What's your take on this golf situation?

[stealthhwk]

I bumped into a single and his wife on the golf course recently and instead of asking me to play through, they asked me to join. I knew better, but joined anyways and what a disaster!! I told him I was playing the white tees. (Middle@5900) He insisted I play the Blues(back@6475). I did so, as it was kind of a throw away round anyways. Suddenly, I catch fire! I start hitting the driver more consistently than ever and my irons were decent as well. He touts "see, you just needed to move back". Your too young to play the old man tees! Then we get to the longer par 4s and Im staring down 456 instead of 412. I play well and still take bogey. Eventually, we reach the two forced carries and I need to hit it 225 and 235 on those two to get over the water off the tee. After dunking tee shot in water on both, I played better and took doubles on both which stuck me with a 100!! As we arrive at 18th green, he says wow, you played great today! You should play the back more often. I replied; "yeah, I played great today, but for some odd reason, I shot five strokes worse than I usually do when I play just mediocre. Weird huh?" Then, I overhear him tell his wife "if I par this its an 86! He hit two more ob than me, and one in the water. And didnt ever take the stroke for his gimme. Instead, he not only took the gimme, but did so without recording the stroke. I know my take already, but whats yours?

[Patch]

I see this more often than not. There are lots of folks out there that treat gimmes that way and have other creative ways of scoring.

I just look at these situations as part of golf's entertainment value. When there is nothing on the line between the golfers, who really cares how others keep score.  

[bkuehn1952]

5 hours ago, stealthhwk said:

 ... "yeah, I played great today, but for some odd reason, I shot five strokes worse than I usually do when I play just mediocre. Weird huh?" ... I know my take already, but what's yours?

Stick with the tees that you are more comfortable playing. A day of hitting the ball well should produce a memorable round. Just think what a great score you would have had playing at 6,000!

As to your playing companion, there are lots of delusional people in this world.  Don't let them distract you too much.

[Hardspoon]

I usually try to play tees at 6,000 yards or so. If I'm playing with someone I know and they move to a set within 200 yards of that, I'll move back. But I'd never do that with someone I didn't know (and never that far back).

As for his "86"...yeah, I've seen that a lot.

[Jeremie Boop]

I play whatever tees the other people I'm playing with do, but length isn't an issue for me so I don't mind moving back. I prefer courses around 6500+ when I can play them. Scoring wise, you just learn that people don't always necessarily follow conventional *real* scoring because "we aren't pros"... In general, I don't care what someone else says they scored because it's not like I'm in a competition with them. 

[Elmer]

6 hours ago, stealthhwk said:

 I know my take already, but whats yours?

Regarding the tees, it is nice to switch it up every so often!
I have a golf getaway in a few weeks to a course and my suggestions was to play blue (back) than white (middle) & finish with Red (front). I think different tees offer a different perspective and challenge.
But If I pair up with a group I play what they are playing!

As far as the other guys score. Some people need to tell themselves they are better then they are. In my experience nothing you say or tell him will change that.
I know someone who is currently bragging on social media that his last 2 rounds we 2 over and 2 under, He is being congratulated. However anyone who plays with him knows he does count OB, moves his ball to improve every lie and angle and takes mulligans!

Simply say "nice 86" and move on with your life!

[mcanadiens]

It's better to put no stock into what other people say they score. It'll just drive you nuts.

Attitudes towards the tees you play is something that I always found funny. As a high handicap, I like playing the shorter tees. Once in a while, you really crack a drive and the peanut gallery has their opinion. "Why are you playing up there?" I tell em, hang in there for a hole or two and I'll show you.

Either way, nobody is telling me what tees to play in a casual round. 

[Rainmaker]

I have paired up with strangers and played different tees . .but in your situation I probably would've moved back as well.  Usually I don't care that much . .but if, for some reason, it bothered me on that particular day I would've felt OK insisting that I play my preferred tees. 

The other thing - where the guy took gimmees and carded an  . .ahem . ."enhanced" score . .don't care at all.  I bet 75% of casual golfers do this.  If he wants to run around thinking he shot an 86 that's fine with me.  That would just make him like half of the friends I ever golfed with, lol.    

[drmevo]

It's odd that he pressured you to play the tees he was playing. As others have said, you shouldn't feel bad about playing whatever set of tees you want (unless of course you're hurting pace of place by playing tees that are too long). Also, unfortunately I think there are more vanity cappers/scorers than not. It can be annoying but try not to let it get to you, unless it's affecting a bet or competition you're in. 

