Play the Correct Tee!

[PhillyMac]

I normally play 9 holes during the week as a single. I don't care what tees anyone play from, where I normally play from the middle tees. A week ago I got paired with a father and son, and they proceeded to play the back tees, I kept with my game plan and played middle. Needless to say, the father and son duo, were scoring double and triple bogies the entire 9 holes. I think the dad actually hit a drive close to 220 yds once. I was walking, and was constantly waiting on them to get to the green. That was one of my most frustrating rounds I've had all year considering it took us close to 3 hours to play.

[trackster]

Another side to this story, at my home course I have seen a huge increase in the number of people playing the most forward tees.  From what I have seen these people aren't that bad either.  I don't really think that moving forward a tee box is going to speed up a sub 20 handicapper all that much.  It's not hitting short that causes slow play, its duffing, shanking, whiffing shots along with time in between swings that is causing players to be slow.  While the tips at my course aren't excessive (6650) I can count on one hand the number of people that I have seen play them., and every single one has the game to play there.  In my honest opinion most weekend warriors, and even some veteran players have game that  is best suited for the forward tees, but again most men don't want to feel immasuclated.

[newtogolf]

Most casual golfers don't know what the right tees for them are.  I think most of us take it for granted here at TST that there are multiple tee boxes that anyone can play.  Most people I know that aren't really into golf are under the misconception that there's ladies tees, senior tees and the men's tees are the ones  farthest back.

Guys follow you most likely because;

1. They assume you know which are the "mens" tees
2. Their ego is too fragile to admit they shouldn't be playing from the tips and they'd rather make excuses the entire round on how they never hit the ball this bad.
3. They aren't aware golfers in a group can play from different tees.

[Jwat381]

I don't think too much of it. I know my game as of now and which yardage would be too long or too short for me. As I've gotten better, I've moved back a set on a few holes, but I haven't made the full-time switch yet. Not until I can consistently break 90 from the tees I'm at. Otherwise, what's the point?

[formula428]

A friend of mine and myself played the champ tees yesterday by accident.  I'm still getting used to the whole golf thing, and I thought they were the men's tees.

Honestly though, I don't think it made a bit of difference for me.

[xmanhockey7]

For me I typically play up if the other guys in the group are playing the middle tees. One time I played the lady tees because it was obvious the woman I was playing with felt like she was slowing us down by waiting on her to hit after we had hit. I typically play the tips at the course I work at because I normally play with one of my bosses who are all pros. Wednesday I'm playing the next tees up with a girl who works at the course but she's pretty good player. Hits her drives 240-250 with roll and normally shoots around par from the tees up from the tips.

[Tuflehundon]

  Motley01 said:

Originally Posted by Motley01

And why are you playing the back tees?

I tend to hit my driver really well. I hit my driver better than any other club. I also just feel more comfortable playing from there. And if I never challenge myself, I'll never get any better.

Edit: after re reading things, I think the what I said may have been confusing. I play the 2nd set of tee's, which we've always called the back tee's, not the tips or championship tee's some courses have. Some of the older courses here in Tampa Bay and in Orlando don't even have championship tee's. That may be what was misinterpreted.

[Mattplusness]

Every single freaking time I play with my dad or a friend, they always want to play the blues.

WHY?! You can't break 100 at the whites!

[GaijinGolfer]

I agree 100%!  A couple weeks ago I go grouped with these 3 guys who wanted to play from the blues, which was fine with me but by the time we got done with the 9th hole and they had shot triple bogey or worse on every hole I almost asked them if they REALLY thought they should be playing from the blues.

Personally, Im perfectly happy playing from the whites.  Id rathar actually have a chance at making pars or even birdies if Im playing really well than to play the blues, pretend that Im a pro and be forced to hit 5-wood on every 2nd shot.  I'll take hitting a 7-iron into the green on my 2nd shot and having a chance over hitting 5-wood and praying that it gets there.

[Mr3Wiggle]

  Motley01 said:

Originally Posted by Motley01

Really? Man all the courses should do this kind of thing. Could you imagine how much faster people would play, if they play from the correct tees? No more 6 hour rounds!!!!

But, but, what about all the 16 handicappers who consistently hit it 300 right down the middle???

