Tee Box: What Drives You to Pick One?

[Hawk]

Forget all that Brad. Play the teebox you want dude. You paid your money and might as well get to enjoy the round the way you want to.

 

[Just_Brad]

Forget all that Brad. Play the teebox you want dude. You paid your money and might as well get to enjoy the round the way you want to.

No kidding right? Time to grow a set and play how I want to play.

Now don't get me wrong though, I can hang with the scores the others in the group put up, I just have to grind harder to get those scores.... sometimes it would be fun to not have to grind it though!

 

[gcruz86]

Forget all that Brad. Play the teebox you want dude. You paid your money and might as well get to enjoy the round the way you want to.

+1 on this. I paid money to play as well so why shouldn't I get to enjoy it too?

 

[T0AD]

"We pay X amount of money to play this course, so why would we move up and play less of the course?"

:facepalm: CAN they play from there? Or do they just do it for whatever reason and shoot 100?

This is something that drives me crazy on the home course.

 

[DaBuckBoys]

I pay more attention to the par 3 distances. If there are too many (more than one) over 185 yards or so I'd rather move up.

A good friend like to play the tips, he is wildly inconsistent. In a round that I gave in to him last summer, we played the tips, only 6400 or so yards but almost all of the par 3's were 175+. I hit the first green, another buddy hit one, and the friend that insisted on the tips was 0-fer...

 

[c0ncept]

I play anywhere but will always move up if it speeds things up.

 

[Ole Gray]

Tighten up that putting game on those Lane Creek greens and you'll have everyone cowering like a henhouse when the big 'ol rooster comes striding in!

hahaha you play golf with me and in no time at all you are talking like a scholar! Yea I throw a chunk of strokes away anywhere from 40 yards in however I can fix that with hard work :thumb:

 

[bellairemi]

Good question. Usually I play whatever works based on with whom I am playing. With my wife and kids, I play from the championship tees since they are playing a far shorter set anyway. I'll play from the longest tees if I sneak out for a few holes by myself as those tees generally require me to use more of my bag. It varies with my usual playing partners, most of whom are shorter off the tee than I. If there are several of the longer hitters present, we will use split tees. If I am the only one, we'll all play the shorter ones. I'm happy to just be playing golf so no concerns on my end relative to the tee.

At my home course, the 'tournament' tees where we play all our tournaments from are right around 6,550-6,600 yards. The ridiculous fact about it is that all non-Senior or female golfers are expected to play from those tees in tournament play (this is a good rant for another thread).

Anyways, it causes a lot of the members to play all their rounds from the tourney tees, despite many being shorter hitters. It causes them to hit long irons into many of the par fours and with at least one par three playing over 200 yards every time, causes some to pull driver. Moving up a tee box, I've seen plenty of these same guys shoot in the 70s as opposed to high 80s lower 90s all because of a change in about 4-450 yards. It baffles me that they suffer through 100 rounds a year shooting poorly just to play to their handicaps in tournaments. -- they also seem to get a kick out of taking issue with me being a good 50 yards ahead of them off the tee.

Tee it forward would suggest the following:

I typically enjoy playing right around 6,500-6,600 yards because it offers a nice mix of driver/3w off the tee, and it makes sense because for the most part I carry the ball 260-265 without any roll thanks to my crazy spin swing flaw. That said, I've never minded moving up a bit to accommodate playing partners who lack the appropriate distance to suit the tee it forward initiative, however it annoys me when my playing partners demand we move back to the tips which play at nearly 7,000 yards.

So my question: What drives you to play the tee boxes you do? Do you feel obligated to move back to suit playing partners? Ever get in a foursome where the tee boxes are split based on length off the tee? How much thought have you put into where you tee off from each time you play? I've heard most just say "I look at the tee boxes and move one up from the tips"

 

[staticline]

I generally play the tees between 6500-7000. If there are 2 of those, it'll probably be the longer of the 2. However, that also depends on who I'm playing with, how crowded the course is, etc. On a slow day, a couple of us may play the longer tees, while 2 others play the tee yardage that they prefer.

