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Help Choose my Set of tees

Schanker

Schanker

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Solvang, CA
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Today is the first day of a 4 day tournament for me. It is a two man best ball blind draw, new partners everyday. I will not be playing with my partners. I just found out we can choose the forward tees if we want. Of course it will come with a course handicap reduction. The standard tees for the tournament play about 6100-6400 each day (new course everyday). So would you move up to play 5600-5900 yards if you lost 2-3 strokes of your C.H.?

I play to a 13 Handicap on all the courses. Drive the ball 250-260, 8i is my 150 club. I have not played any of the courses we’ll be playing.

My immediate reaction was to move up, but now I’m not sure. Shouldn’t slope/rating adjust for that and not really effect it?
 
Base your tee choice off whatever will give you the best chance of finding fairway each time. If that’s shorter then move up. If that’s middle tees and fairway or shorter (2nd) driver off the tee then green light it all day and have more chances for setting up birdie.


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If you drive the ball 250-260 and find the fairway most times then I would just stay there, but that might depend on your partner also.
 
with your distance, and your handicap, i wouldn't recommend moving up. you might find yourself in too many shorter, awkward yardages that take you out of your comfort zone. then when you have to reduce your handicap, i don't think you'll find success.
 
McLovin said:
with your distance, and your handicap, i wouldn't recommend moving up. you might find yourself in too many shorter, awkward yardages that take you out of your comfort zone. then when you have to reduce your handicap, i don't think you'll find success.
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This was my thought after thinking about for a bit. Although those 450yd par 5s make it very tempting.
 
I think the way to look at it is to ask if you really believe your score will be one shot lower on each side if you move up. If so, it is a push and doesn't matter. If you think it will be more than a stroke a side better then do it.
 
With the stats you provided, if that were me I wouldn't move up. I would guess that 6100 - 6400 yds should work fine for you. I would just research each hole of the course, yardages, hazards, doglegs and various distances before playing.
 
Schanker said:
Today is the first day of a 4 day tournament for me. It is a two man best ball blind draw, new partners everyday. I will not be playing with my partners. I just found out we can choose the forward tees if we want. Of course it will come with a course handicap reduction. The standard tees for the tournament play about 6100-6400 each day (new course everyday). So would you move up to play 5600-5900 yards if you lost 2-3 strokes of your C.H.?

I play to a 13 Handicap on all the courses. Drive the ball 250-260, 8i is my 150 club. I have not played any of the courses we’ll be playing.

My immediate reaction was to move up, but now I’m not sure. Shouldn’t slope/rating adjust for that and not really effect it?
Click to expand...

Your distances are pro level so if you choose the forward tees I suggest considering playing irons, hybrids, or fairways off most of the par 4 or par 5 tee boxes. The reason I say this is that your driver distance will go through the fairways (from forward tee boxes) on the dogleg shaped holes.
 
DG_1234 said:
Your distances are pro level so if you choose the forward tees I suggest considering playing irons, hybrids, or fairways off most of the par 4 or par 5 tee boxes. The reason I say this is that your driver distance will go through the fairways (from forward tee boxes) on the dogleg shaped holes.
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Ha, definitely not pro distances, but yeah that’s a good point. I definitely don’t have a problem playing 6500. Im just wondering if I really increase my birdie chances moving up.
 
Schanker said:
Ha, definitely not pro distances, but yeah that’s a good point. I definitely don’t have a problem playing 6500. Im just wondering if I really increase my birdie chances moving up.
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Well, the forward tees at 5,800, 5,900 yards is appropriate for a player striking the par 4 and par 5 tee shots about 175 to 200 yards.
250-260 yard driver tee shots will work fine on a 7,000 yard course.
Even if you play the 6,500 yards tees consider 3 wood or less off some of the par 4 tee boxes.
 
I would look at the par 3s and par 5s Tim. You hit the ball plenty long enough and hit quite a few fairways but with that length if you are able to give yourself 4 pretty easy birdie looks on the par 5s...

If moving up gives you shots where you are comfortable going for greens in 2 on most of the par 5s than 3-4 per round vs giving up 2-3 strokes off your index seems like it would be worthwhile.

Plus if going from mid/long irons to wedges/short irons on the pars gives you better chances at birdies/pars it seems like a no brainer to me.

Par 4s to me are irrelevant unless there are quite a few longer par 4s that you aren't sure you can reach comfortably to much shorter 2nd shots. You are good with either of your drivers and if there are short par 4s from the forward tees that will leave you testy wedge distances you aren't comfortable with, tee off with a hybrid or an iron to get you an ideal distance. You are steady enough and have good course management that I think the benefit on the par 5s and par 3s more than offsets the loss of strokes.

Personally I wouldn't do it, but even at 450 99% of the time I wouldn't be able to reach the par 5s in 2, but with your game it would give you some great looks at eagles or at least some 2 putt birdies/up and down birdies for net eagles.

Have fun!
 
