From Quora:
Why is the ladies tee box in front of the handicap tee box in golf? I find it offensive.
Jeff Markgraf
, 22 yrs in golf as equipment tech and club builder
Answered April 10, 2017
I’m guessing your question stems from seeing this on the score card:
In this example, Blue, White, Gold and Red are the 4 tee box options this course offers. Most courses have at least 3 sets of tee boxes, some have up to 6.
The “Handicap” row on the card is not a set of tee boxes…this indicates the ranking of golf holes on that course from hardest to easiest. The #1 handicap hole on this particular course is the 4th hole, which means it’s the most difficult. The 12th hole is the #18 handicap hole, so it’s the easiest. This is used so players of different abilities can play against each other competitively. Basically, if a scratch player was playing a 10 handicapper “straight up” (no handicaps) the scratch player would win every time. Using the handicap system, the 10 handicapper would receive 10 shots to make it more even. So if he shoots an 85, it would be a net 75. These 10 shots are given on the 10 hardest holes as indicated by the red dots. This way, it’s fair whether they are using a stroke play format or match play format.