guys, and so the whole index and rating systems need to be revised, as do golf course set ups. But they won’t – it’s there to make money for everybody, the courses and the equipment manufacturers, is why it is the way it is. If they ball flies farther, and there is chance that you would lose more of them, then they would sell more of them. If they can write a narrative that makes people believe that the latest models are better than the previous and helps them hit them farther, they would sell more of them. They have people believing that a “nice” or “good” courses are in better condition generally, but are also more difficult with slick greens and more numerous penalty areas, but why would you pay more to lose more balls and shoot higher scores? Those are the tricks of the trade, not the things that make golf more fun to play.
Fredo
Oct 18, 2023 at 11:24 am
Praise the lord! You are absolutely correct that courses should set up tees more fairly. I will be turning 69 in a week and contend with longer approach shots that are testing my nerves LOL. It’s all about saving par with my short game now. It is difficult to increase clubhead speed so I am constantly reevaluating my swing and sticking to the basics. More often than not, as I age my swing gets sloppy, and that’s when I go deep into the weeds and try to be more efficient like the women on the LPGA do.
John Harrison
Oct 18, 2023 at 12:13 pm
Absolutely spot on. I became tired of slugging it out from the white tees all the time. I now play from the gold tees once a week and find it to be quite a bit more fun. I enjoy being able to putt for birdies on par fours that I can’t get much closer than 30 yards from the green from the white tees.
dixiedoc
Oct 18, 2023 at 10:54 am
Interesting piece. As a 78 y/o avid golfer I found it difficult to move up but as I have I have come to find that I enjoy the game more. I will never be a single digit handicapper again but that’s vanity and not reality. My one complaint is that my club caters to the “back tee” guys ever though us seniors spend vastly more money at the club. The Gold and Silver tees are not kept well and are sort of a ragtag mound of dirt on the fairway whereas the back tees are well groomed with nice grass. Clubs should pay attention to the members who actually support them.