Play the Correct Tee!

[Dave2512]

I wonder if it would make a difference. My experience is the folks playing from the tips that shouldn't be are oblivious to lots of things about the game. It's not just lack of ability. More often than not they are the group that drives the cart over the tee box and through the GUR area as they zig zag around the course chasing duffed shots on their way to a 3 hr 9 hole round. I don't doubt that some people think paying to golf is the same thing as paying admission to an amusement park.

[Roblar]

  Topper said:

Originally Posted by Topper

I think this is a great idea to "re-brand" tees from the old designations (ladies, seniors, men, etc.) to new designations based on golfing ability.  They can post a handicap AND an appropriate score range.  I don't have an official handicap but I know where I generally score.

I really like this idea.

[Double Bogey]

While that idea is awesome (Robert Trent Jones Courses do this) there is little to no way to enforce it unless your courses have marshals (like they do) which are everywhere all the time.

Side bar- I have brought up this idea to my club, but they scraped the idea due to all the tourneys played from one tee box so the "playing field is leveled via handicaps."  Seemed like a cop-out answer to me, but that was the quote from the Pro-shop and GM.

[meenman]

  Double Bogey said:

Originally Posted by Double Bogey

Side bar- I have brought up this idea to my club, but they scraped the idea due to all the tourneys played from one tee box so the "playing field is leveled via handicaps."  Seemed like a cop-out answer to me, but that was the quote from the Pro-shop and GM.

Unfortunately, at our club, tourneys do have to played from one tee box, the gold tees are a separate flight from the white tees. The old rule used to be you had to be over 55 and play 75% of your rounds from the golds to play there. It has been recently amended leaving out the age requirement.

The answer we got from the USGA was that handicaps are really meant for match play and there is really no way people can play in competition from different tees

[zombywoof]

If you are playing in a group for which there may be a spread of 3 or even 4 "correct" tees depending on the individual players' abilities (say mixed genders/experience) what do you normally do?  Is it appropriate for everyone to play "their" tees, or might that slow things down too much?

[sean_miller]

  meenman said:

Originally Posted by meenman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Double Bogey

Side bar- I have brought up this idea to my club, but they scraped the idea due to all the tourneys played from one tee box so the "playing field is leveled via handicaps."  Seemed like a cop-out answer to me, but that was the quote from the Pro-shop and GM.

Unfortunately, at our club, tourneys do have to played from one tee box, the gold tees are a separate flight from the white tees. The old rule used to be you had to be over 55 and play 75% of your rounds from the golds to play there. It has been recently amended leaving out the age requirement.

The answer we got from the USGA was that handicaps are really meant for match play and there is really no way people can play in competition from different tees

Our league is mixed with most men playing off the back tees and most of the women playing off the forward tees. It works (usually) but it's also match play.

[LovinItAll]

  CBVegas said:

Originally Posted by CBVegas

Bottom line if your not shooting in the 70's you have absolutely no business on anything other than the front tees

Meh....I think I disagree with this. Personally, I would say:

- If your not shooting in the 80's, move up. If you can shoot in the 70's, you can play from any tee box. --or--

- If you can't reach almost every par 4 with - at most - driver + 5i, you're playing the wrong tees.

I do agree that, as a rule, golfers would have more fun teeing it forward. I have zero problem playing from the red tees with my wife from time to time.

I'm a 'Senior', so if I'm joining other 'Seniors' that are playing from the whites, I happily join them, same for folks that play from the member tees. I have the length (no, I don't hit it 300+) to play from the tips, but I seldom do, as I really like having shorter irons and wedges into four pars. Makes me feel like I'm playing a game that more resembles a tour pros game with regard to club selection. With that said, I don't find that playing from the tips ever adds more than a handful of strokes than if I'd played from the member tees.

To the guy(s) that say that their scores are 15 shots higher when they step back, is that just a byproduct of marginal mid-iron play, or are you just really sharp with short irons? The differential really shouldn't be that large, but I'm in NO WAY suggesting that one should play back so that they can 'see the whole course'....I HATE that.

One of our club's tournament tees play 7600 yards. Thank goodness they have the good sense to not set the tees that far back very often, as visitors - and we have a lot of them - often insist on playing as far back as possible. I think they'd play from another zip code if that's where the tees were located. 7600 is a long grind - one par four less than 400 and one par three less than 200. No 600+ yard par 5's.

[AmazingWhacker]

I don't get the obsession with playing the back tees.  I only play fun rounds - not competitive - but I most often play the whites (the closest of the "mens" tees).  When I used to play the same course all the time,  I would often play it from the junior tees (in front of the ladies tees) just to mix it up and make it play like an executive course.

I might be alone in this one but I will often mix tees throughout the round - play some holes from the whites and some from the reds.  Who cares, really?  It's not like I'm running around braggin about my scores or telling people I shot par on x number of holes when I'm really playing the yellow tees.

