Picking the right tee box?

[V14_Heels]

So I'm new to the sport, I've been playing now for a little over 2 months. Took a bunch of lessons before I even stepped foot on the course itself. My worst round is a 112 and my best is a 96. I'd say I average about 100.

Here are my course details...
Championship - 6644 yds 72/133
Competitive - 6235 yds 70.3/127
Blue - 5759 yds 67.8/121
White - 5393 yds 5393 66.1/117
Forward - 5017 yds 64.6/114
and then some women and junior tees.

I realize this is already a relatively short course. My friend who i've not seen shoot better than a 105 insists on playing the blue tees, I personally always play the white tees when I go solo, but he insists those are only for seniors. I feel like it's plenty enough challenge off the white for me at this point. My average drive is only 190 as of right now and of course that's maybe 1 out of 2 times where i actually make solid contact.

Give it to me straight. Am i being a wuss and need to move back to blue or is white totally fine for my ability?

Is there any general rule of thumb that can be used going forward to pick the correct tee box...I'm headed to Florida here in a few weeks where the courses will be harder and I have no clue how to pick the appropriate tee box?

 

[badolds]

I look at the length of the par 3's and choose my tee box from that. If there is more than one over 180 yards I will move up until they fit that range. I usually play the whites or equivalent at a course I have never played before. If I play that course fairly well I will move back a tee next time I play it. I have no business playing the tips unless its a short track.

 

[JB]

Your friend is not accurate. There are lots of ways to figure it out. The Tee it Forward Campaign used this as a general guideline.

 

[V14_Heels]

Your friend is not accurate. There are lots of ways to figure it out. The Tee it Forward Campaign used this as a general guideline.

Ooo this is awesome. This is based on your long drive or your average drive? I'm assuming average?

I mean according to that I should be on the women's tees haha...I'm not sure I'm going to go quite that far. I have to leave my self with a little pride.

 

[JB]

Ooo this is awesome. This is based on your long drive or your average drive? I'm assuming average?

I mean according to that I should be on the women's tees haha...I'm not sure I'm going to go quite that far. I have to leave my self with a little pride.

This is done with the average, but its important to note that the Tee it Forward campaign is eliminating things such as "senior" and "ladies" tee boxes. Just different tee yardages for all golfers.
The goal is to rid the game of these stereotypes that say ABC Player is this age so he needs to play here when someone is taking up the game or even experienced. Replaced with play the game at an appropriate yardage to get the most enjoyment out of it.

 

[LLIB]

I wish courses would quit designating tees men, seniors, & women’s. And also stop using colors. They need to number the tees. That would help get rid of the stigma of playing shorter tees

 

[Jman]

This is done with the average, but its important to note that the Tee it Forward campaign is eliminating things such as "senior" and "ladies" tee boxes. Just different tee yardages for all golfers.
The goal is to rid the game of these stereotypes that say ABC Player is this age so he needs to play here when someone is taking up the game or even experienced. Replaced with play the game at an appropriate yardage to get the most enjoyment out of it.

I think it’s a great thing to attempt, if we would be rid of them then it’d let a lot of people enjoy the game more. But, we know how hard stereotypes die.

One of my course I play a lot switched their tee marker colors to (from back to front) Orange, white, black, and it’s really messed with some heads of the old guard.

 

[mikeg_74]

Based on your driver distance, the whites should give you plenty of a challenge. I could see you playing the blues, but it might make for longer second shots.

 

[V14_Heels]

Which makes complete sense. I got paired up with 3 80+ year olds the other day, and one of them would've whooped me every day of the week. Age is relatively irrelevant. There's older guys that constantly hit better than me on the range as well.

 

[JB]

I think it’s a great thing to attempt, if we would be rid of them then it’d let a lot of people enjoy the game more. But, we know how hard stereotypes die.

One of my course I play a lot switched their tee marker colors to (from back to front) Orange, white, black, and it’s really messed with some heads of the old guard.

True story.
My 80 year old father was here and he was telling me about one of his weekly games. He plays 4 times a week now and his courses are fairly challenging. They have numbered tee boxes from 1-5 or 6 I believe and his Wednesday group refused to move up to the next box. They were playing from over 6200 yards (in FL with no roll) and the average age was close to 80. Absolute refusal and the course finally said something. They agreed to create a combined 3-4 tee box, ONLY because the members refused to move up completely, but wanted to on two par 5s that they think they can reach in 2. Otherwise the quotes were "Those are old man tees". YOU ARE OLD MEN! Watching these guys hit fairway woods into par 4s on courses this hard is both sad and slow ONLY because they grew up at a time when you had 3 tee boxes (mens, seniors and women) or 4 if you added a back Championship Tee.

