Par 3 Tees - Do you Tee it up or hit off the grass?

[Groucho Valentine]

9 minutes ago, RussUK said:

Do you just hit it as it is or do you thump your club into the ground to make a little mound?

No, i very rarley thump my club into the ground to make a teeing ground. It depends on the condition of the tee box. If the tee box has a nice tight lie on it, ill play it where i drop it usually. I love hitting irons from tight lies. But if the box is bumpy and uneven, ill maybe try to manipulate the turf a bit until i get what i like. 

[Vinny Cap]

1 hour ago, DaveP043 said:

Originally, you were required to tee off within a club length of the hole you've just completed.  You'd take a bit of sand from the hole to use as a tee.  When the hole got too damaged, someone would establish a new hole position.  

This is like in the movie "The Greatest Game Ever Played"  I always wanted to try that.

I have thumped the ground once or twice when hitting a 3w on the tee.  Did pretty good as I recall.

37 minutes ago, carpediem4300 said:

Used to tee it up but now i dont, its a mental thing for me, if its on a tee no matter how far pressed in it is I fail to hit down on it

I am on the same page with you here.  Not sure if it is mental for me but I was experimenting and found I have better results without a tee from 7i down to W.

24 minutes ago, Zesty said:

I do both. One time I tried teeing my ball up higher than normal and used my driver stance to sweep up into the ball at medium energy with my driver mechanics. I found that I could hit it straighter than my normal iron shot and there was less risk of hitting it fat. The "driver" shot has less spin than the full iron so I choose which style to use depending on what I want the ball to do at the green.

This is an interesting approach.  By driver stance do you mean ball forward, very upright and big shoulder tilt?  If not, can you explain?  Just curious as you state it goes straighter and looks like you have better ball control.

[DaveP043]

5 minutes ago, Vinny Cap said:

This is like in the movie "The Greatest Game Ever Played"  I always wanted to try that.

I don't remember what they did in the movie, but the use of a separate teeing ground started in the late 1800's, and was formalized in the R&A Rules of 1888.  By the time of the 1913 US Open, they almost certainly would not have been teeing off within a couple of club lengths of the previous hole.

[Zesty]

9 minutes ago, Vinny Cap said:

This is an interesting approach.  By driver stance do you mean ball forward, very upright and big shoulder tilt?  If not, can you explain?  Just curious as you state it goes straighter and looks like you have better ball control.

Yes. Ball forward. Shoulder tilt and I use an upward angle of attack. At 150 yards I would normally hit my 7 iron off the ground. With the driver set up, I would use a five iron and an easy swing to get the same 150 yards. It feels like I'm just pitching it out there like an underhanded softball toss if that makes any sense. The upward angle makes the ball go almost as high as my seven normally goes so it still doesn't roll out very much even with the lower spin. I do hit these shots straighter and with better ball control than my full irons.

[Patch]

1 hour ago, RussUK said:

I play with a guy who hasnt been playing very long. He really struggles hitting off the deck with ANY club. When we play we tell him to just tee it up whenever and wherever he wants. keeps the speed up and gives him a chance to enjoy himself.

Its quite funny to see someone tee it up on the fairway and hit an approach with a driver!

I know folks who tee up everything. Nothing wrong at all doing that. In fact my wife, when she played,  would start all the par 4s & 5s holes from the 150 marker. "What ever works" is one of my favorite golf sayings. 

[Vinny Cap]

29 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

I don't remember what they did in the movie, but the use of a separate teeing ground started in the late 1800's, and was formalized in the R&A Rules of 1888.  By the time of the 1913 US Open, they almost certainly would not have been teeing off within a couple of club lengths of the previous hole.

They had a shot glass type of container filled with sand and dumped it on the ground to make a Tee of sorts.

22 minutes ago, Zesty said:

Yes. Ball forward. Shoulder tilt and I use an upward angle of attack. At 150 yards I would normally hit my 7 iron off the ground. With the driver set up, I would use a five iron and an easy swing to get the same 150 yards. It feels like I'm just pitching it out there like an underhanded softball toss if that makes any sense. The upward angle makes the ball go almost as high as my seven normally goes so it still doesn't roll out very much even with the lower spin. I do hit these shots straighter and with better ball control than my full irons.

I get ya now.  When I started I use to have the best 150 go to shot that was a baby 5i that would always go 150.  I can see this working and will have to try it out.

[RussUK]

1 minute ago, Patch said:

I know folks who tee up everything. Nothing wrong at all doing that. In fact my wife, when she played,  would start all the par 4s & 5s holes from the 150 marker. "What ever works" is one of my favorite golf sayings. 

Thats the sort of attitude golf needs IMO. As long as anything is agreed prior to starting then all's good. 

Makes me laugh when he asks me for the yardage. "you've got 200 to the green", "ok, i'll go with another driver". Love it, golf with buddies should be a laugh.

