Playing from 6,000 Yards

[Dave2512]

Good people are being honest and humble, it's not typical. I have a friend that's convinced he can hack it at 7500 yards. When I asked how he deals with 470-500 yard par 4's his answer was he'll hit a 300 yard drive and a perfect 4 hybrid.

[Cupcakus]

  dkolo said:

If the "ladies tees" are 6000 yards, then play the ladies tees. Also, they're not the "ladies tees," they're whatever yardage they are. I play blue when it's an executive course and white when it's longer. If I went to play Bethpage Black, I'm playing the farthest forward tees they have.

Where I play the ladies tees are just that... The Marshall will give you guff for playing from them as a man. Typically the 5800-6200 tees are the forward tees though, and if you really want to play forward of that some courses have senior tees that can be played as a man. Personally I wish more amateurs would just tee it forward, whenever I'm grouped with strangers they usually seem relieved that I want to play forward then they can blame me for being the sissy. I like most of the average golfers out there really should t be hitting 7 iron approach shots when a Pw approach only has a 50% chance of getting on the green.

[Mac62]

The two courses I play most often (from the tees we usually play) are just under 5900 and just over 6000, which are right in my comfort zone.  Any time I play an unfamiliar course I'll choose to play from whatever tees are closest to 5800-6000, and I'll err on the short side rather than the long side if forced to choose.  I'm paying to enjoy the round (at least in theory, lol!), so I see no sense in torturing myself by playing longer tees and being pissed off all day long.

Quote:

...I have a friend that's convinced he can hack it at 7500 yards....

I'd definitely "hack" it at that distance, in the truest sense! Playing a 7500 yard course would surely guarantee me a score upwards of 100 and a long, miserable day.  I'm sure I'd get my money's worth from ESC.

[David in FL]

Honestly, 6,000ish yards is where far more men should be playing from. Unfortunately, ego tends to get in the way too often.

[mcanadiens]

Generally, I play the whites (intermediates) anywhere I go, My rotation of courses range from a short of 4950 to a long of 6700. The longest of em is a bit like medicine for me. It goes down tough, but it probably makes me push the envelope a bit. The shorty is a nice change of pace on the occasions it isn't mobbed by hackers. There's plenty of options in between. That said, I'd have nothing to do with tees over 7,000. With my distance-impaired swing, that sounds like a miserable round to me.

[Jeremie Boop]

  mcanadiens said:

Generally, I play the whites (intermediates) anywhere I go, My rotation of courses range from a short of 4950 to a long of 6700. The longest of em is a bit like medicine for me. It goes down tough, but it probably makes me push the envelope a bit. The shorty is a nice change of pace on the occasions it isn't mobbed by hackers. There's plenty of options in between.

That said, I'd have nothing to do with tees over 7,000. With my distance-impaired swing, that sounds like a miserable round to me.

Even with my distance a 7000 yard course would not be much fun, especially if there are many trees that I could find myself behind. I can handle 6500-6800 fairly reasonably. Longest par 4 on the course here that is 6800 is 465 and I can reach that in 2 with driver 5 iron, the real tester is the 230+ yard par 3 that is tree lined down both sides. Like @WUTiger mentioned, it's not just about the length of the course, it's about the condition and set up. A tight 6300 yard course is going to be much more difficult for me than an open 6700 yard course. One thing that I will say is, I hate when courses are so short they have to "manufactured" distance, a local course here is crammed onto such a small plot of land that every par 5 is a 90* dogleg with the turn at only around 200ish yards. Trees line the fairways making it difficult to try to cut the corner and internal OB stakes are there to penalize you extra if you happen to try and fail. So basically they force to you hit 200 to the turn and another 250 ish from there to the green. This is one of the reasons I like longer courses because they typically don't have to use bad layouts like that just to make a par 5 or decent length par 4.

[14ledo81]

  David in FL said:

Honestly, 6,000ish yards is where far more men should be playing from. Unfortunately, ego tends to get in the way too often.

