MacDutch

To be nervous and hit your balls poor happend to me a lot when having lessons. Your expectations are a bit high. I chopped my goals into pieces of one year. If you break 100 the first year, that would be a nice goal. Important will be if you will find a pro who will be able to teach you the way that suits you best. I state this because I had a couple who could not. Every person has a learningstyle. The pro should recognise yours and be able to adjust his lessons. I for instance get lost when they start talking technical. I have to feel and get a mental picture of the right movement.

At my home course there is a summertime clubcompetition divided in two groups. HCP 15 and lower play backtee's (6.750 yards). May this year I had to move to backtee's and it was a nightmare. Now, 4 months later no problem at all anymore. Two things helped: consistently more lenght from the tee and course management. When you are able to play consistant bogey-golf, it is in my opinion better not to move back or forward, but to play different tee's. It will bring you in different situations at the same golfcourse, which is a good thing.

Ok, if you want to compare your distances, maybe this is of any help. On average is a difficult thing on the internet, so lets say a good straight shot, no wind, temp somewhere in the seventies and at sealevel for a once a week player in his fifties would be: Driver 230 Wood 3 200 I3 185 I4 175 I5 165 I6 155 I7 145 I8 133 I9 120 PW 110

May this year I started playing backtee's because I had to in clubcompetition. It was horrible, went from shooting high and mid-eighties to +100. Lost the extra 3 shots when playing from backtee's the first 3 holes. Now, 4 months later I am used to it. Shooting mid and high eighties again. And dropped the handicap a bit (from 15 to 13.4). I am confident to end this season at 12. Sometimes I play from the red tee's, which in my country are the normal womens tee's. They don't help me shooting lower scores. I think the reason is that I am (compared to others in my HCP-range) good at long distance, bad at pitching distance and good at chipping. So there is no answer to your question other than that it depends on the abilities of the individual golfer. But I think it is a good thing to play different tee's (also women tee's) because it brings you in different situations at the same golfcourse.

Hi All, Pleased to meet you in the sandtrap. I am living in the Netherlands and visit Florida twice a year to live my addiction to the max. Hope to learn a lot here and maybe play some rounds together sometime. All the best, Frank.