Play the Correct Tee!

[Paradox]

I chalked it up to thinking they were probably watching the US Open and figured they could hit it that far, too.

[hendog]

  Mr3Wiggle said:

Originally Posted by Mr3Wiggle

I've seen it before too.  Usually at high-end courses.

Its funny you say high end courses because I was thinking that would be typical for a public or muni course. Although these can be high end as well I guess. One of the things I like about being a member at a country club is that the people out there are paying a lot of money for access so they seem to understand how to get the most out of a round. Plus there are services from the club itself to help people play better and quicker. I rarely see guys at the club obviously playing the wrong tees. There are always the kids (teenagers) just out messing around but they could probably kick my arse so I don't saying anything to them :)

[Mr3Wiggle]

  Jason M Henley said:

Originally Posted by Jason M Henley

Its funny you say high end courses because I was thinking that would be typical for a public or muni course. Although these can be high end as well I guess. One of the things I like about being a member at a country club is that the people out there are paying a lot of money for access so they seem to understand how to get the most out of a round. Plus there are services from the club itself to help people play better and quicker. I rarely see guys at the club obviously playing the wrong tees. There are always the kids (teenagers) just out messing around but they could probably kick my arse so I don't saying anything to them :)

Not country clubs usually.  High-end public courses and resort courses.  Everytime I play PGA National's Champ Course it seems a 4-some of mid-handicappers want to take the course on from the tips.

[hendog]

  Mr3Wiggle said:

Originally Posted by Mr3Wiggle

Not country clubs usually.  High-end public courses and resort courses.  Everytime I play PGA National's Champ Course it seems a 4-some of mid-handicappers want to take the course on from the tips.

Have to admit that I would do the same. I volunteered at the Shell Open in Houston and got a free round on the tournament course. I fully plan on playing from where the pros did. I will suck but I want to see just how good those guys are or maybe (no way) find out that I'm not to freaking bad!!!

[Golfingdad]

  tristanhilton85 said:

Originally Posted by tristanhilton85

Could be part of the problem... can't necessarily go by color. Like I said, at my home course the tees are red (women), white (men), yellow (championship), and black (professional).

I played another course recently where the back tees were "cabernet" then the next set up blue followed by white, green, and red...

The point is that you can't really go by color, figure out about what yardage works for your game and then find the tee box that plays at that... for me its about 6500 yards so I find that tee box and go.

I went out the other day and joined with a threesome that included one good player and two average players.  The first hole is a par 5 and the white, blue and black tees were all only about 10 yards apart.  The good player was playing the blues (and I joined him), and the average guys played the whites.  We didn't think to look for the red tees because none of us were playing them.  It wasn't until the fifth hole, which is a long par 5, where the white tees were about 80 yards in front of the blues that we realized there were no red tees.  They only had 3 sets of tees and they were white, blue, black.

So, Tristan is definitely right, you cannot go by color.

[Mr3Wiggle]

  Jason M Henley said:

Originally Posted by Jason M Henley

Have to admit that I would do the same. I volunteered at the Shell Open in Houston and got a free round on the tournament course. I fully plan on playing from where the pros did. I will suck but I want to see just how good those guys are or maybe (no way) find out that I'm not to freaking bad!!!

Not really a big deal if you're an 8.  I'm talking 15 handicappers and higher.

[Golfingdad]

  Jason M Henley said:

Originally Posted by Jason M Henley

Have to admit that I would do the same. I volunteered at the Shell Open in Houston and got a free round on the tournament course. I fully plan on playing from where the pros did. I will suck but I want to see just how good those guys are or maybe (no way) find out that I'm not to freaking bad!!!

And I really see no problem with this.  Unless you are playing a course with long forced carries, I don't see how playing 20 yards further back on each hole is really slowing you down that much.  If you are slow, its because of something else.

(You in the general sense, not you personally)

[Motley01]

I'm playing in an 2 day tournament this weekend at my home course. Called Heaven & Heck.

Heaven day is Saturday, we play from the forward tees (ladies red) at 5200 yards.

Heck day is Sunday, and we play from the Championship tees (black) at a whopping 7500 yards. Yes folks, 7500 yards!

And its a difficult course, with ravines in between the tees and fairways. Some of the carries on Sunday will be 240 yards.

It will but nuts.

[meenman]

  Motley01 said:

Originally Posted by Motley01

I'm playing in an 2 day tournament this weekend at my home course. Called Heaven & Heck.

Heaven day is Saturday, we play from the forward tees (ladies red) at 5200 yards.

Heck day is Sunday, and we play from the Championship tees (black) at a whopping 7500 yards. Yes folks, 7500 yards!

And its a difficult course, with ravines in between the tees and fairways. Some of the carries on Sunday will be 240 yards.

It will but nuts.

I am generally of the mindset that ego gets in the way of which tee box many play, but in our annual red, white and blue tournament, all four in my group (a,b,c and d player) shot better from the blues (tips) than the reds (ladies tees)

[newtogolf]

Which ones do you usually play?  If you always play the blues then I'd expect you to score better.

  meenman said:

Originally Posted by meenman

I am generally of the mindset that ego gets in the way of which tee box many play, but in our annual red, white and blue tournament, all four in my group (a,b,c and d player) shot better from the blues (tips) than the reds (ladies tees)

[meenman]

  newtogolf said:

Originally Posted by newtogolf

Which ones do you usually play?  If you always play the blues then I'd expect you to score better.

