Teebox Location With Dog Legs and Shot Shape Consideration

[cutchemist42]

I feel dumb for not realizing this sooner but I've had better luck lately with not losing tee shots by staying to the right side of the teebox and slightly adjusting my to the middle right of the fairway. I had never stumbled upon this suggestion until a few days ago as I would always line up in the middle. Its helping some of my hooks stay atleast in the rough instead of lost or out of bounds.

I'm now though slightly confused about how this approach should work for consideration when you have doglegs that can be cut down with a full driver shot.

Say your bad miss is a stronger hook and you are facing a dogleg left.....does lining up on the left side of the teebox still give you more fairway to land on? What if it's a dogleg left?

I'm just curious to hear others considerations for where they choose to tee it up inside of the invisible box we have to work with.

[DaveP043]

I should say first, my best guess is  that at the distance we hit our drives, the difference in angle between one side of the teeing area and the other is pretty small.

Now that the disclaimer is done, I like the image of my ball's final line being about parallel to the direction of the fairway at that point.  So if my normal shot is moderately straight, I'll tee up towards the right on a dogleg left.  Now if my ball flight was pretty curved, I'd probably tee off to one side almost all the time, i.e. on the left side if I routinely hit a big draw.  But again, I'm not sure it really matters all that much, its a pretty small difference in angles.

[iacas]

It only matters to the extent that you think it matters (and even that is overrated).

[pganapathy]

As a right handed golfer, I look at it the following way.  For a draw, stand on the left side of the tee-box and for a fade stand on the right side.  Essentially it gives you the most leeway to hit your shot to the other end of the fairway and curve it back in.  So a draw would start from the left, go to the right end of the fairway and draw back in to the middle or left of the fairway and vice versa.

[Shindig]

8 minutes ago, pganapathy said:

As a right handed golfer, I look at it the following way.  For a draw, stand on the left side of the tee-box and for a fade stand on the right side.  Essentially it gives you the most leeway to hit your shot to the other end of the fairway and curve it back in.  So a draw would start from the left, go to the right end of the fairway and draw back in to the middle or left of the fairway and vice versa.

How big are the teeboxes where you play?  At the courses I play, I cannot imagine this making any real difference. 

[pganapathy]

7 minutes ago, Shindig said:

How big are the teeboxes where you play?  At the courses I play, I cannot imagine this making any real difference. 

It is not about how big the tee boxes are.  Most tee boxes across the world are not very big indeed.

Essentially, it is about giving yourself the maximum leeway to hit your shot shape with minimal risk.  Of course, an extra yard or two may not matter that much to most amateurs who can slice the ball 30 yards off target with ease, but assuming a reasonable shot shape without too much swing, then the extra few yards from one end of the tee box to the other can be the difference between hitting a tree and missing it

[iacas]

1 hour ago, pganapathy said:

It is not about how big the tee boxes are.  Most tee boxes across the world are not very big indeed.

Essentially, it is about giving yourself the maximum leeway to hit your shot shape with minimal risk.

That's his point: you're changing the angle about 0.3° or something.

It's almost pointless.

Heck, finding a good flat lie with grass that's good and a stance that you're less likely to slip on matters more than moving left to right a few yards.

[gbogey]

I don't disagree with what you guys are saying.  However, the visual perspective can matter (although this may be an individual perspective - I only know my own).  Personally, as someone with a tendency to hook the ball I find it much easier to tee the ball from the left side of the tee.  Somehow it helps with aim and alignment that I find difficult if I tee up on the right side.  I agree with you it shouldn't matter - the tee box isn't that wide - but it does.  How this plays into a dogleg IDK - I would probably adjust my aim more than where I stand on the tee box.

[rehmwa]

I'm happy with just a level stance and some green color behind the ball.

I think it only matters if there are branches overhanging the fairway and you want to avoid hitting them (before complaining to maintenance)

Edited June 6, 2019 by rehmwa

[Patch]

My first priority is to look for a reasonable level area in the tee box. It's a comfort level thing for me. 

