By Design - Spring 2019

22 | By Design FORWARD TEES Rancho Murieta Country Club in California was one of a number of clubs profiled at the recent ASGCA Foundation event, From Tees to Green: Forward Tees and Other High-ROI Ideas. Forward thinking M ost golf clubs’ primary challenge is to retain existing members and attract new golfers. Rancho Murieta Country Club, 25 miles east of Sacramento, California, sought to address these challenges by introducing a new set of forward tees. The club has two courses: The North course was originally designed by Bert Stamps and opened in 1971 and was redesigned by the firm of Arnold Palmer, ASGCA Fellow, in 1986. The South course was designed by ASGCA Past President Ted Robinson and opened in 1979. “I was frustrated because I could never reach the greens,” said Lynne Baugher, a member of the club. In 2015, the club took some early steps in order to make the North course appeal to as many golfers as possible. A shorter tee initiative was started with ‘behind scenes’ work to convince the board. A year later, ASGCA Past President Jeffrey Brauer paid a visit to the club and identified potential tee placements. Baugher says: “My husband and I figured out where I would have to be on every hole to use the same club as he did for approach shots—then added my average driving distance.” “The first phase was to define and test tee locations,” said ASGCA Past President Damian Pascuzzo. “These tees started as simple mowed down areas in the fairways and roughs. As funds become available, they will be converted into fully built-out tees matching all of the other tees.” The board approved the forward tees initiative with a budget of $5,000 in 2017. The club engaged social golf groups as well as compiling member driving distances from handicap data as well as taking shorter hitting volunteers on the course to test distances. The driving distance data on male and female players at Rancho Murieta demonstrated that almost every female golfer and 65 percent of male golfers drove the ball under 225 yards. Following these considerations, Rancho Murieta and Pascuzzo Tees started as simple mowed down areas in the fairways and rough ASGCA Past President Damian Pascuzzo