Does LPGA Play From Ladies Tees?
John Miller
Over the last few decades, the popularity of women’s golf has significantly grown, both in terms of the number of ladies playing the sport and the general interest and viewership of the game.
With more and more ladies playing golf, the quality of the game has also greatly improved, especially among pro players participating in LPGA tournaments.
Despite the obvious difference in strength and physical ability, a lot of pro lady golfers are coming close to their male counterparts when it comes to swing speed and the average distance on their drives.
So, many people watching LPGA are wondering if female golfers use traditional ladies tees commonly seen on standard golf courses and how far they tee off from.
Table of Contents
What are Ladies Tees?
At most golf courses, there are multiple tee boxes on every hole, set at different distances from the hole, and commonly indicated with differently colored tee markers.
This allows golfers to select the set of tees best suited to their ability and average drive distance.
As the average female golfer can’t hit the ball as far as the average male golfers, most ladies are likely to pick the forward tees that are at a shorter distance from the green.
Therefore, those shorter tees are usually referred to as “ladies tees.”
However, many consider this term to be outdated and even sexist, as these tees are not used exclusively by women.
With the improved female game, plenty of ladies with a lower or mid-handicap often play from the middle or even the farthest tees.
Also, a lot of amateur male golfers start out from the so-called ladies tees.
Does LPGA Play From Ladies Tees?
LPGA, as you may have guessed from all said above, doesn’t play from the regular ladies tees.
Rather, LPGA Tour, on each course serving as a tournament stop, sets up its own tees.
The yardage of the LPGA golf course may vary, but it’s commonly somewhere between 6,200 and 6,600 yards.
This is pretty much in line with what most men play at regular courses.
Still, it’s a bit closer to the green than tee boxes at the PGA tour, where tees are set around 30-50 yards further back.
The overall yardage on the LPGA tour is rather understandable when we look at the average yards off the tee among lady golfers.
Typically, female pros average 230-270 yards, with the best ones even reaching 280.
Even those near the bottom of the LPGA rankings hit the ball around 15 yards further than the average male amateur.
Conclusion
In recent years, LPGA has made giant steps in getting closer to the male pro tours, both in the quality of the game and popularity.
However, as the ladies’ tour still doesn’t enjoy as much media coverage as PGA, many viewers are surprised by how good pro female golfers are.
The best of them can easily hit 250+ yards off the tee, which makes the traditional ladies tees rather obsolete at this level of the game.
Instead of hitting off the classic golf course ladies tees, LPGA creates its own tee boxes depending on the course they’re playing at.