There was one time recently where looking back, I would have moved tees, but it would've been closer, not further back.  One of the courses I play often has men's tees at about 6,000 (white), 6,400(blue), and 6,800 (black). I posted about this round in the "playing with strangers" thread recently. I got paired up with a single and a husband/wife couple.  That day, the other single was playing the tips, I was playing the blues, the husband was playing the whites, and the wife was playing the ladies' tee. Everyone was cool with the other players hitting from there own tees, but it really seemed to slow us down (on top of other factors that were hurting our pace of play).  A lot of the tee boxes are elevated and somewhat narrow, so there really isn't room to stand just off to the side, or else you're in the way. If I were put in the same group again, I probably would just move up to the whites to help the pace.

In another situation, I just played in a pro-am tournament where the  men's tees were at about 6,700 yards. The greens were really fast and I had some bad holes but still scraped by with about 3-4 strokes over my usual score on shorter courses I play. In the end, I enjoyed the challenge of playing a longer course than I'm used to and I really didn't have a choice anyways since those were the tees for the tournament. There was a senior in our group who was a member playing the gold tees, which were still around 6,300. I told him that if I were to join that club, I'd be playing those tees!

[David in FL]

My first thought was how weird it is to have 450+ yd par-4's on a course that plays less than 6500 yds from the tips!

Other than that, the only thing even slightly weird was his insistence that you back up.  Don't think I've ever seen that.  FWIW, assuming room, I would have politely declined his offer to join them, made some excuse about wanting to hurry to finish but not wanting to rush them, and asked to quickly play through.

 

[CarlSpackler]

I tend to play the tees further back, but not the tips. On most holes, you are talking one extra club into the green. I play the closer tees if I'm with a group that wants to play forward, but I typically score close to the same no matter which tees I play.

[Groucho Valentine]

Some people just play the way they like to play. As long as it doesn't effect me people can do what they want. Im of the opinion that people should be free to enjoy golf in whatever fashion they want to. 

Ive found that playing deciding to play the back tees or not has nothing to do with how far the player hits the ball, but rather overall skill. Ive played with a guy who only drove the ball around 240 but shot one under on a 7100 yard course. Beat me by 3 that day and i was driving the ball 30-40 yards past him. So don't be intimidated by distance so much. Play your game and know what you can do and cant do. For example, when you mentioned the big forced carry- how about just lay up there and take a 5 instead of a double or worse? Maybe you even make par. But you cant do that if you dunk the ball in the water trying to over extend. 

[dave s]

My take on anyone's game is this: As long as you're not trying to take money out of my pocket, I couldn't care less what you write on the card, say you shot, penalties assessed, whatever. It just doesn't matter.

The back tees:  Honestly I don't score any worse playing from longer-range tees compared to playing a course at a distance better suited to my game. Sure, I have more par and birdie opportunities playing it forward, but like you, I don't seem to capitalize on those opportunities as much as I should.

dave

 

[TN94z]

I see this a lot as well. I like playing different tees to change the course up a bit from time to time. I actually found that playing the back tees takes away quite a bit of hazards for me at my course. I usually don't shoot much different score wise.

I would have to say that, without knowing the guy, I would have politely turned down the invite as well, if the white tees weren't an option. And I never even pay much attention to what others score unless we are playing for something. I have one friend that I play with who will improve his lie on almost every shot and seems to ALWAYS find his ball when it went 50 yards into the woods. Then he will brag about his 79 that he shot...haha. I don't even call him on that. I just let him enjoy his way of playing, and I'll enjoy mine.

[Yukari]

I would never ask someone to play one tee or another. I usually play my own game and whatever tee a stranger wants to play, I don' say anything. Often I end up playing different set of tees than strangers I get paired with. 

[stealthhwk]

45 minutes ago, Groucho Valentine said:

For example, when you mentioned the big forced carry- how about just lay up there and take a 5 instead of a double or worse? Maybe you even make par. But you cant do that if you dunk the ball in the water trying to over extend. 

These particular two holes dont give a layup option. Tee box immediately followed by water or believe me, laying up wouldve been my play

[Groucho Valentine]

2 minutes ago, stealthhwk said:

These particular two holes dont give a layup option. Tee box immediately followed by water or believe me, laying up wouldve been my play

Not even a bail out area? Wow. Thats big boy stuff. 

[Vinny Cap]

That's messed up.  Never let anyone talk you into a Tee box you are not comfortable with.  Play within your skill level.

As for the awesome score????  Seen that many times and I usually laugh it off and if they continue on how great they shot, I remind them about the gimmie, the OB, the mullie.

I use to play a BB if I didn't get to warm up, I use to take 1 mullie for the 18 but have not been doing that at all this year and know that what I shot is what I shot this year.