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How do you determine what tees to play?

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Merideus

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I have seen a lot of threads discussing course length, hole length, and what tees to play from. Granted a lot of these threads have related to the USGA’s Tee it Forward initiative. The reason for this post is my curiosity for how everyone determines what Tees to play from also when/why you should move back a set of tees?

For myself I typically play the blue tees (not necessarily the tips) I played the white tees for 3 seasons when I began playing and as my ball striking and distance improved a regular playing partner said I should be playing from further away. I wonder how true this is though when you consider I am not a scratch player and if I were hitting short clubs because I was playing closure tees I would improve my opportunities to score.
 
Yardage. 6,000 to 6,300 yards preferrably.
 
I am forced to play around 6,500 because that is what my high school plays from. It's a little long for me, but I have to do it. As a result, I'm deadly with the FW and longer irons (sometimes) lol
 
So is distance the only determining factor in tee selection?
 
I generally play based of yardage. I play somewhere between 6500-6800 at my home courses.
 
I usually go one up from the tips. Driving distance isn't an issue for me (accuracy is) so its more for the overall challenge that it provides.
 
Guess I am the lone wolf who plays based on handicap.
 
GamecockGolfer said:
Yeah, I just got a brochure from the club house today on the USGA Tee It Forward etiquette regarding what tees to play from...

The yardages are at the bottom of this page...http://www.carolinasgolf.org/handicap/teeitforward.htm
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Pretty interesting link.

As far as what tee's I play, it's all based on yardage, usually like to play around 6,500 yards. I do play with some people that are "tips only" and play them regardless of yardage.
 
I have also heard people that say play the forward most tee until you can consistently break 80 from there. Once you achieve that, move back a tee and do it all over again.
 
mcook77 said:
I have also heard people that say play the forward most tee until you can consistently break 80 from there. Once you achieve that, move back a tee and do it all over again.
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+1

Like this idea!
 
Merideus said:
So is distance the only determining factor in tee selection?
Click to expand...

Distance and slope. If a course is 6300 yards and 130 slope, I am playing some tees further up. The senior tees at a course here are 6,000 yards and 126 slope! The regular men's tees are 6,600 yards and 132 slope.
 
I've always played from the whites and after looking at the "play it forward" yardage tees I've been about spot on. Anything over 6,800-7,000 is a definite challenge for me. I try to stay in the 6100-6800 category. Other than driving distance can you determine your tees by handicap as well. I like the idea of playing the womens or senior tees untill I shoot 80, but Ego and a competetive nature come into play, especially when playing with my buddies.
 
Yardage here but I do like the Tee it Forward yardages as stated. Sometimes I also tee it up one box up if it's a new course.
 
Strictly yardage. I understand what slope is, but I don't know where the line is between where I can shoot a good/normal round and what is too hard.
 
I mix it up between the whites and blues for no other reason than to make sure I'm using all the clubs in my bag. I'm getting better with my scores and my ball striking and will, hopefully, start doing the same thing with the blue and yellow tees.
 
where I play most days there is little difference from front to back but when at most of the longer courses play the 'senior' tees---do get to play with some very good golfers in scrambles when there is a quite large difference from the white to red tee boxes--sometimes there is an elder advantage it seems
 
I usually play anywhere from 6400-6900
 
I like the carolinagolf.org chart to let you pick the yardages based off driving distances. I drive 275 yds but that only happens about 40% of time as I'm still a hacker. So if I play 6800 yds then I end up with a really bad score. If I play the 6000 yds tees then I end up using only my short irons and wedges. I wish there was a way to play different tee boxes for different holes.
 
6,800 yds. is my preferred course length.
It's long enough to test me, but not so long as to wear me out.

As for what tees someone "should" play, I don't believe that there is any real answer for that.
I personally don't have a problem with anyone playing from any tees they like as long as they're not holding everyone else up while doing it.
 
metallikviper said:
I like the carolinagolf.org chart to let you pick the yardages based off driving distances. I drive 275 yds but that only happens about 40% of time as I'm still a hacker. So if I play 6800 yds then I end up with a really bad score. If I play the 6000 yds tees then I end up using only my short irons and wedges. I wish there was a way to play different tee boxes for different holes.
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Why don't you do just that?

I don't see any reason why you couldn't play some holes from the forward tees, others from the middle and still others from the back all in the same round.
Just because you start your round from a given set of tees doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't "mix n' match" while you're out there.
 
JWLI said:
6,800 yds. is my preferred course length.
It's long enough to test me, but not so long as to wear me out.

As for what tees someone "should" play, I don't believe that there is any real answer for that.
I personally don't have a problem with anyone playing from any tees they like as long as they're not holding everyone else up while doing it.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, most people don't think they are holding up play even though they are taking two shots to get to the fairway from the tips.
 
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