A tale of two tees ...

I play two tees at my home course but mostly play from Tee 2 below (club tournament tee).  If I play to tee ratings, my resulting differential scores & HI should be fairly equal.   Yet, from a shorter tee which I play seldom, I am enjoying average of about 5 stroke/differential point better score than I do from a longer tee.  Wow, I can improve my HI to 12 by just playing from the shorter tee (or shorter course?).  Anyone seen this much difference playing two different tees of a same course?   Speculations on what I am doing (I have my suspicions)?  Or, just share how you fare playing from your course's different tees.   BTW, I have not seen this much discrepancy playing from different tees at  my previous home courses.

Tee 1: 5640 yards, 68.4/124 ---> average differential score 17, likely HI 12 ~ 13

Tee 2: 6270 yards, 71.2/128 ---> average differential score 23, likely HI 17

This is why threads about "Wow I broke 80" etc. are meaningless.

From which tees? On which course?

79 somewhere might be a good 89 elsewhere.

Short tees take a lot of danger out of play, so less OBs and balls in bad positions.

On holiday in Turkey at present. Have four rounds booked. Played off the silver tees round 1 and 2, 6500 yards, hit 84 and 82( I play off 11) then.......... Played the black tees ( the tees that get played in the Turkish airlines open on the European tour in October!) at 7200........... Hit 95. Truly humbling........ The difference between hitting a 9 iron into a 400 yard par 4 or a 2 iron into a 480 par 4 is just immense. That distance separates the men from the boys !

Do you know if the tees are generally set to their proper yardages? Whoever is setting them simply may have let them creep up too far. Courses yardages are not really planned out day to day, mostly just for tournaments.

Yes, they are set to their proper yardages.   I think I am struggling with this particular course's longer tee b/c the added yardage makes number of holes a GIR+1 holes.    Also, the course design may be such that the longer tee may bring in more OB areas into the picture but not to the extent of 5 handicap point advantage.    The yardage difference comes to 35 yards per hole.   If I can hit my driver 35 yards longer without losing accuracy, I can conquer the course it seems.

I have thought about this approach; play tees shorter than 6,000 yards for a month and then go to the 7,000+ yard ones for a month.  I understand that the slope & rating system is supposed to adjust my results for the added difficulty or less punishing yardage but my gut tells me my game will not translate well to the 7,000+ yard course.

The real issue is devoting the time to really make the "test" valid.  A couple rounds doesn't really prove anything.

Why don't you think your game will translate?

For the player who has practiced, worked and struggled to first break 100, then 90 and finally 80, it means a lot.  When someone is excited about reaching their milestone or goal, we can be happy for them, even if it falls short of another person's arbitrary standard.

Assuming I was healthy, on my home course I could play from the longer tees par 70.8/116 5600 yds and have almost exactly the same score as I do on the tees we play for league play: 69.1/113 5200 yds. The reason I say this is because the gold tees are just a little further back. There are a number of holes where I have to lay up to a hazard anyway. I'll be hitting a 9 iron onto the green instead of a pitching wedge or gap wedge. That's about it. I'm good with my 9 iron. I could benefit from the better differential and get a lower handicap, but that would hurt me in tournaments where I play from the red tees and don't play any better.

Another course, rating 72.8/121 5600 yds I routinely score 90 when I play it. I love that course. It's fun. But those scores kill me in league play where I'm shooting 96 on my home course.

So if I were you, I'd play from the tee where your league plays its tournaments and suffer with the higher handicap if you care about winning net in your division.

In the last two years I have done a lot of switching between white and blue tees at my home course.  I find the course rating between White and Blue tees at my home course is pretty true.

Blue    69.2/135
White    67.2/124

I average around 81/82 from the whites and 78/79 from the whites at my home course, so the system works at my course.

As for your course, with other golfers at your club experiencing the same results as you between tees, I suspect that the committee erred when rating the shorter tees.

Here is an article I found on rating and slope rating....

Course rating and slope rating are calculated for a golf course on the basis of a visit to the course by a USGA rating team.

The rating team spends time with the facility's staff going over the course, and spends a lot of time on the course itself taking measurements of various things. The USGA recommends that the rating team play the golf course it is rating either before or after the rating visit, too.

Based on the information gleaned during the visit(s), the course rating and course slope are calculated, certified by the appropriate overseeing golf associations, and given to the club, which then posts the ratings on its scorecard and elsewhere.

The rest of the article...

http://golf.about.com/cs/rulesofgolf/a/hfaq_determine.htm

A good question.  Typically a 7,000+ yard course will have some significant forced carries.  I may carry a well struck driver 200-210 yards.  If I carry the cross hazard, now I am trying to hit a well protected green with a fairway wood.  I am not able to launch these clubs high into the air and hit the green so unless the hole allows a run up shot, I am either going to be in the greenside bunker, rough or be forced to layup if there is a stream or pond fronting the green.

A local course's "Blue" tee is made for my game.  When I go back to the "Black", I don't think the 3-4 shot difference is enough.

I don't think playing shorter, easier courses will help your index as quickly as one may think. The rating and slope is factored into an index.

I do think you'll typically play better on a shorter, easier course for obvious reasons: driver-wedge-putter vice driver-six iron-putter.

Where is the length added? On all holes or mostly par 3s, mostly par 4s, mostly par 5s, or about equally on all hole types?

Do you hit your long irons and/or woods poorly relative to the shorter clubs? How is your short game and lag putting?

Seems to me that your answer speaks more about the need to improve course management and wedge improvement than the distance concerns. I mean, you shouldn't feel "forced" to layup. Quite often there are benefits to laying up as well as playing within your game. If say, you laid up instead of going after a sucker pin, you could look at it like taking 6 out of play. With a wedge in, you should have a makeable par putt or a bogey at the worst. I would chalk this hole up to being a great par, good bogey for you and then go after a par 3 or easier hole to get a birdie and the stroke back.

No pattern.  The yardage difference comes down to 35 yards per hole.  Some holes have much longer gap than 35 yards and others don't.    It makes a few more holes easier to GIR,   A few holes have fairway bunkers start around 200 yards which I cannot carry.    I am less consistent with hybrids and 3 wood than long irons.   I am definitely less confidant playing from longer tee.   Maybe all these things add up to the 5 point difference.   I can't explain it.  My average stroke score from longer tee is 95.   From shorter tee, it should be 92.   Instead, I average high 80s from the shorter tee.    Maybe, the course rating is incorrectly assessed.  Longer tee - a tad too low, and shorter tee - a tad too high.  Every member plays from the longer tee and they claim the course plays tougher than the rating by at least 2 points.

One marshal said the shorter tee plays tougher for him.  B/c the course requires accuracy, casual golfers I paired up with seem to struggle from either tee.

Course ratings and slope seem inconsistent to me as well. On my course, the white tees are set at 2500, the blues 3000 and the blacks 3340. The difference in my scores between the whites and blues are minimal because from the blues, a few of the fairways open up at my driver distance and the par 3's require a mid iron instead of a wedge (which I'm usually ok with). But the extra yardage between the blues and tips makes a couple of the holes nearly impossible.

I suppose it just depends on one's strengths and weaknesses.

I regularly play from the three different sets of tees at my club. Range from 5900 to 6800.

I find the biggest difference with y game between the tees is my confidence level....feel much better

closer therefore I play better,less tentatively.