I would also do like the OP says that most players do and play the tees that I know the tournaments are going to use. But, I have played in tournaments where the back tee markers were moved up, on tournament day, to the middle tee yardages. That really throws alot of players off, because they are not used to the yardages and different landing areas. But, I think the course does it quicken the pace of play.

That being said, I think it would be an interesting idea for tournaments to try a blind draw sort of system on flights and tee boxes. It might make everyone try out all of the different tee boxes during casual rounds.

 

[IceyShanks]

A great question Dan, the regular group I play in has insisted they play the tips which is 6,820. Honestly I can only think of one person, and it's not me, that should be playing those tees. The middle tees are 6,481 and honestly those are my favorite to play, but are also used for quite a few events as well. Only the scratch golfing divisions use the tips for their events.

When I've asked my buddies why they feel the need to play the tips, well I've always played back here, yeah but you aren't the single digit handicapper you sued to. Dan's example of something shooting in the 90's from the tips and the 70's from up is quite true I've seen it happen on multiple occasions.

Sometimes it's as simple, but oh so difficult, to swallow one's pride and play the tee they should. But playing the right tee also helps speed of play and results, so really it's a win win!

 

[greggdrews]

my home course is actually 2 courses and both are about 6550 from the tips and 6100 from the whites. I tend to play both sets just to switch up the course and my shots. Depending on who I'm playing with I'll suggest the whites but have no issue playing the blues with others. Honestly even with the 450yd difference I see very little change in score. My lowest round last year was from the blues even though I'm a short hitter. If I'm playing a new course I'll stick to 6600yds or shorter, again playing tees based on who I'm playing with.

 

[checkered]

I rarely give much thought to what yardages I play. I play white's or blue's and mostly the variable is who I am playing with. I think the yardages pretty much fall in line with the chart. I guess I just don't concern myself with overall distance and just try to deal with it hole by hole with whatever's given to me.

 

[Scarnici]

I try to keep it between 6200-6300. I can push it back if needed but that sometimes takes the fun out of it

 

[Paladin]

I play where I have fun and am challenged, so I opt for the white tees, which play about 6500 yards. The only alteration is I'll play the par 3's from different tees, as from the whites they're all very similar in length. So I'll play back or forward a box to allow for different shots/clubs.

 

[baldguy]

I play with the group. if a tournament wants me to play a specific set of tees I have no problem with it. Otherwise I feel like it takes something away from the atmosphere when we play different tees. For example, my father should be playing the front/senior tees and I should probably be playing two sets behind that. We compromise and play the second back. I'd feel like a jerk if I insisted that I play further back then him... "I can hit the ball a lot farther so I better play back here." No thanks. I'm out there to have fun.

 

[Castor Hades]

I play at similar lengths you do Dan, but I go by par 3 length. I hate all 200+ par 3's so l play a length that gives me a nice mix of short and long, even if that means a bit of mix and match

This goes for me as well, 6000-6800 yards is fine, but I usually check the par 3's and the longest 4 and 5. 700 yard par 5's aint my thing and neither are 200+ yard par 3's. Par 4's I cant reach in two I play never. I drive around 250-275.

 

[golf4life]

I believe it was Sam Snead who once said that everyone should play from the forward tees until they can shoot par. I think one should certainly consider skill along with driver length when choosing tees. Plus, personally, I love birdie chances multiple times per round. Who doesn't like reaching par 5s in two?

Scoring is fun. Challenging yourself from the back tees can be a nice change-up too, but if you're shooting 100+ from back there, its really more torture than fun for you and everyone else waiting behind your group.

 

[fracisco]

I play at similar lengths you do Dan, but I go by par 3 length. I hate all 200+ par 3's so l play a length that gives me a nice mix of short and long, even if that means a bit of mix and match

I gauge the teebox selection off of the Par 3 distances, too. I would rather hit irons (or maybe hybrids at the longest) into Par 3's, not drivers and 3-woods. So max Par 3 distances no longer than 180-ish is where I am more comfortable.

