Your Opening Tee Shot

Or are a R-->L player!! Looks like a great hole to get blocked out right off the bat by any run through. By hole 2 I can cut a drive, but on the 1st it's about a 6% success rate without warming up. 😆
I hit the straight ball on Sunday and ended up in the middle of 2 fairway with an easy shot to the green. Into the wind getting blocked out is a real issue. If I warm up, the 3 wood is the play.
 
The main courses I play is a either a wide open par 5 or a short dogleg where a 200 yard shot sets up a 130-150 yard shot depending on where you end up to start. Usually my first shot is decent enough where if I haven't had a warm up I am okay.
Our first hole is a par 4, 400 from the whites/427 from the blues, #3 handicap. Kind of a rude awakening. Hit an easy 200-220 yard drive and you've got a long approach shot for your second shot of the day. Miss the green right and you're probably rolling across the cart path into the desert, miss left or long and you're in a bunker. Unless I really hit a nice drive, I just aim to get on in three and hopefully one putt for my par.
 
Sadly this is one of those things I'm terrible at - normally I don't get a chance to practice driving before stepping onto the 1st tee, and it often shows:(. Usually I work things out by the 3rd hole and go from there, but its not a coincidence that over the three rounds I've played so far in 2021, my worst scoring hole has consistently been #1.
 
Our first hole is a par 4, 400 from the whites/427 from the blues, #3 handicap. Kind of a rude awakening. Hit an easy 200-220 yard drive and you've got a long approach shot for your second shot of the day. Miss the green right and you're probably rolling across the cart path into the desert, miss left or long and you're in a bunker. Unless I really hit a nice drive, I just aim to get on in three and hopefully one putt for my par.
Yeah, that's just mean. I don't think the first hole needs to be #18 HC. But it should be a pretty straight forward shot and in the middle HC at a minimum. Even if the approach shot is tougher I think at a minimum it should be a risk/reward shot.
 
It seems like lately, my first few drives are the best of the round. Relaxed and controlled, not swinging out of my shoes.
 
Played a scramble with 19 people I had never met including my boss and a few coworkers (new job, remote), teeing off in front of 15+ of them.

I'm normally terrible off the tee in general and especially off tee 1. This many people being there is my nightmare.

It's 270 to the water on a par 5. I almost always use my driver here and have never hit it in the water let alone straight enough to give it a chance, but didn't want to try it in this scenario so I used my 4W and just wanted to swing soft and put it in the fairway. Striped it 255 right down the middle and left the perfect approach shot for our scramble team. People were calling me "the ringer" since only a few people knew who I was.

I think there is a lesson to learn here... Something about about not using my driver and swinging easy, maybe? No, that's silly. Never mind.
 
We have 3 nines and I feel confident teeing off on 2 of them to start the day. Our Pinehurst nine starts with a downhill, straightaway, short par-4 - for some reason, I tend to pull or hook it left of the fairway almost every time if it's a starting hole. If I'm turning to Pinehurst, no problem; I'll usually hit that fairway.
 
I don't hit balls before the round, just stretching and dry swings to lubricate the joints just a bit. I don't hit mulligans (except maybe when coming back from injury, like... next week . Another epidural shot this Friday).

Our first hole has OB left and woods right. Not a terribly difficult driving hole but a slightly pulled 3W or certainly driver, a shot that would be fine on most other holes, will find OB as the hole angles subtly right.

Used to be in my head and I'd tee off with hybrid to take that possibility out of play. Now, I'm just as likely to pull 3W as I am driver.

Mental approach is thinking "smooth." Just wanna get it in play, is all.
 
I'll warm up and expect a good tee shot if I'm playing for score. Most days I play 9 with my son as practice rounds for him between tournaments. I'm always confident on the tee without warmup. 60% of the time, it works every time...
 
No range time for a normal round for me, means the first tee is a complete mixed bag. Our group has a standing breakfast ball, and I'd say it's utilized about 25% of the time. The other 75% is usually in play and a mixture of good, bad and ugly.
 
I am not good at giving myself enough time to fully loosen up, but it really hasn’t punished me this year. I’m not sure if I have a stiff swing because of this or if I’m terrified of going OB left on the opening hole of my home course, but I often leave it out to the right.

The course has a big impact on my opening tee shot. Hopefully it is open on the first tee so I can see how my driver will behave or not.