 

[gonyr]

I think you're fine at the white tees for now. If you feel comfortable playing there, stick with it until it feels too short as your game improves. Once you're hitting a sand wedge for your second shot all the time or driving the green on the shorter par 4's then it's probably time to move back a set. Another formula I've seen used is to play at 36x your average 5-iron shot. Most importantly, don't let your friend pressure you. Play at the distance that makes it enjoyable.

 

[Jman]

True story.
My 80 year old father was here and he was telling me about one of his weekly games. He plays 4 times a week now and his courses are fairly challenging. They have numbered tee boxes from 1-5 or 6 I believe and his Wednesday group refused to move up to the next box. They were playing from over 6200 yards (in FL with no roll) and the average age was close to 80. Absolute refusal and the course finally said something. They agreed to create a combined 3-4 tee box, ONLY because the members refused to move up completely, but wanted to on two par 5s that they think they can reach in 2. Otherwise the quotes were "Those are old man tees". YOU ARE OLD MEN! Watching these guys hit fairway woods into par 4s on courses this hard is both sad and slow ONLY because they grew up at a time when you had 3 tee boxes (mens, seniors and women) or 4 if you added a back Championship Tee.

One of my GREAT friends is this way here. He refuses to move because we don’t move, so there is he is round after round hitting long hybrids and fairways into everything.

 

[V14_Heels]

I think you're fine at the white tees for now. If you feel comfortable playing there, stick with it until it feels too short as your game improves. Once you're hitting a sand wedge for your second shot all the time or driving the green on the shorter par 4's then it's probably time to move back a set. Another formula I've seen used is to play at 36x your average 5-iron shot. Most importantly, don't let your friend pressure you. Play at the distance that makes it enjoyable.

Last round on all my Par 4's went like this on the white tees. This is the 2nd shot.
#1 - 6i (186 yard drive)
#2 - 8i (181 yard drive)
#3 - SW (162 yard drive)
#6 - SW (190 yard drive)
#7 - 8i (180 yard drive)
#10 - 6i (117 yard drive)
#11 - 6i (115 yard drive)
#15 - 7i (133 yard drive)
#17 - 7i (174 yard drive)

So I think i'm ok on white still, but had my drives been alot more solid at that 190 like i should be averaging I would've definitely had a decent chunk of SW shots, so it just depends, but that is the reality of last round.

 

[rollin]

I feel your doing the correct thing even based off your longest drives. Imo you should base things off the average of your well hit drives. Not the bad ones. If your friend insists , no one is forcing you to play the same tees so you should play where you think you should regardless what he does (if that's what you want to do).

 

[gonyr]

Last round on all my Par 4's went like this on the white tees. This is the 2nd shot.
#1 - 6i (186 yard drive)
#2 - 8i (181 yard drive)
#3 - SW (162 yard drive)
#6 - SW (190 yard drive)
#7 - 8i (180 yard drive)
#10 - 6i (117 yard drive)
#11 - 6i (115 yard drive)
#15 - 7i (133 yard drive)
#17 - 7i (174 yard drive)

So I think i'm ok on white still, but had my drives been alot more solid at that 190 like i should be averaging I would've definitely had a decent chunk of SW shots, so it just depends, but that is the reality of last round.

Looks like if you throw out the 3 obvious outliers that were much shorter, you're averaging about 180 on your solid drives. I'd stay at the whites.

 

[Bryndom]

This is an incredibly useful thread. My course has tee boxes with recommended HCPs next to the distances on the scorecard:

Green (0-5 hcp) - 6,914
Gold (6-24 hcp) - 6,394
Black (25-36 hcp) - 5,867
White (36+ hcp) - 5,145

I generally play from Gold or when my back is acting up, Black and its a good challenge..

 

[rollin]

This is an incredibly useful thread. My course has tee boxes with recommended HCPs next to the distances on the scorecard:

Green (0-5 hcp) - 6,914
Gold (6-24 hcp) - 6,394
Black (25-36 hcp) - 5,867
White (36+ hcp) - 5,145

I generally play from Gold or when my back is acting up, Black and its a good challenge..

see now that a bunch of garbage. That's a misguided pace of play infused yet wrong ideology. Tee it forward is 90% about capable distance and only very little about HC. To exaggerate you cant place one who can hit the ball 290 on tess far forward because he cant score or is inconsistent. You cant take driver and 3w and probably 5w out of someone's bag because they lack ability or consistency to shoot an 85 on a regular basis. Its about distance not HC. Only a small percentage should HC weigh in.