[Topper]

I agree.  I know the length where I have the most fun and for me that length is about 5800 to 6200 yds, and I have no issue going shorter if the course has a nice layout and forces me to make shots.  I played a course last Saturday that played over 6300 yds from the whites.  A distance of about 140 yds over my my preferred max of 6200 doesn't sound like a lot, but it made a huge difference.  Just enough extra yardage on many holes to take my from a wedge/short iron to a mid iron or from a mid iron to a hybrid.  It's a tough day when I'm trying to hit hybrids to get a GIR.

I have no issue playing from a different (forward) tee relative to others in my group.  Golf is tough enough without letting ego kill my game.

[Remark37]

  NM Golf said:

Originally Posted by NM Golf

Sorry!

I liked it at a course I played in Michigan a few years ago. The starter put people at the correct tee box on the number one tee. I was the only one in my group allowed to play back. I had to show proof of my handicap to play back there.

Hey NM Golf, just out of curiosity, what course was that? I live in Michigan.

[newtogolf]

It would be interesting to do a survey and find out how many golfers at a course (muni, public) actually understood the purpose of the different tee boxes and which ones are appropriate for them.

[Topper]

  newtogolf said:

Originally Posted by newtogolf

It would be interesting to do a survey and find out how many golfers at a course (muni, public) actually understood the purpose of the different tee boxes and which ones are appropriate for them.

That's easy.  Forward tees are for girls. Gold tees are for seniors. White tees are for guys.  Blues/Blacks are for guys who really know how to golf.  It's the way we are all "taught" from day 1 when we pick up a club.

[newtogolf]

I must have missed that class along with the majority of golfers I see playing public courses.  Seems more like forward tees are for girls, don't know what those white or gold are for, we're looking for the ones all the way in the back cause those are the mens tees.

  Topper said:

Originally Posted by Topper

That's easy.  Forward tees are for girls. Gold tees are for seniors. White tees are for guys.  Blues/Blacks are for guys who really know how to golf.  It's the way we are all "taught" from day 1 when we pick up a club.

[hendog]

I have seen some courses that put the handicap ranges for each tees. So you simply play the tee for your handicap. Of course most of the guys playing the wrong tees probably don't even track their handicap.

My club has 4 tees. I think its pretty common knowledge that Red is Ladies since we all learn that if you don't get it past those tees you have to play with your pants down. We then go to White, Blue and Gold. The Golds are obviously very challenging with many of them back and around the corner or something like that. Not just 15 yards back. So you rarely see guys playing from back there unless they've got serious game or love losing balls. So it comes down to White or Blue. Blue is designated for "Men" and White is "Seniors" or "Juniors". With these labels, its hard to get any guy to NOT play from the Blues since after all they consider themselves Men right?

Its also hard to convince people that 15 or 20 yards IS a huge difference per hole for 18 holes as the average difficulty of shots will decrease and thus you will have more success (at least in theory, you still have to hit decent shots).

Finally, I think guys pick the tee based on how far they can hit their Driver which I think is wrong. First of all they probably don't hit it as far as they think and even if they do they only do it 1 in 5 or 1 in 10 and the rest are going sideways. Besides there are only 18 tee shots a round (14 on non par 3s) minus 36 or so putts leaving 40-50 "other" shots that all got harder since you started so far back. So its not about how far you can hit it, its about how good your overall game is IMO.

[Tuflehundon]

Were it gets confusing is when they add or take away tees. At Zellwood Station in Orlando, there is a set of tee's in front of the ladies tee's, and there are no championship tee's. This is in a retirement community, which many courses down here are. I've played that course 10 or more times, and still don't know what those farthest forward tee's are for.

[Callie in MI]

  Remark37 said:

Originally Posted by Remark37

Hey NM Golf, just out of curiosity, what course was that? I live in Michigan.

I live in MI as well and am also curious to know the golf course.  The first thing I thought when I read this was Bay Harbor in northern MI.  That has been the only course that actually asked handicap and assigned players to a tee box based on that.  However, that has NEVER worked in making the round shorter on that course because every time I've played Bay Harbor (Links/Quarry or the Preserve/Quarry), we're backed up like a bad sewer.  5+ hour for 18 (WITH a cart).  Goodness - it tries my patience.

I don't know whether handicap should be the ONLY criteria for playing the backs or the tips.  My husband drives the ball at least 280 on pretty much every drive.  His handicap isn't lower because his short game sucks!  (Please don't tell him I said that! )  He most always plays from the back tees. And when we play with his boss, his boss usually plays from those tees as well, when in reality, his boss should be playing with me from the forward tees!

Just my 2 cents' worth.