And here's paragraph b. direct from the 2024 edition of the REGL rulebook:
"All male participants must play from the white tees and all women must play from the red tees. Exception: Senior (male participants) players whose age + handicap is greater than or equal to 75 may declare, at the beginning of the season to play from the gold tees. Prior to the start of the season their previous year’s handicap and current year’s age will be used to assess their qualifications. Once
they choose to play from the gold tees, they must do so for the entire season."
The good old tee box rule. I don't think I have much to say about this one, but let's beat the bushes. Once upon a time, there was no exception (the second sentence). I don't recall the exact year, maybe around 2015, some of the elder members of the league asked if the league handicappers could do something about offering gold tee privileges. Back in those days, the handicap software wasn't as flexible, and the USGA hadn't yet modified their handicap formula to easily allow players to move between tee boxes, but Fran and Dave found a way nonetheless. (Back in those days (but NO LONGER), you had to adjust the gold tee handicap in a match when playing against someone from the white tees, and it was painful to try to remember all of the permutations. The new USGA course handicap calculations are able to accommodate players playing from different tee boxes, so it's become much easier to run the matches. For those players who struggle to get out to the 150-yd marker, the option allowed them to continue to compete, but it also meant that their handicap index went down. I have a player on my team who does qualify, since he's now a septuagenarian and he owns a double-digit handicap. He's a marine and in great shape, and a couple of years ago he opted into the gold tees. His handicap went down, but length really isn't what he struggles with, and the next year he went back to playing the white tees.
I've often kicked around the idea of trying to offer some of the longer players in our league the opportunity to play from the blue or even black tees. There are some very gifted players who play with us who can hit it a mile, and I wonder sometimes if they get a bit bored playing driver/wedge to most of the par 4's. If we offered them the opportunity to play from a longer set of tees, their handicaps would actually be increased for playing those tees. Some of my coworkers would qualify, and I've dangled the idea of bringing the issue to the Captain's meeting or just to the executive committee, but no one's really gung-ho that I've talked to, so it's on my personal back burner. To finish this thought, if you really want a good challenge some day, play Ruggles from the black tees. It's a much different golf course from there on most of the holes. Prior to the renovations in 2006, most of the white tees were actually in locations more in keeping with the present set of blue tees, and I actually think a lot of the teeth of the golf course were actually extracted with the new (more forward) white tees boxes on holes like #10, #12, #14, #1, #4, and #8. I don't consider myself long off the tee, but I do occasionally enjoy playing a longer set of tees and might actually be interested in playing something like blue tees for a year as an experiment.