Are you playing the correct tees?

[freshmanUTA]

According to the handicap chart at my local course I should be playing blues not blacks, but I play the blacks anyway. Would my handicap be better if I played blues? Maybe, but I'm not backing up the course and/or slowing down play so I'm okay with my scores and challenging myself.

[gregsandiego]

4 hours ago, No Mulligans said:

I thought the purpose of teeing it forward was to make golf more fun and increase pace of play. 

Tee it wherever you want as long as you're keeping pace.

Totally agree. The last thing we need is to shame players for not being good enough. In the end it's still a game.

[Lihu]

8 minutes ago, gregsandiego said:

Totally agree. The last thing we need is to shame players for not being good enough. In the end it's still a game.

No one is trying to shame anyone. All the suggestions for playing a short enough tee box are just to improve your golf, which it will. Almost everyone in my area is on board with tee it forward, and pace of play has improved and more golfers are playing better golf.

As far as pace of play is concerned, if you take 3 shots or more every par 4 there is a likelihood that there are people waiting for you on the tee box. So, pace of play is very likely delayed, and even a minute or two delay can back up a course.

[9wood]

48 minutes ago, Lihu said:

 

As far as pace of play is concerned, if you take 3 shots or more every par 4 there is a likelihood that there are people waiting for you on the tee box. So, pace of play is very likely delayed, and even a minute or two delay can back up a course.

I can honestly and truthfully say that on the courses I play I very seldom see anyone get up and down in 2 on the par fours. I guess it must be that we are all generally terrible golfers in my neck of the woods

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[Osnola]

25 minutes ago, 9wood said:

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

 

As far as pace of play is concerned, if you take 3 shots or more every par 4 there is a likelihood that there are people waiting for you on the tee box. So, pace of play is very likely delayed, and even a minute or two delay can back up a course.

I can honestly and truthfully say that on the courses I play I very seldom see anyone get up and down in 2 on the par fours. I guess it must be that we are all generally terrible golfers in my neck of the woods

I agree that expecting the great majority of golfers get up an down in two is not realistic.

I play from the white, generally 5700 to 5800 yards.  I am 67 and don't really use the driver distance to determine what tees I play.  I know that I am going to shoot between 90 and 100.  The reason I don't use the driver as an indicator is that I may hit driver, or FW, or Hybrid off the tee (on par 5's i would rather hit 2 decent 3W's than a crappie drive with the driver then have to scramble) depending on the layout of the course (hazards, water, etc).  I generally play with my 2 brothers (they are younger and do not let me play the forward tees) and we can get around the course in 3 hours unless there is someone in front of us that slows us down.  One thing I refuse to do is play a 5 hour round of golf.  It just is not supposed to take that long and if people playing tees that provide more yardage than they should be playing hold up the pace of play, they need to let the ego go and move up one set of tees.

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[Lihu]

I probably should have stated near the greens in less than 3 shots. I also should have emphasised the word every. 

[daa1969]

Honesty! Honesty! Honesty! Your only hurting yourself if your not being honest about your distances. If you hit 10 drives on course, not range, see how they average, if you hit 4 drIves 270, 3 drives 250, and 3 drives 230, and only one of those long ones is realistically in play, but all 3 of the 250 ones were in play, and the 230 was in play but sort of a mis-hit, i would play as if your a 250 hitter, even though the majority was longer, it was inconsistent at best. The same holds true for your irons too! Just because you get in a rythym at range dont be fooled into that false hope that thats the way it is, you can hit 50 wedges and be at say 140, but when it counts on the course and you have the pressure of that one shot i can almost guarantee you will be short, happens all day long, go up a club on the course and you can pretty much be assured your scores will improve!

[Valleygolfer]

18 minutes ago, daa1969 said:

Honesty! Honesty! Honesty! Your only hurting yourself if your not being honest about your distances. If you hit 10 drives on course, not range, see how they average, if you hit 4 drIves 270, 3 drives 250, and 3 drives 230, and only one of those long ones is realistically in play, but all 3 of the 250 ones were in play, and the 230 was in play but sort of a mis-hit, i would play as if your a 250 hitter, even though the majority was longer, it was inconsistent at best. The same holds true for your irons too! Just because you get in a rythym at range dont be fooled into that false hope that thats the way it is, you can hit 50 wedges and be at say 140, but when it counts on the course and you have the pressure of that one shot i can almost guarantee you will be short, happens all day long, go up a club on the course and you can pretty much be assured your scores will improve!

Is there a reason you are ranting about this?

