TEE IT FORWARD

This is the name of a campaign sponsored by the USGA and PGA of America to encourage golfers to play from the set of tees appropriate to their average driving distance. See: http://www.playgolfamerica.com/index.cfm?action=teeitforward

The idea is for amateurs to play from tees that are proportional to the tees that touring professionals play from. Most of us play from tees that are far too long. The pros would howl if they played 7,800-yard courses every week, but we do the same thing to ourselves, relatively, when we pick the wrong set of tees. Not to mention, it slows down play considerably.

During July 5-17, golf courses that sign up will promote this idea. Last year we had a Red Tees day. Perhaps this year, forum members can play from tees that accord with the guidelines during that period.

In the last two years, I have broken 80 five times. Four times it was on a course measuring 5,917 yards. The other time was on a course measuring 6,402 yards. I play from appropriate tees all the time now. I like being able to hit a short iron into the green more than once or twice per round.

I generally play from tees that are right around 6000-6200 yards or so, thats the white tees at most courses around here and most usually only have 3 sets of tees, whites being the middle set.   Thats long enough to challenge me but not so long that im hitting my hybrids on 2nd shots on every par 4 and makes par 3's more managable and leaves me with pw on 3rd shots on most par 5's.  The game is challenging enough, i dont need extra distance to make it harder.

It's not a bad idea, the problem is the target audience.  Responsible golfers don't need to be told to tee it forward, we know based on our driving distance and handicap which tee box we should be playing from.  The average weekend hacker probably doesn't know what "Tee it Forward" is, or even have a clue which tees they should be playing from.  Since they are all "alpha" males, especially after a few beers, they have to play from the tips don't they?

Participating courses during the promotion should assign tee boxes based on handicap.  If golfers don't have a handicap or know what it is, they should be assigned to the most forward tee boxes.

Such enlightened attitudes have not made it this far South yet. Here you may suck as much as you please, but you may not play forward of the "club" tees unless you are over 65*, sans penis or otherwise physically disadvantaged.

(* Varies by club. On some of the shorter courses it's 70+.)

Very true. I think there's some in audience that can benefit: responsible, but green golfers and responsible golfers who've mostly played with "irresponsible" golfers can be in need of telling. When I first started playing, I was told by a variety of unrelated folks that competitive play was always from the back, men always from the next forward (but good, male golfers were allowed to hit from back if they really wanted to), seniors forward of that, etc. I probably had a dozen rounds in before I even got an clue that one was allowed to choose (and that from a solo fourth who walked up to join our threesome) and a few more after that before it sunk in I should choose for sake of pace and enjoyment.

One of those things that's embarrassingly obvious once you have a feel for things, but obscure to the beginner focused on getting out of the bunker with a shred of dignity.

It can be the same on this side of the Atlantic too. My group would love to play from the *senior* tees. It is pointless though since for all tournaments we have to play from the whites anyway. May as well practice from where we have to play. (keep in mind that there are no pace of play issues at our club)

Tried to play from the forward tees a few days ago with some friends that suck at golf, and the starter told us that we couldn't because that would slow down play. Yeah, sure. So we played the back tees for the first hole and when they both made triple we moved up for the rest of the round.

I think courses that are a part of tee it forward should just close the back tees for that week. I also wouldn't put it all on weekend hackers but there is a lot of avid golfers who have all their favorite tour players gear play from the back tees. I just played today at Lighthouse Sound in OCMD my friend and I got paired with 2 gentlemen who had staff bags filled with beautiful clubs. The ranger asks for your handicaps before you tee off he told me to play the blue and the rest to play the white. Basically 8 handicap and up are white (6200), 0 to 8 are blue (6800), and plus plays the black (7200). So we finish the first hole and go to the 2nd tee where the gentlemen decide they are going to play from the black. After 3 holes we fell behind because they threw up some monster numbers. Turns out they actually monitor the gps for pace of play we finish the 6th and the ranger is sitting there he tells us to skip a hole. I flat out told him I wasn't skipping any holes but if he wants to tell these guys to wait or go a head of us that fine with me. He had a chat with them and they moved back up to the white tees needless to say they weren't happy with me but I didn't pay $100 dollars to have to skip holes. Just to be clear they weren't bad golfers they were around 15 handicaps but from the blacks they were hitting driver, 3 wood, wedge into every par 4. I just don't see how that's enjoyable for anybody but some people think it makes them a better golfer.

