Handicap and Tee Box Correlation

[SpringBokVol]

I thought about this today, not sure why, but I wanted to get some opinions on the subject.

What do you think of a low handicapper playing off of shorter tees (the whites or blues in most cases)?

Do you respect them less because they are not playing the tips or do you not think it matters because each set of tees is rated differently and therefore correlates with their handicap?

Your thoughts?

[kpaulhus]

Either way, if you shoot 78 from the whites and 81 from the blues, they basically come out to the same dif....

[sean_miller]

I thought about this today, not sure why, but I wanted to get some opinions on the subject.

I respect them more than a 24 capper playing from the tips and pounding driver into the bush all day long.

[alomar123]

The guy in front of me today was playing the front tees(I was playing from the tips), and I just could not get over it. I can understand hitting from a tee farther up if you cant hit far, but he was hitting them over 250 every time. I wanted to tell him that he was hitting from the ladies tee every time I caught up, but that tee box was just sooo far up. Not every hole is suppose to be a drivable par 4 or a par 5 in two. Having a mid to long iron game shows alot in a persons game, but I only saw him hit wedges and high irons.

I guess it made me mad because he was around male 25 year old, and the only other people I have ever seen tee from his location are women and very, very old men.

[bwdial]

The guy in front of me today was playing the front tees(I was playing from the tips), and I just could not get over it. I can understand hitting from a tee farther up if you cant hit far, but he was hitting them over 250 every time. I wanted to tell him that he was hitting from the ladies tee every time I caught up, but that tee box was just sooo far up. Not every hole is suppose to be a drivable par 4 or a par 5 in two. Having a mid to long iron game shows alot in a persons game, but I only saw him hit wedges and high irons.

I played from the whites the other day, but it was because two of the players I was playing with were >36 handicaps. It was nice having short irons into pretty much everything, but I hit into trouble on several occasions because I'd driven it through the fairway.

[sean_miller]

The guy in front of me today was playing the front tees(I was playing from the tips), and I just could not get over it. I can understand hitting from a tee farther up if you cant hit far, but he was hitting them over 250 every time. I wanted to tell him that he was hitting from the ladies tee every time I caught up, but that tee box was just sooo far up. Not every hole is suppose to be a drivable par 4 or a par 5 in two. Having a mid to long iron game shows alot in a persons game, but I only saw him hit wedges and high irons.

Seeing that actually made you mad? Oh for chrissakes.

[alomar123]

Seeing that actually made you mad? Oh for chrissakes.

Yeah, not mad just I couldnt get over it, maybe the word is shocked.

[2bGood]

I have played the front tee for 9 a few times. I am a member of club and play 100 rounds on the same course, so once and while it is fun to play some other tee's.

[jc650]

I respect them more than a 24 capper playing from the tips and pounding driver into the bush all day long.

I go off about that. Golf should be fun not beating yourself up because of ego. Me and my 2 friends are all ok golfers but we dont play the tips and we probably shouldnt anyway. Nothing worse than teeing off at the course near my house only to see the group ahead of us playing the tips and 3 of the 4 dont reach the fairway.

[zeg]

I play the blue (longest) tees on one of my two regular courses because it doesn't make any difference to my score and the slightly higher rating/slope drops my handicap index by a point or so. On the other course, there are a couple holes where the tee shot is actually more difficult and not just 5-20 yards longer, so I play the whites there. Really, though, my problems are such that even on that course, it doesn't matter much---I'm not shooting around 100 because using a 4 iron instead of a 6 iron causes me to miss the green, it's because about half my drives end up in the trees. I miss greens just fine with my short irons and my 4 is one of my most accurate clubs...

I would never look at someone funny because of the tees they chose to play. If I were paired with them and it came up, I might ask why, but I have great respect for someone who can get over the macho bravado that drives some people to play the tips where they have no business doing so. There are plenty of reasons to play a shorter tee box. As was said above, it's a different look to a familiar course. Maybe it sets up to work on shots of different lengths than the usual tees. Maybe those tees are just his favorite color?

[sacm3bill]

Having a mid to long iron game shows alot in a persons game, but I only saw him hit wedges and high irons.

Maybe he wanted to work on his wedges and short irons. Or maybe he just wanted some variety.

In general I'm pretty easily annoyed, but I couldn't care less what tees someone plays unless they're holding up the pace of play.

[brgolf]

There's one course I know that its a 250y carry to the fairway off the championship tees and you have to be a 4hc or less to play them. No problem for anyone on this forum then.

[Dave H]

The only time this ever bothered me was when I played in a tournament earlier this year and they gave the option to some old guys to play on the forward tees if they wanted. I played horrible but had a great poke on the 17th hole which also happened to be the longest drive hole. I could see from the tee that I was pretty close to the sign, possibly even ahead. Turns out I was about a 1/2 yard behind and didn't win. What got me was that the winner was an old guy who teed off from the forward tees nearly 100 yards closer!

[oneoverwrx]

Maybe he wanted to work on his wedges and short irons. Or maybe he just wanted some variety.

^^THIS. I was considering playing the ladies tees my next time out to practice my half wedge shots and my 3w from the tee.

Also...why would this bother you as you were behind him, this definately made him faster....now if he was behind you and bombing you with shots i would understand.

[MMouse]

At my home course I sometimes play the blues. The blues at the course dont make a huge difference, mostly on the par 3's as two of them are already 180-190 from the whites. For me and my game I find the blues at this course actually help keep me out of trouble as my tee shots have a harder time reaching the well placed trouble.

Now by contrast another local course has 4-5 tees ( can't recall ) including black. The black make a huge difference and I don't play the course from there. I don't have the control and distance to do so yet.

Hell, I've played my course several times from the ladies just to make the round and the course " different "

[TN94z]

I think the tee boxes are more about your distances than your handicaps really. The way they are rated, it will work itself out. But why play from the tips if you are going to have a 4 iron in to most par 4s? I have never understood the fascination with playing from the tips. Sure it is cool to go around and tell everyone that you play from the tips, but if you can't hit your drive 240, then what's the point?

In my experience (at least at the courses in my area) playing from the tips takes quite a bit of the hazards out of the equation so it actually doesn't affect my scoring that much. Sure the distances are longer, but I hit most of clubs fairly descent so it doesn't bother me to pull out a 5 or 6 instead of a 7 or 8.

[deronsizemore]

The guy in front of me today was playing the front tees(I was playing from the tips), and I just could not get over it. I can understand hitting from a tee farther up if you cant hit far, but he was hitting them over 250 every time. I wanted to tell him that he was hitting from the ladies tee every time I caught up, but that tee box was just sooo far up. Not every hole is suppose to be a drivable par 4 or a par 5 in two. Having a mid to long iron game shows alot in a persons game, but I only saw him hit wedges and high irons.

Maybe he decided to go out and work on his wedge game that day? Maybe the previous day he was hitting from the tips working on his long iron game? Maybe he did it just to try to piss people off?

I play in a league for work each week and everyone tees off from the forward tees which basically makes every par 4 driver-wedge for me. I really hope I'm not offending anyone else on the course by doing this. /sarcasm

[jamo]

I would never discourage someone from playing tees that are too easy for them. There are too many people who play tees too hard for them it is good to see it the other way. I like playing the front tees occasionally. I played from the forward tees few weeks ago because I was paired up with an older couple who was playing there and I shot an even par, albeit with 5 birdies. But because the course rating was about 5 points below par, my differential was near 5.