Bad Tee Box Conditions

[Robato]

These drive me crazy. If courses want more customers, they should pay a lot of attention to their boxes. It can affect a players whole hole without them even knowing. I'm also talking about slanted, curved, grass-less afterthoughts of a tee box that you sometimes find on lesser courses. I take it as a challenge, part of the course, but it still drives me nuts sometimes. I've got a question, specifically about grass-less tee boxes:

How do you or would you play a 'par 3' tee shot, with a mid 7 iron or so, to a fairly open and easy green and pin location, with the condition of the tee grounds made of hard-packed sand, no grass. Its more like hard packed dirt then sand, but its held together with artificial turf underneath, as far as I can see. Its really hard to explain how un-divotable this ground is, but its like wet, gritty dirt, with no give at all. Hit the ground first, and it will feel like a flubbed fairway bunker shot, only more hard-panned. Almost like a half-inch of dirt on hard-pan. Why this course doesnt repair, is beyond me, but I refuse to back down from the challenge.

Your input is much appreciated.

[Blades4me]

I just consider that as part of the game. IMO, poor greens are much more offensive. When I skiied I learned to ski the conditions, not the conditions I wanted. This in turn made me a much better skiier.

[Deryck Griffith]

Originally Posted by Blades4me

I just consider that as part of the game. IMO, poor greens are much more offensive. When I skiied I learned to ski the conditions, not the conditions I wanted. This in turn made me a much better skiier.

I don't know.  I personally think that there isn't any excuse for poor tee boxes.  I do agree that you have to fight the elements but tee boxes should be decent enough play off of comfortably.

[Gioguy21]

i tend to agree with the blades...greens should be a much higher priority in my opinion. when it comes to par 3's...why does the ground bother you...you still use a short tee...and your divot occurs infront of the ball. understanding that the golf course managers should move the tees back over given weeks/days depending on traffic to allow for the front of the tee box to grow in...it's easier to adapt to divots on a tee box than it is to adapt to pock marks, divots, chunks, dry spots, bald spots and poorly tended to greens.

[SlapShotGolfer]

My biggest gripe with course conditions is when I pay quite a premium to play a course and then it is in horrible condition. I played a course recently that charge low three figures to play with a cart, wouldn't want to walk this course! And it had rained in the days previous and almost every bunker still had standing water in it, and there was quite a bit of standing water in the middle of the fairways. I lost more balls in the swamps of the standing water than I would normally with my slice!

[Harmonious]

Like Gioguy said, if you are using a tee for your irons, why does it matter about the condition of the teebox?  Are you playing the ball down?

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by Robato

These drive me crazy. If courses want more customers, they should pay a lot of attention to their boxes. It can affect a players whole hole without them even knowing. I'm also talking about slanted, curved, grass-less afterthoughts of a tee box that you sometimes find on lesser courses. I take it as a challenge, part of the course, but it still drives me nuts sometimes. I've got a question, specifically about grass-less tee boxes:

How do you or would you play a 'par 3' tee shot, with a mid 7 iron or so, to a fairly open and easy green and pin location, with the condition of the tee grounds made of hard-packed sand, no grass. Its more like hard packed dirt then sand, but its held together with artificial turf underneath, as far as I can see. Its really hard to explain how un-divotable this ground is, but its like wet, gritty dirt, with no give at all. Hit the ground first, and it will feel like a flubbed fairway bunker shot, only more hard-panned. Almost like a half-inch of dirt on hard-pan. Why this course doesnt repair, is beyond me, but I refuse to back down from the challenge.

Your input is much appreciated.

For a course like that I'd pick up some vintage PINGs or something else investment cast and leave the Miuras at home.

[TaylorMadeTaylor]

My old home course was just hard packed mud in the tee boxes, the fairways were mostly crabgrass and were kept the same length as the rough, and the greens were half dirt and had many crabgrass patches, and the bunkers had virtually no sand and were hard as conctete. Your course could be worse, trust me. That being said, I swiched to a much nicer course and no longer play there. I suggest you do the same if you are upset with the condition of your course.

[Robato]

Originally Posted by Harmonious

Like Gioguy said, if you are using a tee for your irons, why does it matter about the condition of the teebox?  Are you playing the ball down?

Good point. I think I have just been teeing it too low, (all the way flush) on these mud/dirt lies, and getting drawn into them from my annoyance.

I still would like to know what you guys do to adjust for these situations. It would be quite educational to know if there are general adjustments we all make in common, especially because after searching online, I have still yet to find a single golf tip dealing with what to do with bad tee boxes. Just saying the tees are part of the course, and that's it, is like saying long grass is part of the course. What do you do about it? And yeah, I could play at a better course, but that means more money, and I've found a good compromise in this course. The tee box problem is only on two tees.

[Maker]

I tend to agree that ill kept Tee boxes are quite aggrivating.  The two things that irk me the most are slanted ones (nothing like teeing off with the ball below my feet), or missing grass (not that I care where the ball is, but I'd like something for my spikes to hold onto rather than sand/dirt).  If they are too bad I simply tee off elsewhere.  If they are not going to bother maintaining them I am not going to bother using them.

[Kieran123]

Tee boxes don't bother me unless they're lumpy or slanted...

[B-Con]

Actually, the most annoying thing about teeboxes for me is when they're not aimed down the fairway. I hate standing on a box in between the markers and being aimed into the rough 150-200 yards out, forcing you to set up at a 10* or greater angle to the box markers just to hit the fairway. [quote name="Blades4me" url="/forum/thread/43893/bad-tee-box-conditions#post_573258"]

I just consider that as part of the game. IMO, poor greens are much more offensive. When I skiied I learned to ski the conditions, not the conditions I wanted. This in turn made me a much better skiier.

[/quote] I agree: I loathe bad greens, but bad teeboxes are only moderately offensive. At least you always have the option of using a tee from the box, which renders the grass/dirt makeup of the box less relevant.

[upah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harmonious

Like Gioguy said, if you are using a tee for your irons, why does it matter about the condition of the teebox?  Are you playing the ball down?

Good point. I think I have just been teeing it too low, (all the way flush) on these mud/dirt lies, and getting drawn into them from my annoyance.

I still would like to know what you guys do to adjust for these situations. It would be quite educational to know if there are general adjustments we all make in common, especially because after searching online, I have still yet to find a single golf tip dealing with what to do with bad tee boxes. Just saying the tees are part of the course, and that's it, is like saying long grass is part of the course. What do you do about it? And yeah, I could play at a better course, but that means more money, and I've found a good compromise in this course. The tee box problem is only on two tees.

On the teebox, the turf condition is more or less a non-issue.  If the ground is horrible, tee it up a bit and make sure you hit the ball first.  From crappy fairways, I'll take a bit more club and swing smoother, ensuring I catch the ball first.  Knockdowns work well in this case.

[sacm3bill]

My pet peeve is when the markers are so far to one side that it brings a tree into play that usually isn't - or is in play for that tee box but not for the box farther back.

[SlapShotGolfer]

I played 18 a local pub course this morning and they're still finishing some of the winter/spring clean up, so on the 17th tee box there were pine needles everywhere. It was actually a little fun, because they made some weird noises as I was walking over them.

[Maker]

I still have 2.5 feet of snow on the ground...oh how I can't wait for that spring thaw.  At this point the ground alone would be a welcome sight, nonetheless pine needles (haven't seen it since December).  :)

[Robato]

Thanks Upah.

[colin007]

grass/dirt/divot conditions are irrelevant.

many of the course near me dont have level tee boxes.  why the hell should anyone have to contend with any kind of side-hill, ball above or below your feet lie?