[sean_miller]

  AmazingWhacker said:

Originally Posted by AmazingWhacker

I don't get the obsession with playing the back tees.  I only play fun rounds - not competitive - but I most often play the whites (the closest of the "mens" tees).  When I used to play the same course all the time,  I would often play it from the junior tees (in front of the ladies tees) just to mix it up and make it play like an executive course.

I might be alone in this one but I will often mix tees throughout the round - play some holes from the whites and some from the reds.  Who cares, really?

Exactly. Who cares?

My course doesn't have "tips". Just back tees and forward tees. It would be nice to play it at about 5-600 yards longer once in awhile, but it's a good value and it's on my way home from work. Oh well.

[sean_miller]

  LovinItAll said:

Originally Posted by LovinItAll

. . . To the guy(s) that say that their scores are 15 shots higher when they step back, is that just a byproduct of marginal mid-iron play, or are you just really sharp with short irons? The differential really shouldn't be that large, but I'm in NO WAY suggesting that one should play back so that they can 'see the whole course'....I HATE that. . . .

Main reason my scoring doesn't change much from farther out - just as likely to hit the green with a 4-iron as an 8-iron. Hitting full long irons for 18 holes is hard on the joints though, so I probably couldn't play that long a course even if I think I can do it once in awhile.

[wolfsburg2]

FWIW about length I tracked a few 3 wood drives last weekend and they were 245 yards and playable. I play from the tips to improve my handicap. I am not long, but I am long enough.

I see guys hittign driver from the middle and forward tees and I cringe. Why hit the big stick to the narrow part of the fairway? I am long enough that this is a concern for me.

[Roblar]

  sean_miller said:

Originally Posted by sean_miller

Exactly. Who cares?

My course doesn't have "tips". Just back tees and forward tees. It would be nice to play it at about 5-600 yards longer once in awhile, but it's a good value and it's on my way home from work. Oh well.

Have you considered playing from off the tee boxes?  My uncle (better-than-scratch at the time) used to lengthen his usual course by teeing off behind the tee boxes on the holes that allowed for it.  Made the game a bit more challenging/different for him, and with the tee, you don't need the mowed teebox.  He had an understanding with the head pro - not sure how difficult that would be to arrange, but I bet you could *get away with it* if you only lengthened holes away from the clubhouse.

[Dave2512]

I just club down on the short holes. Not uncommon for me to hit a 4i from the box on a par 4 and still end up hitting a 9i-PW-GW in. The back of the tee box is usually only a few yards behind the blue/black/whatever. I'm long by most standards and I still play whites because the guys I play with do.

[sean_miller]

  Roblar said:

Originally Posted by Roblar

Quote:

Originally Posted by sean_miller

Exactly. Who cares?

My course doesn't have "tips". Just back tees and forward tees. It would be nice to play it at about 5-600 yards longer once in awhile, but it's a good value and it's on my way home from work. Oh well.

Have you considered playing from off the tee boxes?  My uncle (better-than-scratch at the time) used to lengthen his usual course by teeing off behind the tee boxes on the holes that allowed for it.  Made the game a bit more challenging/different for him, and with the tee, you don't need the mowed teebox.  He had an understanding with the head pro - not sure how difficult that would be to arrange, but I bet you could *get away with it* if you only lengthened holes away from the clubhouse.

At a course I used to work at, we used to have competitions playing the course with alternate routings. That was fun. Now i just take less club. Trying to reach a hole by playing wedge, 3-wood or two 4-irons. Stuff like that.

[Stargaze]

  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?

If I were playing with you I'd be playing the white tees.  I've only been playing since the start of this year and I struggle getting a 200 yard drive right now.  I guess I don't have a big ego I don't know.

[Jimdangles]

  Roblar said:

Originally Posted by Roblar

Have you considered playing from off the tee boxes?  My uncle (better-than-scratch at the time) used to lengthen his usual course by teeing off behind the tee boxes on the holes that allowed for it.  Made the game a bit more challenging/different for him, and with the tee, you don't need the mowed teebox.  He had an understanding with the head pro - not sure how difficult that would be to arrange, but I bet you could *get away with it* if you only lengthened holes away from the clubhouse.

There is an executive course that I play sometimes where the longest par 3 is like 140 so I will sometimes just tee off behind the bushes behind the tee box. Allows me to pull out the 7 iron

[dsc123]

  Jimdangles said:

Originally Posted by Jimdangles

There is an executive course that I play sometimes where the longest par 3 is like 140 so I will sometimes just tee off behind the bushes behind the tee box. Allows me to pull out the 7 iron

most definitely NOT the correct tees.

[Roblar]

People should really play the correct bushes!