Which Tee Box Do You Play From? Why?

tdinbr

Water hazards are tough!
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A few questions for my fellow THP'ers:
What tee box do you normally use when playing?
Why? How did you decide?? Do you change up on different courses?

I ask because when I started to play over a year ago I always played from the whites and my handicap was 30+. Now that I have gotten my handicap down to 14 or so my friends are riding me to start playing from the blue tees. I have never even considered using the gold or black tees because I am no glutton for extra punishment.
Just curious as to what my fellow forum members do.....thx!!
 
great question! I am guessing your blue tees are 1 up from the tips? or 2 up? I alsways play one up from the tips, "pro tees". Now, last round I played was a VERY short course, still a par 72 but I played the back tees to add a little distance. I dont have an exact yardage I go by though. Find a yardage thats comfortable and say that you wont play from longer than that.
 
Most of the courses around here have three sets of tees. Reds, Whites, Blues. On full length courses, I normally play whites, but there are some shorter courses that I play the blues. I am usually looking for something in the area of 6000-6300 yards. If I go more than that I am out-distancing myself.

Yesterday at TPC/Deere Run, DonW and I played the white tees and Jrod played from the blues. It worked just fine and didn't slow our play down.
 
great question! I am guessing your blue tees are 1 up from the tips? or 2 up?

Indeed, they are 1 up.

Most courses around here go from longest which is Gold (or Black), Blue, White, Red, Green (sometimes).
 
I ALWAYS play from the front tees unless its a par 3, then I will play from the middle. The BF plays from the middle tees.
 
I usually play +1 up from the longest Tee-Box myself. Usually the "blues". The courses around here are rather short from the whites. Plus playing from further back gives your 4,5,6 iron a workout also. Just my $.02..
 
I normally play 1 up from the tips...... Anywhere from 5900-6500.
 
Typically, I (and my golf buds) will play the tees that are approximately 6,700 - 7,000 yards, regardless of their color or if they are considered the tips. While that is our typical range/tees, we will switch it up on occassion, due primarily to (a) a new person in the group not being comfortable with that distance or (b) we want a little extra challenge and decide to move back to tees at approximately 7,000-7,400 yards.
 
Indeed, they are 1 up.

Most courses around here go Gold (or Black), Blue, White, Red, Green (sometimes).

thats what I would play if I were ou....unless you are over the age of errrr, 60 I think
 
Typically, I (and my golf buds) will play the tees that are approximately 6,700 - 7,000 yards, regardless of their color or if they are considered the tips. While that is our typical range/tees, we will switch it up on occassion, due primarily to (a) a new person in the group not being comfortable with that distance or (b) we want a little extra challenge and decide to move back to tees at approximately 7,000-7,400 yards.

a little challenge....golf, thats the challenge. haha
 
I play from the whites at 5830 yds which is one up from the tips (Blue) 6318 yds at my regular course. It's a short course and you can play the tips and it would not make much difference except on five holes. I am suppose to move up to the senior yellow tees in November ( beginning at age 60). Depends on how my health is doing as to whether I move up or not.

Our tees are: Blue, White, Yellow for seniors, Red for ladies, and Green for juniors.
 
Tips. I might as well get my money worth!


Unless I'm playing Ocean course.... I'll never do that again!! HAHAHAH
 
I was thinking about this as I was reflecting on this year's season. my dad, my two bros have taken golf more seriously the past year and we've been switching from blue to white. I realized that I'm most comfortable playing a course yardage of 6000 - 6300. depending on the course we play, it's the white tee's or blue tee's. the nicer courses are most of the time longer. I think next year, I'll be more selective on the tee we play at. for our 2nd full year of golf next year, I'll suggest playing around the yardage above. hopefully, I can get more consistent on the scoring and maybe move on at the later part of next year. I'm gonna work on being a more consistent ball striker this off season to get better at yardage. I hit my 7i anywhere from 130-155 yards full swing. so that's pretty inconsistent.
 
