When can I elect to play 3 off the tee?

Yes.

Anytime you want (assuming that you have only played 1 stroke off the tee so far). You don't even have to look for or find the 1st ball. While I think it would be considered sandbagging for handicap purposes, you could elect to hit 3 even if your first was right down the middle. Note- If you hit a 2nd tee ball, it is presumed to be in play as your 3rd shot UNLESS you declare it as a provisional before hitting.

Indeed you can:

20-5 . Making Next Stroke from Where Previous Stroke Made

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daz65

Rule 28 says if I deem a ball unplayable I have three options, 1 off which is, play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played.

So if it was hit from the tee may I tee it up again?

First off, welcome to the forum!!

As to your question, you can always elect to replay your previous shot with a penalty of stroke and distance.  And while one CAN justify it under rule 28 by immediately declaring your tee shot unplayable and electing the re-tee option, that is really not necessary.

The rule to look to is 27-1 which states:

Do not let the title of the rule fool you.  The ball doesn't need to be OB or lost to use this option, it is available at all times.

There is an extreme example I always like to cite:  you have a short putt on an extreme downhill lie.  You stroke it a little too hard, it catches a slope, rolls off the green, and right up against the vertical face of a St. Andrew bunker.  Sure you could whack it 4 or 5 more times to get out of the bunker, but a MUCH BETTER option is to invoke Rule 27-1, replace your ball (distance) add a stroke (stroke) and re-putt.  Gently, this time, lol

The question was: So if it was hit from the tee may I tee it up again?

The rule to look to is 20-5 . Making Next Stroke from Where Previous Stroke Made

which was already posted some hours before yours

Note that he said tee not teeing ground.

Recent round. I rolled my tee shot. Said. "i'm abandoning that ball." Picked it up (it went exactly 18"). Re-teed to hit three.

I can't argue with you, Erik. It was a bad decision, but I didn't want to take a mulligan, and wanted to rehit the driver for practice and so took the penalty and bombed the driver out there. I know I could have hit a 5 iron off the deck about 170 and had it roll out to about 190, then hit an 9 iron onto the green and probably ended up with a bogey on the hole and a 41 or 42 for the 9. If it was in tall thick wet rough that would have been another matter.

It was my first swing with my driver in two months.