Playing From the Wrong (Too Long) Tees?

[billchao]

55 minutes ago, Sandy Lie said:

So my question is why do people play the wrong tees?

Some people don’t know how far they actually hit the ball. I played with someone last week who told me he drives the ball 250, and 270 on a good hit. He hit the ball 200-220 at most.

57 minutes ago, Sandy Lie said:

What’s a better score, an 86 from the Blues or a 76 from the Whites?

I have never dropped 10 strokes from moving up one set of tees. That’s only a 300-400 yard difference total and I score about the same. The back tees are more fun because some of the holes are a lot more interesting from those tees.

Maybe if I played from the forward tees, I can drop ten strokes, but that’s moving up three sets of tees at my county courses and ~1,200 yards shorter.

[Hoganman1]

Our course went to hybrid tees a few years ago and we were able to get slopes and ratings for all of them. For some reason we recently changed the colors at our course. No one with whom I've spoken knows why we did this, but our tips are green at 7124, black is next at 6605, Silver is 6250, gold is 5778 and white is 5263. The hybrids basically split the distances between the different sets of tees. I'm a senior and fairly short off the tee, but my short game is good enough for me to play silver (6250) and still score in the 80s.  However, I struggled some this past Winter when it was cold and wet so I'll probably move up to the silver/gold hybrid next Winter. 

[dagolfer18]

Sadly, a lot of golfers have strong egos and think they are longer and better than they really are. They’ll take their longest drive ever and say that’s how far they hit their driver on average.

Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed this problem firsthand. I was playing at a local course one day, and was paired with a twosome. They discussed for a minute before we teed off what tees they were going to play, and they settled on the blue tees. I played the white tees.

After I hit, one of them topped it 40 yards, and the other missed the fairway by about 20. At the end of the front nine (they were playing nine holes), I had shot 43, and they shot high 40s at best. They were great guys, and were a pleasure to play with, but they just played the wrong tees.

When I play, especially if it’s a new track, I generally opt for the white/regular tees, mainly because I don’t want to hit an embarrassing drive from the blues, and someone playing an adjacent hole looks at me and thinks, “Why is he playing the blues?”

Edited May 11, 2020 by dagolfer18

[Big C]

For me, I don't like playing a set of tees that forces me to hit less than driver on more than 1 or 2 holes. There are a few courses around here that are plenty tough from the white tees, but that have several holes where the fairway ends, or doglegs severely at 220-250 from the whites. 

I don't mind hitting a 4 iron or hybrid off the tee as a part of a risk/reward strategy decision. But if the tee box makes that decision for me, I'd prefer to go one set back and accept that I might score higher that day.

[gbogey]

More courses need hybrid tees.  I'm not sure what stops them from doing do unless there are extra fees for the ratings.  I've played some courses where the choices are 6500 or 6000 - neither quite works for me.

I have also found to some extent playing from tees is somewhat a regional cultural thing.  When I lived in NJ, it was quite common to see people play tees that weren't right for their skill level and a lot of people needed to move forward.  Here, it's almost the opposite.  Even though one of the courses I play is quite short not many players use the back tees (unless they are decent of young).  There's also a culture here that as soon as guys turn 50 or 55, they move up even if they have the skill level to play further back.  Unfortunately, I only have two data points but I guess I can say it's not the same everywhere.

[dagolfer18]

4 minutes ago, gbogey said:

More courses need hybrid tees.

Definitely. There is a course near me where the blues are right at 6400 yards, and the whites are at 5750. I’ll play the blues, because 5750 is a bit short for me, but I’d love to see a blue/white combo tee there where it’s about 6200 yards, which is perfect for me.

[Darkfrog]

2 hours ago, Sandy Lie said:

So my question is why do people play the wrong tees?

I wish I could answer that, if only for pace of play. Before the pandemic closed up the golf courses in my area (recently reopened, thankfully), I played my last round with two men in their 50s, who by my best guess were probably around 25 hcp. One guy played the whites with me, the other played the blues. On several medium length par-4s, the gentleman playing the blues had to hit driver - 3W and was still often short of the green. On a couple par-3 with forced carries, he had to play 3W or hybrid and still came up woefully short. I think he single handedly added 45 minutes to our round. In the end, he shot an "81" from the back tees, but I'm pretty sure he took mulligans on at least a third of his tee balls.

4 minutes ago, gbogey said:

More courses need hybrid tees.

I like hybrid tees and wish ratings for these setups were more prevalent around me. I kind of do this on my own sometimes, even if there isn't a rating. I play the same course 80% of my rounds, and sometimes it's nice to hit from a different tee box to get a new perspective on a hole and add some variety. On this particular course, most of the back tees just add 10-15 yards of extra distance, but some of the back tee boxes completely change the nature of the hole due to angle/elevation change. I think on my home course, I would like to regularly play 4-6 holes from the back tees, and the rest from the middle tees. That said, I only routinely started breaking 90 from the middle tees, so I have no business with increasing challenge.

[Darkfrog]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

Some people don’t know how far they actually hit the ball.

