Should i be playing off the white tees for my handicap?

[golfro]

Interestinggg... here it generally goes as such.

red - ladies
yellow - visitors
white - regular mens
blue - players mens
black - champions/tournament

depending on course, sometimes its just red, white, blue, black

[motteler621]

Interestinggg... here it generally goes as such.

in high school golf they always made us play whites, so thats what I play. Occasionaly I go to the golf course and see some hacker on the blue tees

[golfro]

in high school golf they always made us play whites, so thats what I play. Occasionaly I go to the golf course and see some hacker on the blue tees

i always play for blues. or blacks if i'm feeling ballsy. in HS golf, we always played blue. Blue was standard tournament play for high school around where I grew up.

when I play with my dad, we play black. When I'm playing with friends, we play from Blues.

[Clambake]

Title says it all really.. ive never actually seen anyone use the whites at my club.

I like the guideline of your 5 iron distance to determine which set of tees rather than handicap. Quite a few golf teachers, club pros, etc. suggest you take your normal 5 iron distance and multiply by 36 to suggest the yardage that is best for you. If for example you hit a 5 iron 185 yards, then the set of tees giving you around 6600-6700 yards is best for your game, giving you the opportunity to use more clubs in your bag and have a variety of long and short irons into the green. This seems to be a better way of looking at which tees to use than simply base on handicap which may have relatively little to do with how far you hit it.

[motteler621]

i always play for blues. or blacks if i'm feeling ballsy. in HS golf, we always played blue. Blue was standard tournament play for high school around where I grew up.

thats cool. I know on a few holes at my home course the blue tees are atleast 100 yards back and we dont even have black tees.

[golfro]

thats cool. I know on a few holes at my home course the blue tees are atleast 100 yards back and we dont even have black tees.

Standard courses (non muni's) play about 6500-6800 from blues. From blacks, it goes anywhere from 6800 to 7400. Definitely tough to play unless you have the length off the tee. My dad who drives around 250-260 ends up hitting approach shots with 5 wood or long irons. Standard par 4's being 400+ yards with par 5's being 580 yards...its definitely not easy.

I personally enjoy playing from longer tee's because the game gets real boring when you play driver-wedge-putt. Enough that even if you're driving well, you put it away and hit a fairway wood just so you can add some variety in what irons you hit.

[wubskis]

I like the guideline of your 5 iron distance to determine which set of tees rather than handicap. Quite a few golf teachers, club pros, etc. suggest you take your normal 5 iron distance and multiply by 36 to suggest the yardage that is best for you. If for example you hit a 5 iron 185 yards, then the set of tees giving you around 6600-6700 yards is best for your game, giving you the opportunity to use more clubs in your bag and have a variety of long and short irons into the green. This seems to be a better way of looking at which tees to use than simply base on handicap which may have relatively little to do with how far you hit it.

Heh, never encountered that, that's pretty nice. In the UK, it is very unlikely there will be more than three sets of tees (ladies, mens, comp) and so it's not exactly open to experimentation. Quite often, you'll find that the mens tees are too short, and the championship tees are too long, leaving you in limbo.

[Zeph]

I like the guideline of your 5 iron distance to determine which set of tees rather than handicap. Quite a few golf teachers, club pros, etc. suggest you take your normal 5 iron distance and multiply by 36 to suggest the yardage that is best for you. If for example you hit a 5 iron 185 yards, then the set of tees giving you around 6600-6700 yards is best for your game, giving you the opportunity to use more clubs in your bag and have a variety of long and short irons into the green. This seems to be a better way of looking at which tees to use than simply base on handicap which may have relatively little to do with how far you hit it.

I'd say it is more fun to play courses of different length. And what about tournaments? You can't divide people in groups depending on how far they hit a 5 iron. If you always play 6000 yards, playing 6500 in a tournament might be difficult.

One course it's mostly mid to short irons into par 4s, another course it's mostly mid to long irons. It varies things up, instead of having the same distances over and over. I don't hit the ball all that long, but certainly enjoy the challenge of playing longer courses. According to that equation, I should be playing courses at 5900 yards. That would be red (ladies) tees on one course and yellow at another. I've played both courses from yellow and score just fine. The challenge of hitting long irons, woods and hybrids is nice. Why should there be a predetermined distance you play from? To avoid having to hit long clubs into the green? On the various tours around the world there are players that don't hit it as far as the longest, but they do just fine hitting long irons and woods.