Agreed.  I play by myself most of the time, so the ego is not as much of an issue.  Can't say I don't think about it a bit when someone lets me pass on the tee box though....  :)

I do not hit my driver very far, and playing from the white tees allows me to hit anywhere from a wedge to a hybrid for my approach.  If I played back much farther, some of the par 4's would not be reachable for me.

[mcanadiens]

  Jeremie Boop said:

Even with my distance a 7000 yard course would not be much fun, especially if there are many trees that I could find myself behind. I can handle 6500-6800 fairly reasonably. Longest par 4 on the course here that is 6800 is 465 and I can reach that in 2 with driver 5 iron, the real tester is the 230+ yard par 3 that is tree lined down both sides. Like @WUTiger mentioned, it's not just about the length of the course, it's about the condition and set up. A tight 6300 yard course is going to be much more difficult for me than an open 6700 yard course. One thing that I will say is, I hate when courses are so short they have to "manufactured" distance, a local course here is crammed onto such a small plot of land that every par 5 is a 90* dogleg with the turn at only around 200ish yards. Trees line the fairways making it difficult to try to cut the corner and internal OB stakes are there to penalize you extra if you happen to try and fail. So basically they force to you hit 200 to the turn and another 250 ish from there to the green. This is one of the reasons I like longer courses because they typically don't have to use bad layouts like that just to make a par 5 or decent length par 4.

Of course, you sir, hit the ball about twice as far as I do most of the time. Straighten your stuff out and you'll leave me in the dust regardless of the length of the course. Either way, variety is a good thing.

[RussUK]

  14ledo81 said:

Agreed.  I play by myself most of the time, so the ego is not as much of an issue.  Can't say I don't think about it a bit when someone lets me pass on the tee box though....  :)

I do not hit my driver very far, and playing from the white tees allows me to hit anywhere from a wedge to a hybrid for my approach.  If I played back much farther, some of the par 4's would not be reachable for me.

+1. I find its someof the younger players (im only 35 do you count as young?) that insist on playing from the back tees, kind of a bravado thing or peer pressure. We should be spending more time of the fun aspect of golf and making the game harder when we dont need to defeats the object. Obviously if you have to play from the back tees (competition or something) then thats different.

I know too many people who will only play a course "as the pro's would"

[Grumpter]

  stealthhwk said:

Im 32 and in pretty good shape but i can not hit the ball over 193 yards at the moment. With no time to practice i can only maintain one swing.

I think the problem is easily solved by working on your swing. If you have time to play then you have time to practice (even if that means giving up playing a round to just practice). Post a swing video in the Member Swings forum and get to it.

[djfajt71]

Given my distances, I usually default to the 5750-6250 range.  Even being a little over 6000 yards, I can still find myself at over 200 yards after a decent drive on some Par 4's.  I'm tempted to tee it up again from the fairway to try to get a GIR!

[GangGreen]

My home course is just under 6,000 yards and I love it.  There are only a couple of par 4/5's that you really need driver.  Although it's a shorter course, it's sneaky tough in that you don't have a lot of margin for error off the tee.  A lot of well placed trees so even a shot that may be a little off line can leave you with no shot at the green.  I play 75%-80% of my rounds there and the downside (for me at least) is I tend to struggle at longer courses (say 6,300-6,500) as a result.

[jetsknicks1]

I love the 6000 yard range, anything over 6200 starts to get a bit too much for me. Never worry about what others might think, play the tees that you are comfortable with. Golf is supposed to be fun, right?

[14ledo81]

  RussUK said:

Quote:

Originally Posted by 14ledo81

Agreed.  I play by myself most of the time, so the ego is not as much of an issue.  Can't say I don't think about it a bit when someone lets me pass on the tee box though....  :)

I do not hit my driver very far, and playing from the white tees allows me to hit anywhere from a wedge to a hybrid for my approach.  If I played back much farther, some of the par 4's would not be reachable for me.

+1. I find its someof the younger players (im only 35 do you count as young?) that insist on playing from the back tees, kind of a bravado thing or peer pressure. We should be spending more time of the fun aspect of golf and making the game harder when we dont need to defeats the object. Obviously if you have to play from the back tees (competition or something) then thats different.

I know too many people who will only play a course "as the pro's would"

35 sounds young to me....