We all normally play the whites, the older guys generally play the golds. The blue tees are rarely used at my club, other than for the club championship.

[newtogolf]

Sounds like distance isn't the problem for you guys.   I'd definitely score worse from the tips, no doubt about it.

  meenman said:

Originally Posted by meenman

We all normally play the whites, the older guys generally play the golds. The blue tees are rarely used at my club, other than for the club championship.

[meenman]

  newtogolf said:

Originally Posted by newtogolf

Sounds like distance isn't the problem for you guys.   I'd definitely score worse from the tips, no doubt about it.

Dont get me wrong, I'd shoot worse from the tips than I do from the whites - i'd get 3 more strokes but I can count 6 holes where I'd give up at least a stroke. I just found it funny that a scratch,6 ,15 and 21 would all struggle more from the reds than the tips.

[BuckeyeNut]

  NM Golf said:

Originally Posted by NM Golf

Little rant here, This has happened to me a lot lately:

I have been playing a lot of golf lately as a single or with a buddy as a twosome. I show up on the first tee after being paired up with other players, I introduce myself and I head back to the back tees. The people I am paired with obviously were planning to play the middle tees but when I head back they come back with me. I tell them its no big deal that they can play the white tees but here they come and none of them should be back there. Then they struggle the whole 18 when they would have had a much better time had they stayed on the middle tees.

Today it was really bad, I was paired up with two other guys. One of the guys stayed on the middle tees but the other one decided to come back to the back tees with my buddy and me. It took him 4 holes to get his first tee ball in the air because he was swinging so hard. The par 3's all play 200+ at my course and he couldn't hit his driver to them. On #10 my buddy and I moved up to the middle tees just so he would too because we were having a difficult time staying up with the group in front of us.

Like I said this has happened every time I have played lately. Why do people feel they need to play the back tee boxes just because I want to? It puts pressure on me and several times I have played up to avoid the problem when I really wanted to play back. These are all really nice people, they just weren't good enough to play the blue tees. What would you do? Do you let other players determine what tees you play?

I've had the same problem over the years......I don't even play the tips regularly (75.1CR 141slope) at my home course unless it's with really good players.  It just depends...what are the tips???  The tips?....what does that mean?  The tips may be 6400yds....70cr 115slope!! "The Tips" in itself is a meaningless term depending on the course......

I usually play tees 1 set forward... 72.5cr 137slope. (still no slouch)  I'll pair up with guys who have no business playing there and come back with me...........it's awkward....I'll give you that!!   I try to nip it in bud right away......if I sense they intended to play forward, I sell it.......explain that it's OK and sell it without insulting them.  Most times, they'll go ahead and play from where they intended to in the first place.   Who I play with doesn't matter....I cannot move forward from those tee because it ruins the course for me.  My index is 1.5.......some may argue I am playing from the wrong tees!!!  (by playing 1 set forward)

[turbosdad]

the usga had a commercial or some discussion during the Open, that all amatuers should play the forward tees to play the game the way it was supposed to be play, ie more GIR........also was to speed up play.

I saw an article in a golf mag some time back that advocated everyone play from the red tee's.............

just saying.

[Double Bogey]

  turbosdad said:

Originally Posted by turbosdad

the usga had a commercial or some discussion during the Open, that all amatuers should play the forward tees to play the game the way it was supposed to be play, ie more GIR........also was to speed up play.

Forgive me for getting off topic a bit, but how is this supposed to speed up play?  Don't get me wrong I am all for Tee It Forward, but it is not going to speed up play.  It does make the game more fun (at least for me), but it is not any faster.  From my perspective most time is spent either looking for balls, not being ready to play, or putting.  Teeing it forward is not going to change that.  It will just allow the player to possibly hit a couple less shots, not necessarily better ones.

[Mr3Wiggle]

  Double Bogey said:

Originally Posted by Double Bogey

Forgive me for getting off topic a bit, but how is this supposed to speed up play?  Don't get me wrong I am all for Tee It Forward, but it is not going to speed up play.  It does make the game more fun (at least for me), but it is not any faster.  From my perspective most time is spent either looking for balls, not being ready to play, or putting.  Teeing it forward is not going to change that.  It will just allow the player to possibly hit a couple less shots, not necessarily better ones.

I think the assumption is you will score lower from the forward tees and thus take fewer shots.  Fewer shots = faster round.

[Spyder]

The guys that I golf with make it easy, we just determine where we are going to tee up from prior to making it to the course. Generally, we go Whites. Sometimes, we will go Blue (longest) if we are doing a scramble, betting, or just up for more of a challenge. Most of the Blue tees on the courses that we frequent are drives to blind fair-ways over rolling fairways or dog-legs. Sometimes the whites are a little more challenging on specific holes though because the Blues offer more distance to get a driver over the tree line of the dog-leg, where as the whites would require a lay-up.

Just play where you're comfortable, or where you are having the most fun. Until I pay for your round, I'm not going to influence you to do anything different.