 

[MrDC]

I think you'll be fine at either the Blue or White, it's not a big difference.

The best tee is the one that challenges every club in the bag, or at least most, you want the long clubs to come out for approaches a bit, as well as enjoying some short ones, pulling less than driver off the tee here and there, that's perfect golf length IMO.

And everyone should see a par 5 that they can can try for in two once in a while, if you never have that opportunity you're playing too long.

 

[gonyr]

see now that a bunch of garbage. That's a misguided pace of play infused yet wrong ideology. Tee it forward is 90% about capable distance and only very little about HC. To exaggerate you cant place one who can hit the ball 290 on tess far forward because he cant score or is inconsistent. You cant take driver and 3w and probably 5w out of someone's bag because they lack ability or consistency to shoot an 85 on a regular basis. Its about distance not HC. Only a small percentage should HC weigh in.

I very strongly agree. Handicap is not about distance. I'm still very slowly improving. But even when I was just starting and was a 36 HC years ago, I could consistently drive well over 200 yards. Playing way under 6000 would have been stupid.

 

[Et Tu Brute?]

When possible I choose a set of tees that offer the widest possible variety of approach shot distances on Par 4 and Par 3 holes. Too far forward and it's more about hitting wedges and 9-irons hole after hole. Too far back and I never get a chance to approach greens with shorter than 6-iron. There's usually a sweet spot set of tees in between those extremes.

When in doubt coming to a course I've never played before, let's say there's a 5,800 set and a 6,100 yard set and I'm not sure which suits me best, I'll go with the longer set. Sometimes playing too far up on some courses makes the course play really narrow. Longer tees might take away from birdie or par chances but avoiding losing balls by hitting through doglegs and so forth.

I'd imagine the same thing holds for those who hit it longer than my 210-yard tee shots. If you can hit your driver 270 and a fairway wood 250 I know of some courses where playing a set of tees shorter than about 6,400 yards is just asking for trouble. You'd be handcuffed the whole round teeing off with 5-irons on Par 4's and such. Where's the fun in that.

And there are definitely some double-digit 'cappers out there who have no problem driving it 270+ on their best hits.

 

[OldandStiff]

I was taught to play whichever tees the club plays their casual tournaments from (scrambles, charity events, etc, which is typically the whites) first time at a new place, and then decide if it's too short or long for you. And also to keep your playing company in mind. If it's going to totally slow down or otherwise break up the group for me to be the only one playing the longest tees, I don't bother. We're all going to need every shot in our bag at some point, so breaking up the routine of what you prefer/are capable of is good practice.

I'm with rollin on the HC determining your tees thing. Can't see how that makes any sense.

 

[Et Tu Brute?]

Both the clubs I've belonged to during the past two decades were, up until recently, very serious about age+handicap putting each player into a certain tee choice. If you were under some "senior" age (60 or 62 or 65) and you weren't scratch or better you played the "men's tees". If you were over the senior age you had the option of the "senior tees" or staying back on the men's. And if you were scratch or better you were supposed to move back to the "tournament tees".

In the past 5-10 years both of those clubs, other than for the club championship and one or two other yearly events, have adopted a "play wherever you like" philosophy. Which is a great thing. There is just a huge range of abilities and preferences among 30, 40, 50, 60 year old golfers with handicaps ranging from +3 to 30. It's supposed to be about having fun, not about passing some standardized test.

 

[Hamfist]

Play whichever tee YOU want to play. If anyone says anything, tell them to (inset appropriate phrase), and leave you alone. It's like saying you can't go see a musical because it's not manly entertainment. I play where I want, you play where you want.

 

[BishopBreaks80]

I very strongly agree. Handicap is not about distance. I'm still very slowly improving. But even when I was just starting and was a 36 HC years ago, I could consistently drive well over 200 yards. Playing way under 6000 would have been stupid.

Even further to this point: my personal handicap is 18 due to my inconsistency, not due to distance. Those huge drives will occasionally go OB, and as a result I'll have at least one (and some times two) provisional.

I was told by my league that I needed to play from the whites. And when thinking about it now, although when thinking about the errant shots, it almost feels like the potential distance benefit is a wash.

-Bishop

 

[Jiffypop]

Your friend is not accurate. There are lots of ways to figure it out. The Tee it Forward Campaign used this as a general guideline.

I like this chart. I hit it 250 with the occasional bomb to 270. I feel really comfortable in 6200-6400.
If I'm playing well, I can back as far as 6600. But this is like once maybe twice a year and on a "open" course.