New Tee Box Policy

Bellaire, MI--After months of deliberation, dialogue with players, and discussion, the tournament committee announced today new requirements and guidelines regarding the selection of tees to be played by participants in the 2011 James E. Vos Memorial Invitational.

Participants will be asked and expected to declare each evening the tees the expect to play the next day. It will be strongly encouraged for participants to declare at Wednesday evening's opening ceremonies the tees they expect to play for the duration of the tournament. Players will be encouraged to play from the same set of tees the entire week. Exceptions will be made in cases where health or other extenuating circumstances make it very difficult for a player to play the next day from previously declared tees. A case in point will be Dan VanderWal who, after March hip surgery, will be playing his first rounds of the year on a still healing new hip. He has already declared he will play from the white tees--giving his still tender hip a rest. How his hip responds and how far he will hit the ball is still largely unknown.

With the new requirements comes a change in policy regarding strokes given or taken away by moving tees. Previous methodology allocated 200 yard to be equal to approximately 1 stroke. A change from blue tees to white tees of 400 yards, for example, would be a handicap change of +/- two strokes.

While a player may, in fact, take one stroke to hit a ball 200 yards, the tournament committee also recognizes 400 yards constitutes a par 4 hole on most golf courses. The new policy roughly translates into one stroke for every 100 yards and four strokes for 400 yards. The specific stroke allocation between tees for the Shanty Creek courses will be announced when handicaps are announced. That announcement is expected later today.

The selection of tees and the corresponding stroke allocations have been the subject of spirited debate for years among the tournaments participants. Intended to encourage participants to play from the tees from which they get the most enjoyment, and to give some golfers who's game is "between tees" the opportunity to move during the week depending on each courses length, the previous system allowed players to switch anytime before a round, requiring they either give up or receive additional strokes, depending on whether they move up or move back a set of tees.

Despite its intent, it received criticism for making it too easy for players to move up or back, and it created the opportunity for players to more easily switch during a tournament--sometimes right before a match--depending on the course length and on which tees gave them the greatest stroke advantage during a match. In some cases, a player could move up tees, gain 400-500 yards and only give up 2 strokes in their handicap.

The new system is on a trial basis and the committee welcomes comment and dialogue by participants of the 2011 tournament. As always, the goal is for the spirit of the game and the values the tournament's namesake embraced to remain: friendship, honor, and love of the game.