I don't get the "I must play from the furthest tees possible" idea. Prime example last weekend at my home course (play there 2x a week) I play from the middle tees very manageable course par 4's is a driver and a 7-pw depending on my drive so not a long course at all. Anyway I am waiting on the tee box at 15 at short par 3 maybe 125 from the middle tees when I hear a person whistle I look behind me and a group of 3 are putting on 14 (not sure where they came from, there was a 2 some behind me but that's another story) anyway one of the guys asks me to wait(so you know what type of player this is already) I say no problem since there is still a group putting back and forth on the 15th green and I am a single walker. So they get up introduce themselves, nice guys I tee off and hit a 9 iron that rolls off the green a bit. The whistler(forgot his name) tells me I should be playing the blues and what the hell was I doing playing the whites. I simply respond I am not comfortable playing the blues. He tees off at maybe 150yds and comes up short, next guy hits it to the left of the green and the 3rd guy hits the green with about a 12 footer so not a gimmie. Point of the story play where you are comfortable no matter who you get paired with. I got a par on that hole btw not sure what the others posted. I finished up playing the whites, they didn't shoot bad for the remaining holes just could have shot better if they moved up a tee box.

Played a round this weekend with a couple of near scratch players from the tip at just over 7100.  Would never do it myself, but one guy knows me and thought I can handle it.  Ended up shooting one of the lowest round in the group.

Probably wouldn't want to do it all the time but moving back does challenge you to get better.  I remember when I first move from the white to the blue tees.  I thought it was crazy.  But can't imagine myself playing from the white anymore.

I guess its just different at my home course because you can see most everyone except the 20-35 group(rough est.) playing from the whites and those 20-35's playing from the blues.  The back tees hardly ever get touched.  The blues play between 6400 or so to 6600 depending on where the tees are placed and the tips play to 7100.  Once mid-summer rolls around I can play the tips and shoot the same scores as I do from the blues in the months earlier but its VERY rare to see anyone but the guys you know should be playing the tips back there.

I've only seen one issue out here with players playing the wrong tees - a foursome ahead of us teed off on #1 from the 6,600 tees and all 4 put their drives around 200, two of which were hooked into the rough. Starter gets on them and says they need to move up tees. That's the only time I've ever witnessed the policing of playing the proper tees. It seems as time goes on, golf courses are taking less and less responsibility for what is going on. I hardly see the presence of marshals anymore, there's no communication from the pro shop to the player as to what the course expectations are, and fewer and fewer courses have actual starters.

I'm all for the Tee It Forward initiative but I think putting all the blame on the player is wrong. Those of us on this forum are the exception - most players are casual who just go out for fun. They don't care about the mechanics, the history, the desire to get better.

Yep, I'm in the same boat as you. My good friend who is a scratch player had me play from the blues a couple weeks ago. Before that day I'd always played whites (or whatever was ~6,200 yards). For the first few holes I was having a tough time but it was mental, thinking I had to swing harder of course. Once I relaxed and just played it felt natural for me. The par 3s took some adjustment as I was usually hitting a mid to high iron before. I think the blues (6,600 yards or so) is as far as I'm going to get.

The weekend warriors who have no desire to take a lesson or get batter are "usually" the group(s) that slow the entire course up.

That doesnt even make sense haha

I played my home course last year from the forward tees at the end of the year because it was unseasonably warm and the course was still open, but the other tee boxes were closed for the year.  It was fun, playing only 5300 yards, compared to the normal 6100 (whites).  I'm not saying I'd do it all the time as it was mainly driver/pitch for me on every hole and driver/5i on the par 5's, but it was definitely an interesting experience because you didn't need to necessarily hit a driver on every hole, you can just let a 5w or 3h go and maybe that would be a new experience for some people rather than ALWAYS hitting a driver on any hole that isn't a par 3.  I know a few guys I've played with that always want to play from the back because they have the mentality of "I paid for it, I want to see the whole course" when realistically the way they spray the ball all over the place they're getting to see the whole course anyways.