why so many tee boxes

[DaveP043]

2 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

If that really bothers you, then just a heads up - don't play Tobacco Road. They have the following tees, based on farming:
Ripper - 71.7/144 - 6,532
Disc - 70.3/135 - 6,297
Plow - 68.6/129 - 5.886
Cultivator - 69.6/126 (ladies rating) - 4,946

We would stand on the tee box and try to remember if we were playing ripper or disc on a given day/hole.

If confusion over which tee you're playing is the ONLY time you're confused at Tobacco Road, you're way ahead of the game!

[Pete]

22 hours ago, Bill926 said:

I know in tournament play your tees are based on handicap

What? Is this normal?

[NJpatbee]

I play a course with my grandson that has 5 sets of tees, including green for novices, juniors, and other short hitters.  If more courses would offer green tees it would help with the speed of play.  As for the black, blue, white, and red tees there is enough of a difference to allow golfers to choose the set of tees that match their distance.  By the way the green tees are of modest size, basically a level area mowed somewhat lower with the green tee markers - very low maintenance.

[Wally Fairway]

19 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

If confusion over which tee you're playing is the ONLY time you're confused at Tobacco Road, you're way ahead of the game!

The first time we played there was about a 50/50 split those who were intrigued and those who thought it was only missing a windmill and clowns mouth. After that it does kind of grow on you, and I think we all appreciate it, though for vastly different reasons. I will say it is the only course I've played where they suggest you aim your blind tee shot at a chimney. I've actually grown to like it quite a bit, although there are days that I would change about 12 of the holes if I could.

When we go to the Pinehurst/Sand Hills area, Tobacco Road is our Monday/Tuesday morning course as we head back to the airport in Raleigh. It will cause a man to drink, so why not do so getting ready for your flight back to reality.

[Golfingdad]

32 minutes ago, Pete said:

What? Is this normal?

Sure. The championship flight will typically play from the back tees and the highest handicapped flight will play from a much more forward set of tees.

I know of club tournaments where guys playing against each other can choose which tees they play.  They're rated differently, strokes allocated accordingly, so in theory no matter which set anybody chooses, it's fair.

[Pete]

1 hour ago, Golfingdad said:

Sure. The championship flight will typically play from the back tees and the highest handicapped flight will play from a much more forward set of tees.

I know of club tournaments where guys playing against each other can choose which tees they play.  They're rated differently, strokes allocated accordingly, so in theory no matter which set anybody chooses, it's fair.

You're blowing my mind here @Golfingdad

In UK the only times people would be competing against each other off different tees is when it is a mixed (male/female) tournament.

[Golfingdad]

21 minutes ago, Pete said:

You're blowing my mind here @Golfingdad

In UK the only times people would be competing against each other off different tees is when it is a mixed (male/female) tournament.

Just to be clear, I think that the tournaments where people compete against each other off different tees are a lot less frequent than just lumping entire flights together off different tees.  But, I mean, the handicap system is designed to allow for that kind of thing, right?

[DaveP043]

54 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Just to be clear, I think that the tournaments where people compete against each other off different tees are a lot less frequent than just lumping entire flights together off different tees.  But, I mean, the handicap system is designed to allow for that kind of thing, right?

The USGA Handicap System has specific recommendations for competitions using different tees.  Surprisingly to me, so does the CONGU, which governs handicaps in the UK and Ireland.  Anyone interested can find it starting on Page 88 here:

http://www.congu.com/2016%20CONGU%20Manual%20-%20Final%20version.pdf

[Dave2512]

We play from different tees in men's league tournaments. It is what it is. It's not the tees that kill us but the strokes. A flight 2-4 guy is tough to beat if he's having a decent day and I am not 100% dialed in. In our match play tournament last year my opponent was a 28 handicap I had no chance. Sucked because there was an additional fee to participate in that one.

 

[pumaAttack]

1 minute ago, Dave2512 said:

We play from different tees in men's league tournaments. It is what it is. It's not the tees that kill us but the strokes. A flight 2-4 guy is tough to beat if he's having a decent day and I am not 100% dialed in. In our match play tournament last year my opponent was a 28 handicap I had no chance. Sucked because there was an additional fee to participate in that one.

 

That doesn't make any sense to me...

The handicap should be used to group people with similar abilities together.  Not to give a high handicapper that big of an advantage.