[daa1969]

Well, i dont know if i would count one post as ranting! I did write another post but for some reason it didnt get posted, maybe i messed up on submit button. Anyway, i usually play from where the rest of the group is comfortable, even though i do tend to be a bit longer than most i play with, but i find its better for pace of play to go where the group is, it also gives me the chance to play more target oriented golf as opposed to grip it and rip it golf, and yes, it can be boring, but my scores do improve. I say go where you can score better, regardless of how far you hit your driver. Most people i see playing back are struggling to get past forward tees because they seem to be trying to kill the ball, and we all know the harder you try the worse it goes, the only time i go back is if thats where the group is or if its a course i play often and i just want to change things up.

[Valleygolfer]

17 minutes ago, daa1969 said:

Well, i dont know if i would count one post as ranting!

It seemed like you were trying to call people out for lying in the thread. I didn't see anything that fit this here so I was curious where you were coming from.

[daa1969]

No, not trying to call anyone out, just trying to help from my own experiences.

[Lilfrier]

By that chart, I'd have to play the women's tees at my local course. I have only 5 drives over 175 yards this year (in 6 rounds), with a longest of 219 (which had a strong wind at my back). I think I am OK playing from the whites though. I guess the question I have is, what does "correct tees" mean? If we're to hold the belief that the shortest shot possible is the best lie possible (within reason), should EVERYONE aim to use the shortest tees available?

Anyway, is there a score goal associated with having the correct tees? My cousin can outdrive me by 20+ yards, but we play to about the same level because the rest of my game is better (relative to my driving). That chart suggests my cousin should be playing about 1,000 yards (or more) longer than I am, but that doesn't seem to line up with the results.

[Rainmaker]

I tee it even more forward than they suggest, lol.  If we're talking about "driver distance of a good drive", then 250 is fair for me.  However, the course I play at, the tees I play at are 5831.  I always play from the closest men's tee (ie, not women, jr or sr). 

Tee it where you like if you're keeping pace . .but teeing it close makes it feel more like golf to me.  I have options off the tee, I'm trying to place my tee shots, etc.  The course I frequently play is pretty narrow, so that helps.  Even if there were big, wide fairways . .then I'd try to bomb it and have a sand wedge into the green  . . pretty much just like they do on TV. 

Now, I guess if I were shooting real low scores then I'd tee it back . . but I'm good for now.

[Lihu]

35 minutes ago, Rainmaker said:

I tee it even more forward than they suggest, lol.  If we're talking about "driver distance of a good drive", then 250 is fair for me.  However, the course I play at, the tees I play at are 5831.  I always play from the closest men's tee (ie, not women, jr or sr). 

Tee it where you like if you're keeping pace . .but teeing it close makes it feel more like golf to me.  I have options off the tee, I'm trying to place my tee shots, etc.  The course I frequently play is pretty narrow, so that helps.  Even if there were big, wide fairways . .then I'd try to bomb it and have a sand wedge into the green  . . pretty much just like they do on TV. 

Now, I guess if I were shooting real low scores then I'd tee it back . . but I'm good for now.

5800 yards with a decent drive of 250 is reasonable. You might be able to play longer, but you also have more choices teeing off and when you duff a drive or mishit some other shot.

[onthehunt526]

10 hours ago, Lihu said:

Yes. Or shorter.

My rule of thumb for maximum distance is average of the two:

28 times driver average

36 times 5i average 

Note that average includes weak shots.

I'll agree with this, kind of...

So if you AVERAGE 200 yards with your driver, you should play a course around 5600 yards.

But if you AVERAGE 250 yards it would put you at 7000 yards... so it doesn't exactly work out.

Let's look at the 36 times the 5i...

If you average 150 yards with your 5i, You should play a course around 5400 yards.

If you average 200 yards with your 5i, You should play a 7200 yard course...

Since a 5i carries roughly around 72% of your Driver, if your 5i carries 200, your Driver would around 278 yards carry which is basically 300 yards total distance... so it works out pretty close.

I personally go by what club I have for a 2nd shot into par-fours. My home course is 6385 yards. I play 7100 yard courses (from the tips) at the closest to 6,500 yard tees... I can play around 6,700 (I average 260-270 off the tee), but am more comfortable at 6500 or so...

 

[daa1969]

I try not to get too hung up on charts, if you dig deep you will see all kinds like if your a 10 hndcp you hit x amount of greens and so on, theres too many variables in golf, for instance, i generally hit more greens than it says i should, but i have way too many putts, one could maybe use them as a purely basic guideline, but clearly not the absolute rule. Maybe your swing speed says you hit your driver x distance, but how often are you hitting it flush? i do agree whole heartedly with the basic concept of the chart on playing right tees, theres no denying that a great majority of us play too far back, just think how many times you have been behind that guy that barely cleared the forward tees with his drive but is now waiting for the green to clear at 285yds, i myself seem to always be behind this group of guys, where i'm waiting for them to hit their 3rd shot before i can even tee off. You may feel like your not holding things up but the reality is you probably are, every little bit adds up, it creates a chain reaction, why do you think sometimes you go out and its 3hrs and sometimes its 5hrs, the course is the same, its just the players that are different!

