Question: Why does he (Karl) play off the Men's Tees in Australia?

Answer:  The short answer to your question is that because scores in Junior Tournaments that Karl plays in contribute towards each player's Men's or Women's official handicap, all players in the junior tournament need to be Tee'ing off from the same Tee Box.

The more complete answer though is quite lengthy. Here in Australia junior golf is run quite differently from golf in the US in that our junior golf tournaments are run in ability levels rather than age levels. It is also run differently from state to state.

We lived in Sydney last year and despite being only 8 years of age and being supposedly eligible to play in the "9-Hole" tournaments where the players are given handicaps based on the "Callaway handicap system" and where the kids play off shorter Tees, Karl was not allowed to play in that format due to it being deemed "Unfair to the other players" for Karl to play in that format. That was despite the best player in that format being a year older than Karl and having also played at the Callaway Junior Worlds and US Kids World Championships. Karl wasn't too happy about going away from tournaments against players twice his age without a trophy whilst he could have been winning trophies in the 9-hole format. Karl was forced to play with Juniors who were often twice his age and who could hit the ball more than 100 yards further off the Tee. As Karl's father I argued very strongly against that decision, as although I was in favour of Karl being challenged on a skill level, I also argued that he needed to have the balance/opportunity to play with kids closer to his age so as to to both develop friendships, and (as Tiger's father did) allow Karl to become accustomed to winning by big margins. Despite that format having a Callaway Handicap system where they could have simply  made it hard for Karl to win, they refused to allow him even the option of playing in that less intensive format. What is most annoying is that the Junior organisation concerned is funded by donations and sponsors assistance and is supposed to" cater for every golfer ". Unfortunately that didn't include Karl.

In the state of Queensland (home to Adam Scott and Jason Day), Karl would have been allowed to play in the 9-hole format, but because he had an official handicap, he was not allowed to play in that younger and less intense 9-hole format there either. So again, Karl was the youngest player in the 18-hole format. Tournaments there were run either on "A", "B" & "C" Handicap divisions, and/or on age, with 14 & under being the youngest available age division which Karl could compete in. Can you imagine this: a Par 4 needs the 2nd shot to clear 175 yards of lake to get to the green. Well, an 8-year-old simply can't hit a Fairway Wood that far, so Karl would need to play around the lake whilst his competitiors could easily hit over it.

Due to a player of Karl's age and ability being simply "too hard" for the Junior Organisations to deal with, Karl became quite stressed at times when trying to compete against players who were more than double his size, so in frustration and also wanting to see Karl be allowed to enjoy his golf more, we moved to Melbourne.

Melbourne's Stuart Appleby Junior Foundation in close to getting the formula right. They don't stop a player who has an official handicap from playing in the age appropriate 9-hole format, and they allow Karl to play in that if he wants to. There's still room for improvement though with the 14 & Under currently being the youngest 18-hole age group. Hopefully they'll solve that by bringing in both 12 & Under and 10 & Under age groups to accomodate the handful of juniors who are good enough at that age to play 18-holes.

Hopefully the Junior golf administrators will recognise this anomally in our junior structure, as punishing a player of Karl's calibre because they are advanced for their age seems ludicrous to the majority of Parents and Juniors alike from the USA.