I think this is the major contributing cause to people playing the incorrect tees, especially people not knowing how far they hit their driver. I play most of my rounds as a single, so I come across a lot of people who know that they need to hit a 7-iron for a 130-yard approach, but believe they hit their driver 270 yards. I also still see many people without measuring devices on the course (GPS watch/range finder), so they tend to just guesstimate the yardage based on fairway markers and total yardages posted on the scorecard.

[Double Mocha Man]

1 hour ago, dagolfer18 said:

Sadly, a lot of golfers have strong egos and think they are longer and better than they really are. They’ll take their longest drive ever and say that’s how far they hit their driver on average.

Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed this problem firsthand. I was playing at a local course one day, and was paired with a twosome. They discussed for a minute before we teed off what tees they were going to play, and they settled on the blue tees. I played the white tees.

After I hit, one of them topped it 40 yards, and the other missed the fairway by about 20. At the end of the front nine (they were playing nine holes), I had shot 43, and they shot high 40s at best. They were great guys, and were a pleasure to play with, but they just played the wrong tees.

When I play, especially if it’s a new track, I generally opt for the white/regular tees, mainly because I don’t want to hit an embarrassing drive from the blues, and someone playing an adjacent hole looks at me and thinks, “Why is he playing the blues?”

Very insightful Da.  Welcome to the world of adult golf... where nobody hits their drives less than 280... in their mind.

Okay, here's a fun assignment:  Next time you play with strangers understand "stranger danger" when you ask them how far they usually hit their drives.  Make note of that and then surreptitiously measure their drives.  Don't crush their egos by telling them... but report your findings here on TST.

[iacas]

I don't think this is anywhere near the problem it used to be, or the problem the OP makes it out to be.

And, let's say when you hit your 5I well it goes 195. Should you play from 6100 yards because you suck and shoot 93 or something?

[dagolfer18]

9 hours ago, iacas said:

I don't think this is anywhere near the problem it used to be, or the problem the OP makes it out to be.

And, let's say when you hit your 5I well it goes 195. Should you play from 6100 yards because you suck and shoot 93 or something?

I was just thinking about this a few days ago. IMO, just because someone’s average drive goes 260 or 270 doesn’t mean they should be playing longer tees. If they spray the ball all the time, it’ll be a long day from a longer set of tees.

[Bonvivant]

For me, the only time you would have a point for someone playing a more forward tee is if they are too slow to keep POP from the tees they are playing. If they aren't, then it's their business.

[CarlSpackler]

2 minutes ago, dagolfer18 said:

I was just thinking about this a few days ago. IMO, just because someone’s average drive goes 260 or 270 doesn’t mean they should be playing longer tees. If they spray the ball all the time, it’ll be a long day from a longer set of tees.

It would be a long day from any set of tees on a tight course. They should be playing longer tees on a course that is more open perhaps.

[iacas]

7 minutes ago, dagolfer18 said:

I was just thinking about this a few days ago. IMO, just because someone’s average drive goes 260 or 270 doesn’t mean they should be playing longer tees. If they spray the ball all the time, it’ll be a long day from a longer set of tees.

It’s a long day from any set of tees.

My point was I don’t think this happens very often. Most people play the correct tees. And not just 51%.

[billchao]

9 hours ago, iacas said:

And, let's say when you hit your 5I well it goes 195. Should you play from 6100 yards because you suck and shoot 93 or something?

Ouch man, this one hurt 😜

I agree with you. That’s why I play from the tips.

19 minutes ago, dagolfer18 said:

I was just thinking about this a few days ago. IMO, just because someone’s average drive goes 260 or 270 doesn’t mean they should be playing longer tees. If they spray the ball all the time, it’ll be a long day from a longer set of tees.

I’ll echo what others have already wrote, a guy spraying the ball everywhere is going to have a long day no matter what tees they’re playing from. I was the spokesman for that club for many years.

17 minutes ago, CarlSpackler said:

It would be a long day from any set of tees on a tight course. They should be playing longer tees on a course that is more open perhaps.

I could hit the ball in the woods even from shorter tees with a iron or a hybrid in my hands.

I could play a course at 6,100 yards hitting nothing but a 5i off the tee, but that’s not fun and it’s not really playing golf, is it?

[Double Mocha Man]

13 minutes ago, billchao said:

... a guy spraying the ball everywhere is going to have a long day no matter what TREES they’re playing from.

Kinda fixed that for you.

[CarlSpackler]

22 minutes ago, billchao said:

I could play a course at 6,100 yards hitting nothing but a 5i off the tee, but that’s not fun and it’s not really playing golf, is it?

I like boring golf, you know, fairway, green, putt, putt, repeat.

7 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

Kinda fixed that for you.

Well done, sir.

[billchao]

1 hour ago, Double Mocha Man said:

Kinda fixed that for you.

I disagree. Many different types of trees and “tree areas” on a golf course. Some are very easy to hit out of, others you’re lucky if you find your ball. I’m sort of an expert on the subject 😜