Tee Selection

[Sandy Lie]

So at most of the courses I play I tee it up at the White Tees and on some courses the Blues. I recently joined our Men’s Club and they play the Green Tees.  It’s my choice if I want to play the Green or White tees. No one plays the Blue tees so let’s throw that one out.   Played my first event and I chose the Green tees. All scoring was Net  The play was Stableford format. So for the Green tees I got 1 stroke on the #1 rated hole.  If I played the White Tees I would have gotten 3 strokes.  I decided this as 80% or more of the players are high handicap and my strategy based on my strokes was to play the shorter yardage and have a good chance to score.

So to make the long story short, I played the Par 5’s 3 under (Birdie, Par, Eagle), Par 3’s +1 (Par, Bogey, Par) and the Par 4’s +6 (1 hole was a triple due to an unplayable).  Shot 76.  Highest Stableford points was 40, I had 32.

I think my strategy is sound. What do you think? Or what would you do.

[NM Golf]

Colors mean nothing, could you give some yardages for the tees? I mean the yellow tees at my course are 5900 yards but at another course I play yellows are the championship tees at over 7500 yards.

[Sandy Lie]

In this case the Green tees are 5685 yards and the White 6174 yards.

[Club Rat]

Most low handicap players should score better consistently on 5700 yard courses.
I average 5-6 strokes better when I move up our White course, while the rating is only 3 strokes diff (71.0 - 67.9)
My lowest rounds are also at the shorter course - even par 
While moving back to our Blue Course - 6470 yards, my better rounds are high 70's

[Rippy_72]

I have no idea if there is a formula for the extra strokes for the additional 490 yards total.   I'd play the whites if winning were important to me.   But, I always, always just play whatever tees that the group plays. 

Edited February 14, 2020 by Rippy_72

[MSDOGS1976]

2 hours ago, Rippy_72 said:

 

   But, I always, always just play whatever tees that the group plays. 

Same here. And seeing that i'm old(65) and all my golfing buddies are in the same age bracket, that usually means the short tees. Which is more than fine this time of the year when it's always wet and sloppy. But during the summer when it's hot and dry, I will back up to the next set of tees. We usually half 1/2 that will do that with the 70 and overs staying on the short ones. 

[DaveP043]

14 hours ago, Sandy Lie said:

So at most of the courses I play I tee it up at the White Tees and on some courses the Blues. I recently joined our Men’s Club and they play the Green Tees.  It’s my choice if I want to play the Green or White tees. No one plays the Blue tees so let’s throw that one out.   Played my first event and I chose the Green tees. All scoring was Net  The play was Stableford format. So for the Green tees I got 1 stroke on the #1 rated hole.  If I played the White Tees I would have gotten 3 strokes.  I decided this as 80% or more of the players are high handicap and my strategy based on my strokes was to play the shorter yardage and have a good chance to score.

So to make the long story short, I played the Par 5’s 3 under (Birdie, Par, Eagle), Par 3’s +1 (Par, Bogey, Par) and the Par 4’s +6 (1 hole was a triple due to an unplayable).  Shot 76.  Highest Stableford points was 40, I had 32.

I think my strategy is sound. What do you think? Or what would you do.

If I understand Stableford scoring, 32 points is pretty average, something like 4 over par, net.  How do you feel like you played?  If that was a really good round, and your Stableford score was kind of average, maybe the other tees would be better.

The differences between different tees affect people differently.  @Club Rat has shown the he'll have lower net scores playing forward tees.  For other people, moving to forward tees will result in a much smaller decrease in scoring.  I think you have to figure this one out for yourself.

BTW, which course were are you playing?

[Double Mocha Man]

3 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

@Club RatFor other people, moving to forward tees will result in a much smaller decrease in scoring.  

I once had a friend ask me to play the front tees with him.  I had to use a lot of 3 woods and long irons to keep from driving through the doglegged fairways.  My score went up and I lost the thrill of ripping a driver.

[Rippy_72]

10 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

I once had a friend ask me to play the front tees with him.  I had to use a lot of 3 woods and long irons to keep from driving through the doglegged fairways.  My score went up and I lost the thrill of ripping a driver.

5600 is also too short for me.  I'll play the 6100 tees but am most comfortable at 6600.  Usually 10-15 HcP youngsters will go to the 7200 tees.

It looks like ever 250 yards adds about 1 shot to the course rating?  I looked at a few scorecards in my possession, this looks about the average.

[klineka]

28 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

I once had a friend ask me to play the front tees with him.  I had to use a lot of 3 woods and long irons to keep from driving through the doglegged fairways.  My score went up and I lost the thrill of ripping a driver.

