Tee boxes that just screw with your head

[Dave2512]

It doesn't bother me. I rarely hit the ball exactly where I want to anyway. Our course is kind of funky, the tee boxes aren't one after another in a line. Some follow the contour of the ground and others are staggered and off to the side of the fairway. They are also pretty liberal with marker placements, they use all of the box and they are sizeable. Some of it is perception. Even though it looks strange from the box when you look back from the fairway or whatever you get an idea what the designer intended. In fact I read that the guy that designed our home course (Arthur Hills) has a unique approach in that he works back from the 18th green to the 1st tee. I've learned a lot about the course looking backwards.

[JonMA1]

I think that @nevets88  is talking about the tee box being aligned to an angle away from the fairway.  That's usually a course design feature intended to do exactly what he's talking about here.  The tee markers have little to do with it because as EJ  pointed out, you only see one at a time anyway (unless you have eyes in the back of your head)......

This is the tee box that messed me up when I first started playing at this course. I'm used to it now. You don't have to have eyes in the back of your head to see both markers. I'm not saying you can see both at address, but they follow the contour of the tee area so they almost are within your vision when facing the fairway. It doesn't take much of a distraction for me to fire one into the trees. If that's intention of the designer - mission accomplished.

[nevets88]

I think I'm pretty experienced with teeing off. I've used the full limits of the two club length rule and have no problems teeing up the ball just off the tee marker and standing over it for a better angle. I also practice aiming in different directions at the range, although the setup of the range, especially the posts holding up the nets in the back and how they are angled can screw with me as well.

Here is one example. Bethpage Green #10. I aim left, but when I'm not comfortable, I do a Jim Furyk and Dosey Doe to the sparse trees on the right. Not a big deal on this hole as it's short, but just an example. I may be thinking, cr@p, I'm gonna run out of fairway (even with an iron) and shift right subconsciously.

[flopster]

What I find annoying is when the groundskeepers or employees may be more accurate put the damn markers all the way back on the teeing ground that if you used the two club lengths you will be hitting from a ridiculous upward angle.

[Pretzel]

What I find annoying is when the groundskeepers or employees may be more accurate put the damn markers all the way back on the teeing ground that if you used the two club lengths you will be hitting from a ridiculous upward angle.

I had this in a tournament once, but it was awful on the 9th hole. They had pushed the tees so far back that any stance wider than shoulder-width (which is just about everyone's with a driver or 3-wood) would put your back foot in the rough where a gentle slope started. I mean, will it really make that much of a difference for how the hole play had they given us at least 1 extra foot to work with? Two of my group members teed up in front of the tee marker and I didn't even bother calling them on it since it was within inches and due to the placement of the markers. It was just one of those irritating situations that is beyond your control I guess.

[fRzzy]

I used to be very confused at the range when practicing on the mat, I don't know where I was aiming, it's feel like I'm not square to anything, when I'm aligning myself to the mat I felt like I was aiming way right. Then I watched YouTube and an instructor (Shawn Clement I think) have this video about keeping your focus on the target even when you are looking at the ball. This does work, or maybe it's coincidentally but sometimes I hit right on the target with a weird ball flight, then I checked and found out that my foot is aiming left (I tend to setup open if I'm not being careful, not sure why)

[dave s]

My home course has a par-5 with woods right, cart path left.  The tee box is situated such that MOST golfers hit the ball left, over the cart path and 20-30 yards left of the fairway.  Even the guys who can slice one off the planet with driver are over there most of the time.  Rarely does anyone hit one right and into the trees.

It's puzzling to me why the guys with whom I play don't see that the design of the tee box most definitely points left of the fairway.  The course workers align the tee markers with the tee box direction making it even EASIER for people to hit it left.

Only hole on the course where the tee box is positioned oddly.

dave

[Dave2512]

So many golfers have alignment problems it probably further messes with their heads. I've noticed that on holes that set up good for a slicer quite a few unknowingly address the ball more closed than they usually do and their slice isn't as pronounced.

[MS256]

What I find annoying is when the groundskeepers or employees may be more accurate put the damn markers all the way back on the teeing ground that if you used the two club lengths you will be hitting from a ridiculous upward angle.

I deal with exactly the opposite problem ALL the time. There is nothing that messes with my head anymore than a tee box sloping downhill (especially when I am going to hit a driver). Our course owner (and superintendent) isn't the longest hitter out there (although the best player) and he loves to put the tee markers as far forward as possible on any hole that he thinks he could possibly drive the green (although it never happens anyway).

Those tee boxes are almost always sloping downhill a little that far toward the front (even with two club lengths). It really shouldn't bother me as much as it does but there seems to be nothing I can do about it. I have a much better chance of driving those greens from the back edge of the tee box on an uphill slope than the front edge, even with the extra distance.

Funny when I set the tee markers they are always toward the back and when he sets the them they are always toward the front. Sometimes after I set them he changes them to suit him.

[amac]

You ever have a tee box aim to the right, yet you know to hit the fairway, you need to aim left of where the tee box points you, but something about the look of the hole or something about the teeing area f*&ks; with your head and you start aiming right despite knowing it's mistake. I swear, it's gotta be psychosomatic. tl;dr - Sometimes I think too much.

I hear ya!  Just about every hole at my home course points to the right of the fairway.  I'll tell you what the Pro told me when I inquired about the very thing.  He said, "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.  Aim it down the middle and forget the tee box/markers."

[WUTiger]

Yep. Ignore the tee markers and aim for the fairway.

This has caused some debate among course designers. Some designers say golf is hard enough without tee boxes that point into the trees, while others say a couple of sneaky tee box alignments "keeps the golfers thinking."

Hole No. 3 at the Highlands* course in Forest Park does this. It's a 330-yd. par 4, dogleg right, but the tee box actually points you to the left half of a big tree at the corner of the dogleg. If you clip the tree, the ball falls down into a swale, and you need to chip back to the fairway with a 5i.

*Note: Highlands was called Triple A before it was rebuilt a couple of years ago.