Then, depending on how my drives are flying,  (they are usually not the same from round to round) and what's in front of me, I will tee up left, center, right, forward, or back of the markers.. 

A dog leg left, I tend to tee up a little left, and just the opposite for a right dog leg. That said, it's not that much of a big deal to me. 

Now if there is a reachable hazard associated with the dog.leg, I will give my set up more thought. 

Other times, I might try to fly over (cut) the dog leg, if the distance is favorable. 

It just depends how I am hitting the ball that day, and what's in front of me. 

[Zippo]

I see the pros frequently teeing up from one side or the other depending upon their desired shot shape. I'm not good enough for it to make any difference, unfortunately.

[pganapathy]

11 hours ago, iacas said:

That's his point: you're changing the angle about 0.3° or something.

It's almost pointless.

Heck, finding a good flat lie with grass that's good and a stance that you're less likely to slip on matters more than moving left to right a few yards.

If you are going to hook or slice it 30+ yards, moving to the next fairway also wont help.  But if you can hit a reasonably straight shot, or one with max 5 to 10 yards of draw or fade, then the few yards on a tee box matter.

I look at the shot shape I want, pick the side accordingly and then search for the best setup position there, where I get a nice level lie and my feet are stable.

I guess at the end of the day, moving around on the tee box only matters when you can control your shots reasonably well.  For that matter, I don't always tee up at the front of the box.  The rule says you can move upto 2 clublengths back from the markers and I always look at the entire teeing area before deciding where I will actually hit from.  Two yards further back or left/right can make a difference, albeit when you have a consistent shot shape

[iacas]

20 hours ago, pganapathy said:

If you are going to hook or slice it 30+ yards, moving to the next fairway also wont help.  But if you can hit a reasonably straight shot, or one with max 5 to 10 yards of draw or fade, then the few yards on a tee box matter.

No, it doesn't.

You're literally talking about a degree or so.

If it matters because you think it matters, then you can argue that anything matters, including that your left sock is older than your right sock and that you have a blue towel and a white towel on your bag at all times.

[Buckeyebowman]

Well, there's a comfort factor in there, no? If you think setting up on one side of the tee or the other allows your anxious mind to relax, what's the problem? I was taught to tee up on the side of the tee where most of the trouble was, and play away from it! And pick a definite target to aim at. 

You're a scratch handicapper and may not share the same concerns that many of us do. And BTW, I always start a round with three tees and a ball in my left pocket, and my pitch fixer and ball mark in my right pocket! And an old wash cloth to clean my ball in my right hip pocket.

[pganapathy]

On ‎6‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 8:42 AM, iacas said:

No, it doesn't.

You're literally talking about a degree or so.

If it matters because you think it matters, then you can argue that anything matters, including that your left sock is older than your right sock and that you have a blue towel and a white towel on your bag at all times.

@iacas I get where you are coming from, but let me tell you my experience.  A lot of the courses I play have trees lining one or both sides of the fairway and are sometimes close to the tee box.  Provided I am hitting it reasonably, the extra few yards are often the difference between hitting a two inch branch, which nobody should be able to hit, and missing it.  Maybe it is a mental thing, but at the end of the day when I play well I don't really move the ball too much in either direction

[garyt]

I  may not understand what we're talking about here. If we're talking about moving a few feet over on the tee and aiming straight down that line then I agree it won't matter much. But I assume when someone talks of moving say to the right side of the tee they're also aiming left to accommodate their fade which does increase the fairway for that player substantially. Same obviously for the draw, set up left, aim right and draw it back, if it stays straight you're on the right edge of the FW or light rough.

   It's like putting ,if you aim just a few degrees off, at 20 feet your missing by quite a bit.

[iacas]

12 minutes ago, garyt said:

But I assume when someone talks of moving say to the right side of the tee they're also aiming left to accommodate their fade which does increase the fairway for that player substantially.

It does not.

I’m not talking, btw, about a tree or something close to the tee. The angles can actually become non-negligible then.

[garyt]

1 minute ago, iacas said:

It does not.

How so? You're going to have to explain that one to me.