Tips or closer tee boxes

[pond prowler]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to figure out what tee boxes I should be teeing off from on many of the courses I hope to play.  I'm just now getting back into the game and my distance is still there.  Length is not an issue on ~90% of the courses I play when ball striking is good (7100-6500), but I'm still pretty inconsistent when it comes to ball striking and short game until I can fine tune things.

So I'm seeking advice as to what your approach would be for where to tee off until I have ~15 rounds under my belt.  The problem is that when I hit my driver well, shorter tee boxes result in a lot of short approaches (8 iron or less), but when my tee shots are all over the place, I'm just punching out or hitting some low "curvy" shots aroung trees up to the green.  If I play the tips on most courses, ~5 iron would be the longest approach on good driving days.

From a game improvement stand point, would it be more useful to tee it up from the tips and work on some longer iron swings and drill the short game?  Or would it be better to tee up closer and focus on the accuracy/consistency above all else? (Control vs. power)

I'm just trying to pick the right tees that would be most beneficial/efficient for game improvement in the long run.  Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[kobalt]

control, control, control. no use being able to drive 300 and then flail away from there,

[Clambake]

One common rule of thumb is to take the distance you hit your 5 iron and multiply by 36, and then pick the tee box yardage closest to that number.   For example, if you hit a 5 iron 190 yards, that would give you a target distance of 6840 yards.    Picking a set of tees closest to this number means you'll most likely get a nice mix of short, mid, and long iron approaches.

[B-Con]

I think that one of the prevailing ideas is that you start with the shortest tees and then move back as you conquer each set of tees. If you're having trouble (how much trouble?) with your shorter approach shots, you probably haven't conquered that set of tees and for both the betterment of your game and pace of play you probably would want to stay with those. JMHO.

[pond prowler]

Thanks for your feedback.  In retrospect, I think I should've posted this in the Instruction and Playing Tips (moderators, feel free to move this post).  I'm still getting the feel of this site's layout...

Clambake, thanks for the general guide line.  I haven't heard of that one before but it makes pretty good sense as a general rule.

One of the reasons I was posting was because I teed up from the men's tees (not back tees) on one of my first rounds getting back into things.  I was paired with a couple of guys/hacks that gave me a few strange looks/comments after having flip wedges into a few of the first short par 4 holes where I hit my drives well.  I'll ignore such reactions in the future and just tee off from where I think gives me the best chance to improve my game on a given day for that particular course.

I should've been more clear in my OP.  Short irons/wedges into the greens isn't the area needing improvement; it's the tee shots.  As of now, there is a great difference between well struck tee shots and miss hits that makes choosing a tee box tricky.  This then affects the rest of my shots from scrambling and scoring type modes.  Four rounds under my belt went for 84, 81, 77, 78.  I'm hoping to get the tee shots sorted out in the next few practice sessions.  I hope to be confident on the tips soon.

B-Con, good to see another Texan on here.  I'm from Austin, but was in Frisco the other weekend for a Jimmy Buffet concert, good times!