Tee or No Tee?

[klineka]

  On 12/21/2018 at 4:12 AM, Righty to Lefty said:

I will play devils advocate though and say that a tee isn't necessarily an advantage though.  

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Then why cant we tee it up everywhere? Why is there fairway and rough? Different grass lengths affect how far the shot goes, the amount of spin you can put on the ball which affects height, etc etc. 

If you were playing a morning round with wet grass why would you want to leave the ball touching the wet grass when you could have the option of having a perfectly dry ball by using a tee, even if its 1/8ths of an inch off the grass, that is still an advantage compared to hitting off of the wet grass. 

  On 12/21/2018 at 2:25 PM, buttputt40 said:

Because my natural miss is long and I'm tired of the ball landing in the rough past the green. 

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There's no such thing as a "natural miss" of long or short. 

You might be consistently hitting it long, but that doesnt mean it's "natural".

If you are consistently missing long that is a strategy error and means you dont have the skill set necessary to identify a yardage (while incorporating variables like elevation change, wind direction, temperature, etc), pick the correct club for that yardage, and then execute the shot for that yardage.

 You can fix that in a number of ways: take less club, choke down and flight the ball, shorter backswing, etc etc. 

Edited December 21, 2018 by klineka

[Righty to Lefty]

  On 12/21/2018 at 6:00 PM, klineka said:

Then why cant we tee it up everywhere? Why is there fairway and rough? Different grass lengths affect how far the shot goes, the amount of spin you can put on the ball which affects height, etc etc. 

If you were playing a morning round with wet grass why would you want to leave the ball touching the wet grass when you could have the option of having a perfectly dry ball by using a tee, even if its 1/8ths of an inch off the grass, that is still an advantage compared to hitting off of the wet grass. 

 

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What shot do you work on for the large majority of the swings that you hit in practice?  A ball sitting on the ground I be willing to bet.  All of your preshot predictions and distances have been derived from those numbers that you get while hitting from a flat fairway lie and I gather that you aren't deathly afraid of hitting the ball fat from the fairway on any given shot. 

Any ball that you tee up any amount is basically simulating the rough without the grass being present to get between the club face and if you make the same swing that you make on all your shots hit from the ground, then you will hit the ball high on the face and it will come up short.  Every shot that you strike is teed up above the ground some amount and adjustments have to be made to hit the shot as predicted including putting it on a tee.  If you want to introduce the wet ball into the equation then is hitting a wet ball off a tee that big of an advantage over hitting a wet ball off the ground 1/8th of an inch below? Or what about teeing the ball up on a down slope or an up slope or a bunker?  

I'm just asking question to elicit conversation and get you to think outside the box a bit. I mostly agree with you but the most important thing to controlling the shot is being able to get to the back of the ball first without anything being trapped in between the ball and the club face. The same types of adjustments to distance, spin, and such still have to be made when a ball is on a tee.  

[billchao]

  On 12/22/2018 at 3:50 AM, Righty to Lefty said:

What shot do you work on for the large majority of the swings that you hit in practice?  A ball sitting on the ground I be willing to bet.  All of your preshot predictions and distances have been derived from those numbers that you get while hitting from a flat fairway lie and I gather that you aren't deathly afraid of hitting the ball fat from the fairway on any given shot. 

Any ball that you tee up any amount is basically simulating the rough without the grass being present to get between the club face and if you make the same swing that you make on all your shots hit from the ground, then you will hit the ball high on the face and it will come up short.  Every shot that you strike is teed up above the ground some amount and adjustments have to be made to hit the shot as predicted including putting it on a tee.  If you want to introduce the wet ball into the equation then is hitting a wet ball off a tee that big of an advantage over hitting a wet ball off the ground 1/8th of an inch below? Or what about teeing the ball up on a down slope or an up slope or a bunker?  

I'm just asking question to elicit conversation and get you to think outside the box a bit. I mostly agree with you but the most important thing to controlling the shot is being able to get to the back of the ball first without anything being trapped in between the ball and the club face. The same types of adjustments to distance, spin, and such still have to be made when a ball is on a tee.  

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You're overthinking it. Teeing the ball up allows you to have a clean lie. The ball isn't sitting in it's own depression, grass isn't getting in the way of the clubface, etc. It makes it easier for skilled players to control the ball and less skilled players to make solid contact.

The purpose of teeing up isn't to hit the ball farther and the 1/8" or so higher on the face you end up striking it isn't going to cause you to lose distance, considering that when you hit the ball off the ground you're hitting slightly below vertical CoG anyway. 