This has been my experience as well, I have played in some small one day events with 15-20 local guys of a wide variety of handicaps and most of the courses are 6000-6300, occasionally one will reach out to like 6500. Playing courses that short takes driver out of my hand a lot due to running out of fairway, so it negates my primary advantage which is my length since my 3 iron is going about as far as their drivers.

Although I have been working on my accuracy with driver and plan on being a bit more aggressive this year now that my dispersion is tightening up a bit so it will be interesting to see how these tournaments go.

[boogielicious]

3 hours ago, Double Mocha Man said:

I once had a friend ask me to play the front tees with him.  I had to use a lot of 3 woods and long irons to keep from driving through the doglegged fairways.  My score went up and I lost the thrill of ripping a driver.

You should have just bent it like Bubba on those doglegs.😜

[Sandy Lie]

4 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

If I understand Stableford scoring, 32 points is pretty average, something like 4 over par, net.  How do you feel like you played?  If that was a really good round, and your Stableford score was kind of average, maybe the other tees would be better.

The differences between different tees affect people differently.  @Club Rat has shown the he'll have lower net scores playing forward tees.  For other people, moving to forward tees will result in a much smaller decrease in scoring.  I think you have to figure this one out for yourself.

BTW, which course were are you playing?

I’m solely looking at playing the Green tees as a strategy of playing a shorter course feeling that I could score better. Playing the White tees would give me 3 strokes but I feel giving those up would be no big deal.  It was Course 5 to answer your question.  Next week we play the same course and format so I will play the Greens once more to test my strategy once more.

[DaveP043]

3 minutes ago, Sandy Lie said:

I’m solely looking at playing the Green tees as a strategy of playing a shorter course feeling that I could score better. Playing the White tees would give me 3 strokes but I feel giving those up would be no big deal.  It was Course 5 to answer your question.  Next week we play the same course and format so I will play the Greens once more to test my strategy once more.

I know it well.  As you said, you should definitely score lower on the shorter course, but it may not be enough better to overcome the 2 or 3 stroke difference in Handicap Strokes.  I guess my question remains, do you feel like shooting 76 was a good score for you?  32 Stableford Points is pretty average, as is net 75.  If it took "good" playing to produce an average score, that might not be the best choice of tees.  But if you feel like you slapped it around and still returned an average result, its probably a good choice.

[Club Rat]

17 hours ago, Club Rat said:

Most low handicap players should score better consistently on 5700 yard courses.

I'll also add, the potential for High Handicappers to score better on 5700 yard courses is also very good.
A HHC player on a given day when they avoid penalties, avoid bunkers, avoid numerous 3 putt or more will  
score pretty well. Usually they will finish with a very low net score = a great day in a Stableford Game or Net Score Game.

On a typical shorter course, unless it has numerous Penalty Areas (forced carry over ponds, corners of lakes, etc) 
And/or green side troubles which often drive scores higher for HHC, they can potentially have lower scores
than they normally shoot. 

While Low Handicapper will usually play a Ho-Hum fairway and greens = Pars and a few Bogies and possibly more Birdies.

[dagolfer18]

I am a bogey golfer, as some of y’all know, and I typically play tees ranging from 5900-6300 yards. The two furthest tees at my home course are the blues and whites, and they measure 6443 and 6063 yards respectively. I normally play the whites, but will play the blues some in the summer.

[Sandy Lie]

So now I have two events under my belt.  In short, in the 2nd event I had 5 birdies, (2 of them were lip out eagle attempts).  Had a double due to playing the wrong ball. Co-player hit my ball, and I just assumed the ball I played was mine.  We both played balls that were marked in red sharpie. Anyway, that cost me a bit.  Again, only goy one stroke.  On average, having tallied the strokes given to the top finishers I find that I start giving 13.5 strokes to the field based on final scores of the event. That’s tough to overcome.  The guy who hit my ball got a point on the hole due to getting a stroke.

Anyway, one more Stableford event left, then it’s a mix of 4 Ball and individual play. Overall, it’s a fun group, I’m enjoying the play.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 2/14/2020 at 10:33 AM, Double Mocha Man said:

I once had a friend ask me to play the front tees with him.  I had to use a lot of 3 woods and long irons to keep from driving through the doglegged fairways.  My score went up and I lost the thrill of ripping a driver.

Doesn't surprise me, you're a 2.9! What HI is your buddy?

[Double Mocha Man]

14 minutes ago, Buckeyebowman said:

Doesn't surprise me, you're a 2.9! What HI is your buddy?

You dredged up my Valentine's Day post.  My buddy's about a 13.