Playing Forward Tees and Playing Without the Driver

[Shindig]

I was talking with my mother about this a few days ago.  There's a course near where she lives that I like and that she likes.  I told her I was debating next time we play there, I'd play her tees and hit 4-hybrid off the non-par3s.  I'm not sure how much good practice that would be for me, but it would be a fun afternoon.  But I think she likes seeing me hit good drives as much as I do, and there are some sufficiently open fairways at that course where I can hit driver.

[pganapathy]

Irrespective of which tees I play, I would never choose to leave my driver out of the bag, unless it is a short par 3 course where no hole is more than 150 yards.  I once played a par 3 course where the longest hole was 130 or so yards and I think the longest club in my bag was 9 iron in case I had to hit into the wind.

But playing from forward tees I wouldn't have a problem with hitting long clubs off the tee.  I prefer having a PW rather than a 7 iron into any hole

[Esox]

It's a game. Games are supposed to be fun.  Tee off from whichever tee box makes you happiest. When I read this thread it reminded me of a couple weeks ago when the guy ahead of us teed off with his wife on every hole. They seemed to be having a good time, and I never thought anything of it till now........

[mcanadiens]

10 hours ago, billchao said:

No, @GolfingEngineer84 did not

At the risk of getting a little nit-picky, the original title of the post was in the form of a question. 

@boogielicious improved the title for him. 

 

[billchao]

1 minute ago, mcanadiens said:

At the risk of getting a little nit-picky, the original title of the post was in the form of a question. 

@boogielicious improved the title for him. 

 

I stand corrected, then. My point is still valid 😃

[pganapathy]

2 hours ago, Esox said:

It's a game. Games are supposed to be fun. 

I do understand this, but the problem becomes you don't really play the game as it is designed.  Let us say you play tennis and instead of serving from behind the line come half way up the court and serve.  Might be more fun for you because you can't serve well and keep losing but makes a mockery of the rules.  For me, play the tee boxes best suited to your game but play it within the rules

[billchao]

47 minutes ago, pganapathy said:

I do understand this, but the problem becomes you don't really play the game as it is designed.  Let us say you play tennis and instead of serving from behind the line come half way up the court and serve.  Might be more fun for you because you can't serve well and keep losing but makes a mockery of the rules.  For me, play the tee boxes best suited to your game but play it within the rules

Huh? You can play from the forward tees and still play by the rules.

[pganapathy]

26 minutes ago, billchao said:

Huh? You can play from the forward tees and still play by the rules.

Am I right in assuming the husband and wife were playing from the same tee.  Wouldn't the husband then be playing the ladies tees.  Here in India, the closest tee is for ladies and children only.  No matter how senior a man is, there is always one tee behind that to play from.  Maybe tee boxes in America aren't labelled as ladies, in which case I guess it makes sense

[billchao]

27 minutes ago, pganapathy said:

Am I right in assuming the husband and wife were playing from the same tee.  Wouldn't the husband then be playing the ladies tees.  Here in India, the closest tee is for ladies and children only.  No matter how senior a man is, there is always one tee behind that to play from.  Maybe tee boxes in America aren't labelled as ladies, in which case I guess it makes sense

There’s no rule in golf that dictates what set of tees you can play from.

[pganapathy]

Our tee boxes are labelled as men and women.  Women are free to play from further tee boxes, but men aren't supposed to play from women's tees.  I have an 85 year old uncle who hits the driver 100 to 120 probably, and he plays from the senior tees, which is the closest tee box for men.  Not sure whether this is how things work in America, but I have seen this in Mozambique, South Africa and India.  Maybe the way we label tee boxes, but such is life I guess

[Shindig]

1 hour ago, pganapathy said:

Not sure whether this is how things work in America, but I have seen this in Mozambique, South Africa and India.  Maybe the way we label tee boxes, but such is life I guess

It's not, which I think is why there was some confusion in the discussion.  Here, tee boxes have colors (red, white and blue are typical if there are three sets;  many courses have more).  Some tee boxes have men's ratings, some have women's, some have both.  When I play my home course, I have my choice of four tee boxes (black, blue, white, yellow), and I can post a score from any of them if I play.  

We get into this confusion a bit when someone is a short hitter and is frustrated, and we tell them to move up a set of tees, only to discover that their course has one set of tees labeled "men's tees."  

[pganapathy]

Here as a rule of thumb we will have three or at max four tee boxes.  Ladies, Senior, Men's and possibly Championship tees.  I guess this is a hangover from the British system of many years ago.

[Shindig]

7 minutes ago, pganapathy said:

Here as a rule of thumb we will have three or at max four tee boxes.  Ladies, Senior, Men's and possibly Championship tees.  I guess this is a hangover from the British system of many years ago.

Probably, or at least that makes the most sense as an explanation.  The other cases where I'm familiar with it, at least offhand, are in the UK and Australia.

[mcanadiens]

19 minutes ago, pganapathy said:

Here as a rule of thumb we will have three or at max four tee boxes.  Ladies, Senior, Men's and possibly Championship tees.  I guess this is a hangover from the British system of many years ago.

I think the disconnect here is the notion of competitive golf versus golf that adheres to the rules of golf. 

When I played in my old association's events, I had to play from the regular men's tees (at Kittyhawk, that's white). That was their rule not a rule of the USGA. Outside of Association events, I could play from whatever tees I wanted. Those rounds that were in-season would count towards handicap because the rating and slope are different for each set of tees. 

Often, I'd bounce up to the senior tees (gold) after our event schedule was complete. By then, score didn't matter much and it was more enjoyable playing from the shorter tees. For what its worth, Kittyhawk's Eagle was no picnic from those golds, so the driver was still required on many holes.

[DrvFrShow]

I usually play from the next tee back (gold) or white if they're not too long. I played from the reds with my 6i for diagnostic purposes to see what the problem was with my game. Turned out it wasn't my driver.