Generally overall yardage works, but sometimes it doesn't tell the whole story. My course is just under 5700 yards from the White tees which always sounded short to me, but it doesn't play that way. It's par 69 not 72 so that makes a difference and they usually set the White tees much closer to the Blues. We play the Blue tees for a few tournaments and you only notice on a couple of holes.
Players get sucked in on the first hole which is driveable for a big hitter and the Red, white and Blue tees are all about 2 paces apart. Why not play the Blues? It gets harder after that and doglegs, elevation changes, undulating fairways all shorten your drives. You hear the GolfNow players constantly cracking trees on #2 and #3.
Many times on trips I'll play a 6200 yard course and feel like it's actually shorter. It's par 72, flatter with firmer fairways and hardly any OB. Love it. My course is too "tricked up" IMO, but it's cheaper than most and close to home.