[Mr Puddle]

Up until recently I always used a tee on par 3s. I now find on tighter holes it safer not to use one. Whilst I am more likely to top the ball without the tee, I am more likely to hit the ball straighter off of the ground. Only today I put the ball 6 feet from the pin on a 159 yard par three, having hit it from the ground. Of course, I missed the putt for a birdie, but nothing new there. 

[NM Golf]

  On 12/21/2018 at 5:24 AM, NM Golf said:

I know I am going to regret asking this question, but why 200 yards?

Personally I tee it up 18 times a round (hopefully).

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  On 12/21/2018 at 2:25 PM, buttputt40 said:

Because my natural miss is long and I'm tired of the ball landing in the rough past the green. 

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[p1n9183]

I only tee up with my driver and i never hit driver from the deck.
I prefer to hit every other club from the deck, it´s like when i tee up my swing changes and i hit it more upwards like the driver. Nevertheless i hit the ground before the shot in order to create an artificial tee in the ground, like an elevated spot in the grass in order to put the ball above it.

[bkuehn1952]

I always use a tee, preferably a broken one on par-3 holes.  Why broken?  Because I am frugal.

[TN94z]

It's too big of an advantage to not use for me. You're essentially given a perfect lie....why pass it up?

[ChetlovesMer]

  On 1/2/2019 at 5:10 PM, bkuehn1952 said:

I always use a tee, preferably a broken one on par-3 holes.  Why broken?  Because I am frugal.

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Ding, Ding!!!

We have a winner!

I agree with both parts of this statement. 

[miggusrises]

For me, hitting off a tee with the shorter irons removes the feeling of compressing the ball. I know that technically it doesn't matter, but that squeeze feeling is stronger off the deck and so I sometimes don't bother with the tee (normally when I cant find a broken one!).

Also, there is a bit of a mental thing that goes on where if you hit off the deck then you're saying to yourself that you prefer the grassy lie, and so when you get one on the fairway you feel more confident. 

I do normally use a tee though. Fats are more embarrassing than thins 😂

[iacas]

  On 1/2/2019 at 6:18 PM, miggusrises said:

For me, hitting off a tee with the shorter irons removes the feeling of compressing the ball. I know that technically it doesn't matter, but that squeeze feeling is stronger off the deck and so I sometimes don't bother with the tee (normally when I cant find a broken one!).

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When people say things like that, I wonder how high they're teeing it up.

I mean, I basically tee it up at ground height. The ball barely looks like it's sitting on a tee. It's just not sitting in a little depression in the grass.

[chilepepper]

I always use a tee hitting from the Tee

[miggusrises]

  On 1/2/2019 at 6:32 PM, iacas said:

When people say things like that, I wonder how high they're teeing it up.

I mean, I basically tee it up at ground height. The ball barely looks like it's sitting on a tee. It's just not sitting in a little depression in the grass.

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And imo that little depression makes it feel a little different. More squeezy. 

[Chasing_Bogeys]

I'm always using a tee. Broken tee for anything less than driver.

[iacas]

  On 1/2/2019 at 6:48 PM, miggusrises said:

And imo that little depression makes it feel a little different. More squeezy. 

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You do know the ball doesn't get pinched or squeezed against the ground at all, right?

[miggusrises]

  On 1/2/2019 at 8:13 PM, iacas said:

You do know the ball doesn't get pinched or squeezed against the ground at all, right?

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Yeah I get that the ball is always rising from the moment of impact and exerts no force on the ground (compression is a misnomer), but it does feel like it is being squeezed out, and that feeling is stronger when the ball is on the deck. 

It's not an important point, and I don't think there are any quantitative differences in terms of spin or launch (unless there is grass between the ball and clubface).

[Lihu]

  On 1/2/2019 at 10:01 PM, miggusrises said:

Yeah I get that the ball is always rising from the moment of impact and exerts no force on the ground (compression is a misnomer), but it does feel like it is being squeezed out, and that feeling is stronger when the ball is on the deck. 

It's not an important point, and I don't think there are any quantitative differences in terms of spin or launch (unless there is grass between the ball and clubface).

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It could be a feel good thing? Maybe you just like the feeling of the sole digging through the turf?

I didn’t get using a tee every hole before, but now I’ll tee up every time. Even a 5% chance of hitting slightly fat is worth the effort. That and there’s usually time on the box waiting for the next party anyway especially on shorter par 3s. Plus, for me, it’s much higher than 5% given my driving range stats. It happens, so why risk it?

Edited January 2, 2019 by Lihu

[David L Yskes]

YES!!!!!!!!!    i mean why not give yourself a perfect lie ??     one of the courses I play at has a short par 3,  120yards and I tee it up everytime...