Based off what I personally ran into this past season I'm suggesting that you don't move up. After sitting on a waiting list a few years I was finally rewarded with a spot in our Senior Golf Association. It was great getting to play most of the exclusive private and resort clubs in the region but instead of playing most in my 6000-6500 comfort zone I struggled horribly trying to play them all at 5000-5500. Going in, I was licking my chops pre scouting those short holed events too. Yet many of these courses , even those I had played dozens of rounds on, I was still a mess playing up too far. Scored my all time worsts on most of them. Most of the holes were just too awkward with no where to hit it. I often struggled even teeing off with mid/short irons because I think I'd sub consciously try to goose it right at impact. Short pull hooks into the woods are no fun. Trying to precisely place hybrids in there didn't work well for me either, lazy soft swings = bad hooks and penalties with my swing flaws. The season went so bad I started shopping for a driving iron that would go straight basically every time and based off what I'm getting from my GAPR MID I think I'm ready to crush it in our 2019 season. Especially with the 10 strokes they added to my association handicap for the upcoming season. Embarrassing, (especially considering I chopped nearly 3 strokes off my GHIN last season) but I definitely earned all 10 of them.
 
I would jump up and hit 3 or 4 iron off every par 4 unless it was stupidly wide open.
 
Thanks guys for all the response. Tee off 2 hours. I think today I’m playing the standard tees. I can pick which courses I want to move up on. I don’t think today’s will make much of a difference after looking at the distances. Tomorrow I’ll reevaluate.
 
If your sort game is really good. Move up. You'll have a lot of short pitches to give yourself birdie chances. If you are not confident in your sort game don't move up. You'll be wasting those extra strokes since you likely won't be gaining much advantage. At the shorter tees, I'd imagine that you would have a lot of 50-80 yard approaches. If you aren't getting closer than you would from 120-150, you're wasting strokes.
 
Daddio said:
Based off what I personally ran into this past season I'm suggesting that you don't move up. After sitting on a waiting list a few years I was finally rewarded with a spot in our Senior Golf Association. It was great getting to play most of the exclusive private and resort clubs in the region but instead of playing most in my 6000-6500 comfort zone I struggled horribly trying to play them all at 5000-5500. Going in, I was licking my chops pre scouting those short holed events too. Yet many of these courses , even those I had played dozens of rounds on, I was still a mess playing up too far. Scored my all time worsts on most of them. Most of the holes were just too awkward with no where to hit it. I often struggled even teeing off with mid/short irons because I think I'd sub consciously try to goose it right at impact. Short pull hooks into the woods are no fun. Trying to precisely place hybrids in there didn't work well for me either, lazy soft swings = bad hooks and penalties with my swing flaws. The season went so bad I started shopping for a driving iron that would go straight basically every time and based off what I'm getting from my GAPR MID I think I'm ready to crush it in our 2019 season. Especially with the 10 strokes they added to my association handicap for the upcoming season. Embarrassing, (especially considering I chopped nearly 3 strokes off my GHIN last season) but I definitely earned all 10 of them.
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If a player is not accustomed to it, playing irons , hybrids, or fairway metals off the par 4 and par 5 tee boxes is awkward. But if you stick with it I expect you will eventually become comfortable and enjoy it.
 
The answer is...."do you hit your 3wood and 3iron more consistently than your driver? Because that is likely what you will use on every tee box on the shorter tees.
 
I would check the par 3 yardages to see what the club difference was for each of those for you. My 8i is usually more accurate than my 6i and if I used the 8i two more times on par 3 holes I could see myself saving 2 strokes.
 
I'd take a look at the difference in rating and see how many strokes it'll cost you. If it's a big change, I'd stay at the "normal" distances. I'm about the same length as you and on 6100 yards I've got a lot of wedges into greens. You probably don't even need to take driver out from that distance.

Now, if most of the distance is taken off on par 5s and 3s, it might be worth looking to move up.
 
For me it would all depend on where you’re dropping shots for the most part. If you’re getting out of position off the tee or not hitting many GIR while playing 6100-6400, then absolutely move up and put shorter clubs in your hands off the tee or on approach shots.

If it’s your short game and putting, them by all means, play back and keep the 2/3 shots you get from playing 6100-6400. But if it were me I’d be licking my chops at possibly trading 3 shots for up to 800 yards shorter...that’s 2 par 4’s.
 
Play to your strengths.

If your strength is short irons and wedges then move up tees. If your strength is off the tee and you are okay with your irons why not take strokes?

What is your chance you will make a birdie instead of par with a partial wedge in hand?

What is your chance of getting on in 2 if you have a long iron vs fairway in hand?

Those are the questions you need to answer.
 
I played the long tees today and made 3 birdies. Unfortunately I also lost 6 balls in the water. So I shot a 90. I definitely played aggressive and drove the ball pretty well except the 2x I found the water.

I think I’m going to stick with the long tees. I don’t remember hitting more than 7i into a green today. Hopefully I can clean up the iron play and penalties tomorrow.
 
You said you have not played any of the courses you'll be playing. But the question is what do you know about those courses?

You've got enough distance to play the standard tees. But if you were to tell me these are mountain courses with narrow fairways and instead of rough you've got forests and water off the fairway my answer is going to be different than if you tell me these are relatively flat and wide open parkland-style courses.
 
It's always an advantage to be closer so move on up to the east side.
 
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