I am 34....   :)

[dave s]

Here's a link to the 'tee-it-forward' guide to average driver yardage and recommended course length:  http://www.ngcoa.org/images/player_dev/yardage%20guidelines.pdf

It seems a bit 'short' to me, but nonetheless, the OP is doing the right thing playing correct tees based on his driver distance.  Might even want to move up if you can.

Like others on this thread, I PREFER playing courses in the 5800-6200 yard range because my bombs off the tee go 230 (downhill with wind at my back!) at best.  Normal range is 200-210.

Most of the summer, I've been playing with a group of guys who insist on playing further back tees.  Last Sunday the yardage was 6480.  For me, this makes half the par-4 holes play to 3 shots.  Also makes for significantly longer par-3 shots.  Ironically, I find that I don't score any worse playing from the longer tees than 'right-sizing' the course for me at 5800-6200 yards.  Go figure.

Our group scored 78, 83, 84 (me) and 88 from the blue tees at 6480.

dave

[Dave2512]

Thing about the TIF guide is unless you actually know what your real driver average is, most overestimate, hard to choose. I use Game Golf and my averages are ever changing and because that's my weakest club, most mishits with the most severity, my actual average compared to my best drives is considerably different. My current average is around 235, I've hit a bunch of terrible drives, some recorded as short as 94 yards due to my next tag being where a ball crossed the margin of a hazard so it's not as accurate as I'd like.

Looking at my last round data (just 9 holes) the difference between my best and worst drive was 87 yards (277-190). Believe it or not the 190 drive was actually well struck just into a stiff head wind so it ballooned and dropped dead, that's roughly my 5i average. I actually made a birdie on that hole. This is why I think handicap presents a better picture of overall skill required to play from whatever tees.

[RFKFREAK]

  Dave2512 said:

Good people are being honest and humble, it's not typical. I have a friend that's convinced he can hack it at 7500 yards. When I asked how he deals with 470-500 yard par 4's his answer was he'll hit a 300 yard drive and a perfect 4 hybrid.

That's the ticket!

  mcanadiens said:

Generally, I play the whites (intermediates) anywhere I go, My rotation of courses range from a short of 4950 to a long of 6700. The longest of em is a bit like medicine for me. It goes down tough, but it probably makes me push the envelope a bit. The shorty is a nice change of pace on the occasions it isn't mobbed by hackers. There's plenty of options in between.

That said, I'd have nothing to do with tees over 7,000. With my distance-impaired swing, that sounds like a miserable round to me.

Same here.  Before I really looked into yardages, I would always play the whites no matter what because that's what my friends played.  I guess I'm lucky that I don't play with a bunch of guys who measure their manhood by the tees they play.

The courses around here that I play from the Whites run anywhere from 5,800-6,300 with only one course that is a Par 73 that is 6,500.  When playing a course I'm unfamiliar with, the first thing I do in evaluating which tees to play is to look at the Par 3's and if I can't hit the greens with my hybrid, then I'm not playing those tees.  Then I look at the Par 4's, see what the longest one is and if I can't get on the green with Driver/5I, then I'm not playing those tees.  Finally, the last thing I look at is the overall yardage and make sure it seems appropriate for the tees I'll play so that I didn't miss anything.

[DrvFrShow]

What courses do you have most fun playing? I don't go by tee length. I go by course layout. I don't slice my driver anymore but I hit a push-draw and I take the left side  of the  course out of play.

Yeah I feel like a pro hitting a GW into a green for my second shot, but when it gets down to a hitting a LW I know the tees I'm playing are too short. Still with my drives, if I were to play back at the whites, I'd be hitting a 5 iron or hybrid into a number of par 4 greens. This would not be fun. I'm 62, and I have maybe 15 to 30 years left on this Earth so **** it. I'm playing fun golf.

I'll select my tee to where I'm about 140-150 yds out after a decent drive on a longer par 4. This means the longer par 4s should be around 360 yds. This is an 8 iron shot.

5500 is about the shortest I should play, and 5800 is about the longest. I really hate tight courses with a lot of trees or courses with a lot of trouble on the right. Right now Links style golf is my favorite.