Uneven tee boxes, why?

[Hategolf]

I do not understand why some courses when they move the tees, they provide you with a lousy uneven spot. The game is hard enough and the only place where you get a little break is in the tee box. I don't want to have to adjust my swing  because the ball is slightly above or bellow my feet in a tee box. How hard is it to have enough even flat surface to move the box back and forth for repairing? 

 

[Kalnoky]

Depending on where you play, the guy that cuts the grass moves the tees, and then he puts them back when he's done according to his mood. 

IME 50/50 whether that dude gives a rats a* on any particular day.

 

Edited May 16, 2017 by Kalnoky

[No Mulligans]

The low budget course I play on had tee boxes that became uneven over time (maybe about 60 years).  They brought out a tractor, some labor, etc and leveled about half of them, that's all they had budgeted for it last year.  Fortunately they take good care of the greens instead on their limited budget.

[onkey]

Google says:

"Some tees, even in good growing environments, have problems built in from the start. To keep costs down, developers often construct tees from soil collected on site or from pond-dredge spoils. These materials often have poor properties for turf growth, especially in conditions of heavy play. Also, in the haste of construction, these soils often don't receive proper compaction and settling results in an uneven surface."

[Buckeyebowman]

That is one thing that drives me to distraction, sloping or "turtleback" tee boxes. Played a course last year that, to their credit, was rebuilding some of their tee boxes. In most cases they cut the grass shorter in front of the boxes and stuck the markers there. One, in particular, was really bad. We were expected to tee up in a shallow trough about 3 feet wide! Unreal! We found another place to stick our pegs in the ground.

[Jack Watson]

Where I play most the uneven tee box is part of the game.  Love it when I play nicer courses.

[InTheTrees]

My home course has 1 tee box with a slight but noticeable left to right downhill slope. The hole is a dogleg left par 4 and the prevailing wind is from over the left shoulder of a righty so drives into the right rough are common. In the course's defense, it's an elevated tee box on the side of a hill and no other boxes on the course are sloped, but that sloped box makes an already tough hole even tougher.

[Midpack]

I choose to play mostly on an relatively inexpensive course, so some less than ideal tees don't come as a surprise. I can usually find a flat enough spot, and you do get an ideal lie with a tee. Still the best lie I'll have on most holes... 

And fixing a poorly built tee is no small undertaking. It seems most courses are struggling for revenue these days, other than the really high end courses.

Edited May 18, 2017 by Midpack

[billchao]

Tee boxes have to drain, too. They need some degree of slope for water to run off. I actually like to tee the ball up slightly above my feet as a way to manipulate my start line a little.

You get two clublengths back from the markers to find a spot to tee up the ball and you don't even have to be standing within those boundaries. I often see people complain about the tee box without even looking for a good spot to tee off from; they just automatically tee up in line with the markers.

[Aguirre]

$

[jamo]

20 hours ago, billchao said:

Tee boxes have to drain, too. They need some degree of slope for water to run off. I actually like to tee the ball up slightly above my feet as a way to manipulate my start line a little.

You get two clublengths back from the markers to find a spot to tee up the ball and you don't even have to be standing within those boundaries. I often see people complain about the tee box without even looking for a good spot to tee off from; they just automatically tee up in line with the markers.

I believe this is the biggest and most important reason.

[Groucho Valentine]

9 hours ago, Aguirre said:

$

This. Leveling tee boxes is expensive. Depending on the course, they just may not have the resources. 

[iacas]

As @billchao said, tee boxes have to be sloped 1.5-2% for drainage. Usually back-right to front-left is common, but it depends on the overall drainage of the area too.

I suspect you're talking about bigger slopes, though. It not only costs $ to fix, but the tee box is likely out of commission for a month or so while the sod is re-grown or stitches back together or whatever. And that's if you can cut the sod that's on it and re-level it with the existing sod replaced.

[Kalnoky]

Maybe I misunderstood @Hategolf but I thought he was asking why they stick the tees (the colored plastic globes) in the ground in the lumpiest part of the tee box. You know, how sometimes they'll move the teeing ground if there is a big tee box... Sometimes forward in the tee box, and sometimes further back to provide add'l challenge.

 

[Buckeyebowman]

On 5/18/2017 at 10:16 AM, billchao said:

Tee boxes have to drain, too. They need some degree of slope for water to run off. I actually like to tee the ball up slightly above my feet as a way to manipulate my start line a little.

You get two clublengths back from the markers to find a spot to tee up the ball and you don't even have to be standing within those boundaries. I often see people complain about the tee box without even looking for a good spot to tee off from; they just automatically tee up in line with the markers.

That's a good point! Many times I've teed up well behind the markers, or teed up with my feet outside the markers and had people try to call me on it! I explained the rule to them.

The tee boxes on most local, public courses are tiny compared to private, upscale, or resort courses. I remember reading about the old "Blue Monster" at Doral. One of the favorite pastimes there was to put an amateur at the very back of a tee box and see if they could hit a pitching wedge past the front of the tee box. That's how big they were! Plenty of room to move the markers around and fix the spots that needed it.

[dchoye]

I play at a hilly golf course so use to uneven lies.   I actually like ball slightly above my feet to help draw the ball   It's not a big deal I feel there is a minor slope but very sloping on the tee box with poor grass growth generally a sign of poor maintenance and rest of the course  likely not properly maintained either.  

The lie that I dislike most is ball below my feet I tend to fat or thin it when I trying to lob or pitch around the green  When i making a full swing I tend to pull the ball as I have a harder time with balance than the other lies

 

[WUTiger]

On 5/16/2017 at 5:25 PM, onkey said:

Google says:

"Some tees, even in good growing environments, have problems built in from the start. To keep costs down, developers often construct tees from soil collected on site or from pond-dredge spoils.

I use quality of tee boxes as a litmus test for how well a golf course was constructed. I've seen courses with good greens and OK fairways and bad tee boxes, but never a course with good tee boxes and poor greens.

On 5/18/2017 at 9:16 AM, billchao said:

Tee boxes have to drain, too. They need some degree of slope for water to run off. I actually like to tee the ball up slightly above my feet as a way to manipulate my start line a little.

Some older courses ran into trouble when they put in modern women's tees that actually gave the women a significant distance break. Often these new "tees" were simply a level patch in the forward rough that got close mowing. This does not guarantee good drainage.

I live near Grand Marais (great swamp) golf course, a state park operation build on the edge of wetlands. In the lower parts of the courses, the tee boxes are elevated five feet off the ground to improve drainage.   And, tee boxes work best if they have drainage tiles underneath.

This article from Golf Course Industry magazine discusses tee boxes and drainage.

[RickK]

$$$s come to mind and for many people just having grass on the tee box is a plus.  I am fortunate that the tee boxes are pretty good at the clubs where I normally play.  But the high cost of doing anything to a golf course prevents major improvements.  If there are sprinkler heads involved, you can't just go in and drag it down level and then re-sod or replant grass.