 

[mightyquinn]

I usually use the tee boxes that are between 6000-6500 yds. as I have found that to be the best distances for my game and my length. Anything over 6500 and I am hitting long irons and hybrids into the green on Par 4's and most of the Par 3's will be in the 200 yd area.

 

[fracisco]

No kidding right? Time to grow a set and play how I want to play.

I have done exactly that with my father and brother-in-law. Yeah, it takes incrementally longer time off of the tee to accommodate me, but I'm within 20 yards of them in the fairway when we go and find our golf balls.

 

[fairband]

I prefer being in the 6000-6300 range, I just have more fun that way. I play with a wide array of handicaps so I usually will play shorter to accommodate the group. But I will move back when playing with another group, but when we are playing with something on the line the first thing I bargain for is a teebox advantage. It always seems to work out where we are hitting the same club into greens.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned but can be a problem up this way is teeboxes, on a couple of courses the white tees are in such terrible shape I will move back to the blues just to have somewhere flat to stand. More often than not I will move up a set of tees from the whites on the par three's in that same round.

 

[Canadan]

Do you feel obligated to move back to suit playing partners? All the time, and it benefits the long hitters in my group... and forces me to play Driver, Long Iron when they are playing Driver 8,9,PW. I struggle with it, because I don't have the distance off the tee, and the accuracy is at times hit-or-miss.

Do I move up and play other tees when they are playing their tees? No. I don't want to take the extra time (which is silly).

Have I suggested we all move up a tee set? Often. Do they ever agree? Never. The reason? "We pay X amount of money to play this course, so why would we move up and play less of the course?"

Your golfer buddies must be fantastic at the game -- I can play from 5,000 yards and still feel like I'm getting my monies worth after 18 holes haha!

I believe it was Sam Snead who once said that everyone should play from the forward tees until they can shoot par. I think one should certainly consider skill along with driver length when choosing tees. Plus, personally, I love birdie chances multiple times per round. Who doesn't like reaching par 5s in two?

Scoring is fun. Challenging yourself from the back tees can be a nice change-up too, but if you're shooting 100+ from back there, its really more torture than fun for you and everyone else waiting behind your group.

LOVE that quote, and I love your follow up. Why torture yourself with higher scores when you know better, more enjoyable golf can be played from the tees in front of you?

 

[bellairemi]

Really good points. I would never impose on others but I do tend, if I do not check myself, to lean towards "no pain, no gain". The reality is that I'm not going pro anytime soon so I should pay more attention to enjoyment. Slogging through a 6,900 yard cold and wet Arnold Palmer course was no fun this fall - and this was a course I had wanted to play for years. If I had moved up to 6,100, I think I would have much better memories of that day.

Your golfer buddies must be fantastic at the game -- I can play from 5,000 yards and still feel like I'm getting my monies worth after 18 holes haha!



LOVE that quote, and I love your follow up. Why torture yourself with higher scores when you know better, more enjoyable golf can be played from the tees in front of you?

 

[lukedogg]

My choice of tee box is usually between 6200-6300 yard range. I have no issue at all playing up from that with anyone wanting too but, lot of my partners has a macho man syndrome and feels they must play back tees or tees out of their ability. I'm like many here that will look at the scorecard to help guide me in making my choice of tee. I have difficulty hitting a 425 yard par 4 in two shots and that takes the fun out of it. I like to think that as I continue to get better, I will be able to move back further and enjoy it however, not now. I think the guidelines for the tee it forward are spot on!

 

[deuce]

So my question: What drives you to play the tee boxes you do?

I suck, so I play the whites. I have also read about the movement to speed up play and play shorter, so I feel further justified in playing up. Around here that typically means the course runs about 5700-5900.

Do you feel obligated to move back to suit playing partners?

No, and if they ever suggested I play back I'd tell them I'd be happy to if they spent even more time helping me search for my lost shots.

How much thought have you put into where you tee off from each time you play?

Until I improve dramatically, it's a non-starter for me unfortunately.