[phillyk]

1 hour ago, Groucho Valentine said:

No, i very rarley thump my club into the ground to make a teeing ground. It depends on the condition of the tee box. If the tee box has a nice tight lie on it, ill play it where i drop it usually. I love hitting irons from tight lies. But if the box is bumpy and uneven, ill maybe try to manipulate the turf a bit until i get what i like. 

The highlighted is the key for me. If it's hard, sandy, or lots of divots everywhere, I'll definitely use a tee.  But if there's good grass to the point that it'll be easy to get good contact, I'll just place the ball.

[JGus]

For me, usually I'll play Wedges and 9 Iron off of the ground, depends on the tee box for 8 Iron, but 4-7 Iron I use a tee. On a certain Par 3 at my home course, sometimes I need to hit a 5 Wood, which I have hit off of the ground many times, not really sure why, other than just like to do it off of that particular tee box.

[Golfingdad]

Always, always tee it up, except ...

when I play the local unrated par 3 course.  My score doesn't count for anything so I just pretend like my tee shots are practice approach shots for a real course.

[djfajt71]

I always use a tee.  Where some have mentioned that they have mental hang-ups about using them, I find it reassuring that the ball looks so pretty being perched up!

[JxQx]

I always tee it but only to replicate a very tight lie. A majority of the courses I play aren't extremely well manicured.

[Strat-Pack Rick]

Depends on the length for me . Short par 3's ----Wedge thru 9 iron off the grass. Long par 3's i give myself a perfect lie with a tee. If im struggling with my irons and have zero confidence for some reason i would probably use a tee regardless. I do like the short ones off grass, it feels better. Like a normal solid shot.

[Groucho Valentine]

1 hour ago, phillyk said:

The highlighted is the key for me. If it's hard, sandy, or lots of divots everywhere, I'll definitely use a tee.  But if there's good grass to the point that it'll be easy to get good contact, I'll just place the ball.

Yeah, definitely. 

[Ernest Jones]

5 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

A local course has a sign on the par 3 holes that says "Please Use a Tee on This Hole". Presumably, they think someone teeing up their ball will do less damage to the tee's turf.

I watched a group of players where English was not their first language hit their tee shots 100-120 yards on the 150 yard hole.  They teed up their 2nd shots, as well.  I suspect that may not have been the course's intent but it certainly followed the sign's advice.  I did not see what the did on the green.

 

 

Lol. Now that's funny!

[NJpatbee]

If I can get a good lie I will hit off the turf.  Otherwise just enough tee to keep the ball above the ground.  I hit all my irons and hybrids better off of good turf as compared to a tee.   

[Lihu]

11 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

By my count, 8 generally do not use a tee and 15 generally use a tee or always use a tee.  A couple quoted what professionals suggest (use a tee) but did not indicate if they actually follow the advice.

There seems to be little professional advice to not use a tee.  It appears that most instructors suggest using a tee.  Obviously some pros do not use a tee so they might suggest following their example.

I recall reading an article in Golf Digest where the writer indicated that a teed iron did not go as far an iron struck from the turf, all other things being equal (i.e. angle of attack, swing speed, etc...).  His advice was to be aware of this and club up when appropriate.

Well, sometimes the ground has fluffy spots in it and I use those to hold my ball up. The issue I have with wedges up to 7i is that I always feel like blading the ball is a possibility. So, I prefer not to take that chance and don't tee up, but I do tee up on all the longer clubs.

 

8 hours ago, RussUK said:

I play with a guy who hasnt been playing very long. He really struggles hitting off the deck with ANY club. When we play we tell him to just tee it up whenever and wherever he wants. keeps the speed up and gives him a chance to enjoy himself.

Its quite funny to see someone tee it up on the fairway and hit an approach with a driver!

It's funny that when me and my family started playing this game we all teed up every shot. Recollecting the first few rounds, I do kind of recall people yelling in the background somewhere.

 

8 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

A local course has a sign on the par 3 holes that says "Please Use a Tee on This Hole". Presumably, they think someone teeing up their ball will do less damage to the tee's turf.

I watched a group of players where English was not their first language hit their tee shots 100-120 yards on the 150 yard hole.  They teed up their 2nd shots, as well.  I suspect that may not have been the course's intent but it certainly followed the sign's advice.  I did not see what the did on the green.

 

[natureboy]

30 minutes ago, Lihu said:

The issue I have with wedges up to 7i is that I always feel like blading the ball is a possibility.

I guess it all comes down to how you individually react to a ball on the tee, but hard for me to see how a teed ball (higher) vs a ball on the ground or grass would lead to lower contact on the clubface unless you shifted the ball position.

 

For any interested, here's a relevant chart from Mark Broadie's Golfmetrics amateur shot database.

Am1 corresponds to average score of 70-83 while Am2 corresponds to average of 84-97 (both on a 'typical course'). Dispersion pattern is tighter with teeing vs. fairway lie (on average).