I play from the white tees (middle tees) which on my home course is still about 7000 yards, so plenty long for me
 
I usually play the tees that are between 6300 and 6700 yards. On most courses, that's one tee in front of the tips. I did play a course over the weekend where the back tees were 6200 yards, so I played those, and there's a muni I like to play around here that is a 6400 yard par-70, which is a really good test that where I will play the tips.
 
I've never understood choosing tees by color. For one thing, color is meaningless from one course to another, both by the relative tee position and by difficulty. I've seen golds at the front, and I've seen golds at the tips, and most anywhere in between. I've seen courses which use flower names for the tees, or minerals.

Tees should be chosen by quantifiable measurements, not by such subjective and variable colors. Pick a tee set by the length and difficulty that suits your comfort zone. On one course that might be the mid back tee, while on the next it might be the mid front tee. I've played a course where the mid back tee is 7200 yards with a 73.4 and 131 rating, while the next course is 6500 with 69.8 and 131. Another course is 6500 with 69.4 and 120. Those are just 3 of the courses I've played this year. All 3 are totally different courses with different difficulties. The first one I'd never even consider playing from those tees. Even the middle tees are over 6700 yards, and just wear me out trying to get near any green in regulation. For me, that course is more fun from the mid front tees at 6144 yards.

And that is how I try to choose my tees... not by color, not by location, but by looking at the length, slope and rating and then deciding which ones would simply be more fun. I long ago quit trying to beat myself up by playing for the "challenge". I play for the enjoyment now. I find it more enjoyable to play shots which I have a chance of making, rather than putting myself in a position where I'm forced to try shots where I'm overreaching my skill set. I still manage to put myself in enough challenging situations even when I'm playing within my comfort zone. :golf2:
 
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usually whites which can range anywhere from 5900-6300 yds for me depending on the course
 
I generally play what ever keeps me in that 6200 to 6500 yard range. However, I played last week with a group of seniors from the gold and had a blast. That was my first time and pretty surprised by the odd yardages it gave me. I can't really say it gave me an advantage, yet playing from the blues seemed to help me hit more GIR. I don't do that well with half wedges into a green.
 
I generally play what ever keeps me in that 6200 to 6500 yard range. However, I played last week with a group of seniors from the gold and had a blast. That was my first time and pretty surprised by the odd yardages it gave me. I can't really say it gave me an advantage, yet playing from the blues seemed to help me hit more GIR. I don't do that well with half wedges into a green.

The key here is don't hit driver all the time. I love playing a course with a lot variance in hole length for that reason. especially if it offers other challenges and decisions from the tee to avoid hazards and difficult lies. I love to think my way around a course, not always just be trying to bomb the ball as far as possible.
 
I always play the whites. I don't have much distance in my game.
 
The key here is don't hit driver all the time. I love playing a course with a lot variance in hole length for that reason. especially if it offers other challenges and decisions from the tee to avoid hazards and difficult lies. I love to think my way around a course, not always just be trying to bomb the ball as far as possible.

I'm sure thats exactly right Rick. My first time doing it here on my home course, I just had to go for it, lol, but put myself in some tough spots on the par 4's. Now the par 5's were ok, I could get to a reachable distance in two, except on the dogleg holes. I rather enjoyed it, but to score well I'll be breaking out my 3w more often.
 
I am the same as some of the other posters... I play from the "White" tees which means about 6200-6400 yards with course ratings around 70/121. Although I am decently long (average in-game drive is 250 yards), I don't consider myself skilled enough to warrant stepping up to a more difficult tee box.
 
I usually play 1 up from the back tees. No particular reason other than when I first started playing at the beginning of the summer I just played off the same tees as the people the proshop sent me out with
 
I almost always play from the tips. This is due to my length off the tee. (and maybe a little ego too)
 
I'm with Duey. 6,200 to 6,600. I used to be like Interlooper up until the last several years. Then suddenly I got old. Like Duey. LOL.

I will say I'm on a mission to get back some distance. He probably doesn't realize it, but since I had a PM exchange with a Forum leader where there was some discussion of tempo, I've been working on that, and have bombed a couple almost the way I used to bomb 'em.

Kevin
 
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