[MKPKR]

I like the guideline of your 5 iron distance to determine which set of tees rather than handicap. Quite a few golf teachers, club pros, etc. suggest you take your normal 5 iron distance and multiply by 36 to suggest the yardage that is best for you. If for example you hit a 5 iron 185 yards, then the set of tees giving you around 6600-6700 yards is best for your game, giving you the opportunity to use more clubs in your bag and have a variety of long and short irons into the green. This seems to be a better way of looking at which tees to use than simply base on handicap which may have relatively little to do with how far you hit it.

I like the idea of using the 5i method to figure out what yardage you should play from. Here in the Charlotte area, no two courses have the same colored tees. Typically what i do to determine which set to play from is the par 3 yardages. I find something in the middle to where i don't have to hit 3hybrid or 3w off every par 3. Thats just the way i always figured it.

[mapa94]

I also think 5i distance times 36 is a good indicator of the correct tees. My 5i maxes out at about 175 (36X175=6300) and I really start to struggle on tees which exceed 6300yds.
Many recreational golfers would enjoy the game more and shoot better scores if they played from the appropriate tees IMHO.

[Paradox]

the 5i thing isn't really a "correct tee" indicator..its a max distance indicator. You said yourself that you feel that you struggle when you go past 6300 yards. Theres no better way to practice different shots than to play different tees on a course. It was part of the premise of the Forward Tee tournament thing on here and I think it will benefit a lot of people.

For instance, I've added a lot of strength to my half-swing wedge shots and 30-60 yard pitches because I've been playing up. On a lot of holes, a good tee shot will put me inside 100 yards. It beats the crap out of going to a practice facility and hitting shots that don't mean anything. My 3w has become a lot stronger because I play it off the tee and because of that, my driver swing has gotten better, too. Sometimes I play back and it helps my longer clubs and gives me the confidence to hit them. The biggest thing is par 3's..its very fun to hit different clubs into the par 3's....Going pin hunting with a 9 iron instead of hitting a 6 to the middle of the green feels good some times.

[Zeph]

Going pin hunting with a 9 iron instead of hitting a 6 to the middle of the green feels good some times.

Feels even better to go pin hunting with a 6 iron.

[tulefog]

Sometimes I hit my second shot from the red tees....

[The Recreational Golfer]

Play from the tees where you have the most fun and let your handicap take care of itself.

[Clambake]

the 5i thing isn't really a "correct tee" indicator..its a max distance indicator.

No, the 5 iron metric isn't meant as a max distance indicator - it is meant to basically put you playing the course as the designer intended. Good course design will leave you with a variety of shots throughout the round, sometimes with short iron approaches and sometimes with long iron shots. The designer doesn't intend to have even the long hitters be hitting driver/SW on ever par 4 or an 8 iron on every par 3. They try to mix it up. This is what the 5 iron distance guide tries to accomplish - put you on a set of tees where you're seeing the variety the course is supposed to offer. And in doing that, the belief is that the player will have more enjoyment because they get to hit a variety of shots, but not be overly stretched compared to someone who hits it longer.

[Paradox]

I can hit a variety of different shots into greens playing from any set of tees.

If you take your 5i and multiply by 36 you'll still come up with a distance where most of your approaches will be fairly close in distance..not a real "variety". It has nothing to do with playing a course the way it was designed but rather to put you at a yardage you can handle for your distance. A good course design will have a "variety" of shots no matter what tee you play from.

The whole premise was so that people who couldn't play the longer tees would maybe be logical and choose the set of tees that corresponded with the distance the 5i*36 gave them.

[Joeyvee]

Doesn't the handicap rating system take into account what tee you are playing from and adjust accordingly? Im a 20+ cap and play from the tips though because my friends make fun of me if we dont

[mapa94]

the 5i thing isn't really a "correct tee" indicator..its a max distance indicator. You said yourself that you feel that you struggle when you go past 6300 yards. Theres no better way to practice different shots than to play different tees on a course. It was part of the premise of the Forward Tee tournament thing on here and I think it will benefit a lot of people.

I don't disagree with the idea of playing from a variety of tees. One course near my home has blues at 6300 and whites at about 5900. Both of these tees are playable for me and I don't play from the same set each round...the white tees allow me to hit 3W or 5W off the tee on many par 4's and I usually average a few more GIR from the whites.

However, I stand by my original post that many recreational golfers (read weekend hacks) would post better scores if they played tees which matched their game (eg not playing from the championship tees or tips). Male golfers almost never choose tees that are too short for their game. My drives only go 215-225 so I know it is going to be tough sledding for me if I try to play 6400+ yd tracks.