 

[Hoganman1]

My course does the "hybrid" tee thing and we've had those rated and even have a slope for them. I'm 66 and usually play at 6400 yards. My handicap is 9, but that is due to putting because I cannot drive it much over the 200 to 210 yard range. As a short hitter, I've learned to get up and down a lot on the 400+ par fours. That's my only problem with the Tee It Forward initiative. My driver distance says I should play a 5800 to 6000 yard course, but none of the guys in my group of 12 would go for that.                                                           

[Golfingdad]

17 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

The handicap should be used to group people with similar abilities together.  Not to give a high handicapper that big of an advantage.

Yeah, I have almost no desire to compete with people of very different handicaps than mine.  I want to play straight up, which is why I like the GCamtour, because they group everybody in 4 "stroke" flights (<4, 4-8, 8-12, etc) and you duke it out head to head.

Even better, is getting good enough that I can just enter scratch tournaments and not worry about a handicap in any form. :)

[DrvFrShow]

Two of my favorite courses don't have enough tees. The shortest tees on them are 5600 and 5800 yds respectively. For 90% of women and beginning players those are too long. Most women drive the ball between 160 and 180 yds. The shorter hitters need tee boxes at 5000 yds. One course took them out to cut down on maintenance. 

The a group of people who has someone who hits a 280 yd drive and plays the blues, but the rest of the group hits 220 should play the whites (at most) or even the 5800 yd tees (sometimes gold). But they don't. They usually play the blues with the long hitter and suffer.

All tees up to the blues should be rated for both men and women. They are on the GHIN site, but not on the scorecard. The scorecard only has the rating for women to the white tees. Thing is that for the blues, if a woman can hit a 280 yd drive, they probably don't carry a handicap and are earning money in the golf industry.

[Dave2512]

16 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

That doesn't make any sense to me...

The handicap should be used to group people with similar abilities together.  Not to give a high handicapper that big of an advantage.

 

Nearly impossible to do in men's league due to the wide variance of handicap. They'd have to run several different tournaments.

[pumaAttack]

5 minutes ago, Dave2512 said:

Nearly impossible to do in men's league due to the wide variance of handicap. They'd have to run several different tournaments.

That just seems silly to me...

It would be like an A level (played college/junior hockey) hockey team playing a D level team (just beginning to play the game).  With the A team giving up 10 goals to start the game. 

Why not just play the two levels against each other... If you need more tournaments than that sounds better than a 22 handicap difference...

[boogielicious]

24 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Yeah, I have almost no desire to compete with people of very different handicaps than mine.  I want to play straight up, which is why I like the GCamtour, because they group everybody in 4 "stroke" flights (<4, 4-8, 8-12, etc) and you duke it out head to head.

Even better, is getting good enough that I can just enter scratch tournaments and not worry about a handicap in any form. :)

Fine then! I don't want to play with you either! And I baked you a cake too! 

[Dave2512]

17 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

That just seems silly to me...

It would be like an A level (played college/junior hockey) hockey team playing a D level team (just beginning to play the game).  With the A team giving up 10 goals to start the game. 

Why not just play the two levels against each other... If you need more tournaments than that sounds better than a 22 handicap difference...

Because it's not just two levels. We have a couple guys at scratch or better and four flights all the way up to 36 handicap with 160+ members. There are just 10-12 guys in championship flight, 9 handicap or better, and tournaments get roughly 60% participation total. Wouldn't make much more sense to have the half dozen guys in championship flight that enter the tournaments slugging it out with the one + handicap guy either.

If the member's handicaps are legit it should shake out. The unknown is people have good and bad days and dumb luck. It's a lot easier for a higher handicap golfer to get lucky and have a good day than it is for someone with a tighter dispersion of scores. It can go the other way too. The 11 handicap that draws a 6 handicap has to play better than average to win that match.

 

[Golfingdad]

9 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Fine then! I don't want to play with you either! And I baked you a cake too! 

Hey now ... I didn't say I didn't want to PLAY with people of much different handicaps, just that I didn't want to COMPETE against them. 

In bowling leagues, when you played the team of 90 year old women who all averaged 85, all you needed was for one of them to throw a couple of strikes or spares in a game and you were gonna get waxed.  Obviously, it averages out over time, which is why the competition is possible, but it's still not all that exciting to "lose" a game to somebody who threw a 104 to your 185.

LOL, @Dave2512 just said the exact same thing as me except he didn't resort to switching sports like I did.