A local private course had a problem. The "White" tees were pretty lengthy for some of the members (6,545 yards - 71.9/131) but the next set of tees, "Silver" was too short except for the most distance challenged players (5,767 yards - 68.1/126).

They created a "Members" set of tees using a hybrid of "White" and "Silver". The "Members" tees use the "White" tees for holes 3,5,6,8,11,12,13,14,16 and the "Silver" tees for the balance. It creates a 6,138 yard layout. The best part is they got the Golf Association of Michigan to rate this set-up (69.9/129) so one can record a proper score for handicap purposes.

I have seen a few so-called hybrid sets of tees listed on a card but never understood the system. Duh. If a course is willing to create a set grouping of holes using various tees, they can produce a very playable yardage for almost any level of ability. The beauty is they do not need to place a separate set of markers or build new tees. All the players need to do is tee off from the correct tees depending on what set-up they are playing.

It is a cool idea for courses that have a large jump in yardage from, say the "Blue" at 7,050 yards and the "White" at 6,225 yards. Using the hybrid tee system they can create a very playable set of tees at 6,500 yards.

Sounds like a great idea. Except I think most golfers would get confused as heck. Someone like me, though...I really want to play the tips at my home course except there are two holes that are extremely daunting from back there. If there was a rating for a hybrid of the middle and back tees, I would definitely give it a try.

My home course is a nine holer with a seperate tee for the 10th. Course was set up to play the longer tees (blue)for nine and the shorter (white) for the 18 holes to make it different. The difference in tees being anywhere from 5 to 70+ yds. Most people have always played it either Blue/Blue(6659 yds) or Wht/Wht(5852) for 18, never using the combo. Plus when you entered your score there was no combo option either. This year, they changed it. In addition to adding new tees to the 8th & 9th changing it from a par 5 and par 4 to a par 4 and 5 when you play them as 17 & 18. They also had the Mass Golf Assoc remeasure the course and change the ratings and slope and added the combo tee to the GHIN and giving us a yardage of 6211 for 18. Has made for a more interesting challenge.

Many of the courses in the Phoenix area use the composite tee system. The score cards have the shorter holes highlighted to make score keeping easy and the usga and slope ratings are adjusted accordingly. I play the composite system to play 6100-6200 yard courses where ever I play. This is considered a modified Play It Forward system and is great for players that no longer have length.

I have played several 9 hole layouts where they have 2 sets of tees. One set for the first nine and another for the second nine. They can play a hole as a short par 5 on the front and a long reachable par 4 on the front and so on. I played the jubilee Course at St. Andrews where they had 4 holes that had 2 flags. Those greens were enormous and the yardage to each hole could play as much as 30 yards difference. . The locals would go out and walk 36 holes and never be playing the same course dependent upon which tee they used and which flag they played to.