Knowing Iron Valley well, it is an opening shot that can set the scene for the round. I don't miss left much, but pushing or slicing a drive is common and right is not ideal for the approach shot placement on #1. I typically go out very early so I don't warm up except for putting. I used to hit 3W on #1 to just get one out there, but after getting a driver fitting, I am more confident off the tee and will either find the fairway or push one beyond the bunkers. It is the approach that is the issue for me.

FYI, if you are ever out at Iron Valley early and see some weirdo with a flat cap, that would be me. :p
 
No range time for a normal round for me, means the first tee is a complete mixed bag. Our group has a standing breakfast ball, and I'd say it's utilized about 25% of the time. The other 75% is usually in play and a mixture of good, bad and ugly.
Our general rule is we allow a breakfast ball if we didn't get to warm up. If we hit balls on the range before we tee off, you get what you get. And in our Saturday men's club money games there's no mercy.
 
After stretching and warming up with a small to medium bucket, I regularly pipe the first drive down the middle with a smooth swing.
 
At my home course I go from the pro shop to the first tee. Two out the three nines are straight-away, the third requires a draw so that's really the only one that makes me a tick nervous. There's nothing better than pegging in with a group or two behind after a frost delay and piping one right down the middle.

A travel/vacation round always includes some swings on the range ahead of time. 75% of the time the first drive is majestic, the other 25% we won't discuss here.
 
It's usually the only good tee shot of the day. I honestly have no idea why. The odds of me going OB greatly increase by each drive.
This is often the case with me as well and it is sometimes the longest drive of the round. I don't normally warm up, so for me the first tee shot is all about swinging easy and trying not to hurt myself. Maybe as I gain more confidence I start swinging harder or something... who knows.
 
For what ever reason my first shot of the day off the 1st tee is always right done the middle, sometimes not very long but always done the middle. I turn and remark to the fellows I'm playing with, "The first shot is easy, it's the other 99 that kill me." True statement. 🤣
 
my first drive this past year is not my longest but generally is around or on the fairway. I tend to stretch and warmup at home and maybe hit 10 range balls, if any, before I play. Around hole 14 my form starts to fade if play is slow from being on my feet for +3 hours. In winter, when we can play in 3:30 my form sometimes will hold up for all 18
 
Down the middle ... unless @JB is watching. Then its Fore Right! 😏
 
No breakfast balls for me.

Even without any warm up my opening tee shots usually aren't that bad. They go a little shorter but that's about it.

Obviously I've hit my fair share of horrible drives on the first hole, but that's just what happens when you suck.
 
Tell me about your opening tee shot. Are you calling for a breakfast ball before the tee is in the ground or ready to rock and roll after working through a large bucket on the range? Cold top swinging out of your shoes with nervous energy or putting a smooth swing on it and piping one down the middle?
For me its smooth swing and hope I pipe it down the middle. My hope/plan off the tee is to just make a nice, easy swing to get off to a good start and to get into rhythm for the rest of the round.
If its a shortish par 4, I'll even hit a hybrid or an iron off the tee, just to put the ball into play. Theres nothing worse that starting off hitting your opening tee shot into the junk and feeling like youre trying to play catch up the rest of the day.
 
The course has a big impact on my opening tee shot. Hopefully it is open on the first tee so I can see how my driver will behave or not.

Knowing Iron Valley well, it is an opening shot that can set the scene for the round. I don't miss left much, but pushing or slicing a drive is common and right is not ideal for the approach shot placement on #1. I typically go out very early so I don't warm up except for putting. I used to hit 3W on #1 to just get one out there, but after getting a driver fitting, I am more confident off the tee and will either find the fairway or push one beyond the bunkers. It is the approach that is the issue for me.

FYI, if you are ever out at Iron Valley early and see some weirdo with a flat cap, that would be me. :p
I was 3 wood on #1 until I got a new driver I was more comfortable with. Now I just put one out there and hope I can find the elevated green with my second! I got a membership at Iron Valley this year, but I’m not often over there early. I’ll be the guy playing as a single trying to do live round posts on THP 😬
 
I'm aiming to the left side at my home course.
If it draws a bit, I have a mediocre look from a side hill. If it fades a bit, I'm golden.

Or, as of late, it does whatever the heck it wants and I deal with it hahahaha
 
Down the middle ... unless @JB is watching. Then its Fore Right! 😏

My very first tee shot with @JB watching was right down the middle. All the rest that weekend........

 
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