[DrvFrShow]

2 hours ago, onthehunt526 said:

I'll agree with this, kind of...

So if you AVERAGE 200 yards with your driver, you should play a course around 5600 yards.

But if you AVERAGE 250 yards it would put you at 7000 yards... so it doesn't exactly work out.

Let's look at the 36 times the 5i...

If you average 150 yards with your 5i, You should play a course around 5400 yards.

If you average 200 yards with your 5i, You should play a 7200 yard course...

Since a 5i carries roughly around 72% of your Driver, if your 5i carries 200, your Driver would around 278 yards carry which is basically 300 yards total distance... so it works out pretty close.

I personally go by what club I have for a 2nd shot into par-fours. My home course is 6385 yards. I play 7100 yard courses (from the tips) at the closest to 6,500 yard tees... I can play around 6,700 (I average 260-270 off the tee), but am more comfortable at 6500 or so...

 

You should also remember that the 5 iron in question is a standard loft 5 iron, not one of the cranked loft 5 irons that is really a 3 iron with a 5 stamped on it. If you have one of these sets, use your average 7 iron distance on grass, not off a mat.

[Lihu]

5 hours ago, onthehunt526 said:

I'll agree with this, kind of...

So if you AVERAGE 200 yards with your driver, you should play a course around 5600 yards.

But if you AVERAGE 250 yards it would put you at 7000 yards... so it doesn't exactly work out.

Let's look at the 36 times the 5i...

If you average 150 yards with your 5i, You should play a course around 5400 yards.

If you average 200 yards with your 5i, You should play a 7200 yard course...

Since a 5i carries roughly around 72% of your Driver, if your 5i carries 200, your Driver would around 278 yards carry which is basically 300 yards total distance... so it works out pretty close.

I personally go by what club I have for a 2nd shot into par-fours. My home course is 6385 yards. I play 7100 yard courses (from the tips) at the closest to 6,500 yard tees... I can play around 6,700 (I average 260-270 off the tee), but am more comfortable at 6500 or so...

 

Yeah, the 200 yard drive example with the 5600 estimate and the 150 yard 5i and the 5400 estimate averages to 5500 yards. So, someone who hits those two distances on average will be comfortable playing a course that is less than 5500 yards. Likewise, 250-driver and 200-5i works out to 7100 yards. Someone who can reliably hit their driver 250 and their 5i 200 yards can pay a course with lots of par 4 that are 450 yards. In fact, every par 4 can be that length. Estimating a typical course with 10 450 yard par 4 you get something like 450*10(par 4) + 180 * 4 (par 3)  + 550 * 4(par 5)= 7240 yards.

The thought behind averaging the two is that many people are weak at hitting 5i or driver. So, it takes good driving and good iron play to really maximize the course length you could play.

You really want to play a course where both your driver and irons are somewhat optimally used.

I am weak at hitting 5i while strong at driver, and here's my reasoning behind the distances I play:

Spoiler

For example, I average 258 off the tee with driver, and 175 with my 5i because my long irons are weak (see my GG stats). So, that puts me on at 7200 estimate and a 6300 estimate because my 5i is so weak. It averages out to about 6700 yards for my maximum course length.

My home course is 6700 yards and it is pretty much at my comfort limit. I need to use a hybrid on one par 4 hole (468 yards) and possibly 3 (2 443 yard holes) if I hit my driver short, but it is made up for by 2 shorter par 5s in the 495 and 503 yard range which I can usually make the distance in 2 (driver/3W) and one or two par 4 that I tee off with 3W.

When I play the 6400 yard tees it's really comfortable, but I tee off more often with 3W which somewhat takes the driver estimate out of the picture.

If I play my shorter home course which is a bit over 6000 yards, that takes driver almost out of the picture except for 5 holes. It is more challenging accuracy wise so I end up teeing up on more of the par 4 with 3W or even hybrid.

So, the comfort level where I don't take out driver so much and do not rely too much on iron distance is somewhere in the 6400-6500 yard range.

Another thing I look at is the maximum par 4 length, as my 7i is currently the upper limit of my comfort zone, The longest typical par 4 I should play is 258 + 149 = 407 yards. If too many holes are longer than 407 yards, I usually move up a tee.