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What tees do you seniors play


yankee

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I am interested in seeing how many seniors have decided to move from the white or blue/blacks tees to the seniors or red tees. I am 80 years old and now a short hitter. My average drives probably max out at about 170 yards with a swing speed that probably max out around 70mph. When I turned 60, I moved up to the senior tees, and when I turned 72, moved up to the red tees. Made the game more fun and enjoyable. Before that, i had a stigma of doing so. I guess I was worrying that other players might think I was a wuss. But I am past that now.  And when paired with others, I have no problem telling them I play the reds. Never had a problem- not that I should. So, how about you senior guys? Have you stuck with the white tees, or have you decided to move up? For me, it is much more fun playing when you have a shot at par and birdies. Playing mostly bogie for me with hardly any chance for pars and birdies was not much fun. 

Edited by yankee
Miss spelling, etc.

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  • yankee changed the title to What tees do you seniors play

A difficult question to answer within context as every course may utilize a different color scheme and may have more or fewer tee boxes than the next course.  Having said that, at my previous club, I had moved from the Gold (so called Mens regular) tees to the Blue (aka Senior) tees.  We still had 2 sets of tees shorter than the blue and 1 set behind the Gold tees.  At my current course, I'm playing the whites (designated 4) and have 3 sets (silver 3, red 2, and green 1) forward of me and 2 J(blue 5 and black 6) behind me.  I'm playing 4 with thoughts of moving to 3.  Problem is that while 4 is a tad long, 3 is significantly shorter and sadly we have not developed a proper combination set of tees (yet?).

But yes, I agree with you that players should move to the appropriate tee boxes for their age/ability.  Playing a course at a length that makes it unlikely to reach GIR is not fun.  

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As @CarlH mentioned the color of the tee box doesn't carry from course to course. I generally look at the length from a particular tee box. At 76, I generally play 5800 yds which at our course is green. In front of the green we also have red, yellow and orange tee boxes plus our score card shows combo tees. One our our group's member is a little younger than I am and plays the yellow/orange combo tee which is 4700 yds. 

I like to play the green because I generally have long drives and second shots and am also looking for a challenge. Where I lose strokes is in my short game so it doesn't matter if I play green or gold or any combination, I'd still lose strokes on or adjacent to the green. 

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My new club, Heritage Isles, uses Green for Seniors. It is 5,049 yards.  I find my group, there are 12 of us, all play the same tee as we play a net handicap game. I was playing 5,300+ yards at my old club. There are several par 4’s where I tee off using my 5 wood as the course has several obstacles that impede using the driver at 190+ yards.  With the shorter distance the 5 wood works great.

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... Turning 70 next month but still play the mens tees at 6403 on my home course. The last 2 months we had an inordinate amount of rain (certainly not complaining!) and the course was playing soft instead of like a typical desert course so I moved up to the senior tees on 4 holes making the course play 6293.  But things have dried out and the course is playing hard and fast again so I have moved back to the mens tees. 

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Hey Fozcycle, Great to hear you have joined Heritage Isle.  Is it the one in Tampa?  Love that course.  I am from Central NY, but have two sons living in South Tampa, so I visit them from late June until the end of September. And joined Heritage's 3-month membership including cart July through September. Love the course and the people who work there are great. When I am there, I play the red tees!  I know, I know, I am a wimp! Maybe I will see you some time this coming summer.  Couldn't find a way to reply to you directly in this thread, so here is a stand alone reply. 

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6 minutes ago, yankee said:

When I am there, I play the red tees!  I know, I know, I am a wimp!

 

... Channeling Tom Hanks, there's no wimps in golf. Just happier faster players. 😇

 

 

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Should have said the front tees as you guys here are right, as golf courses don't all have the same colored tees. The front tees could be green, yellow, etc. And there are now many courses who don't color the front tees red anymore, because that usually signifies women's tees, making it reluctant for many men who should be playing there from doing so. 

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14 hours ago, yankee said:

I am interested in seeing how many seniors have decided to move from the white or blue/blacks tees to the seniors or red tees. I am 80 years old and now a short hitter. My average drives probably max out at about 170 yards with a swing speed that probably max out around 70mph. When I turned 60, I moved up to the senior tees, and when I turned 72, moved up to the red tees. Made the game more fun and enjoyable. Before that, i had a stigma of doing so. I guess I was worrying that other players might think I was a wuss. But I am past that now.  And when paired with others, I have no problem telling them I play the reds. Never had a problem- not that I should. So, how about you senior guys? Have you stuck with the white tees, or have you decided to move up? For me, it is much more fun playing when you have a shot at par and birdies. Playing mostly bogie for me with hardly any chance for pars and birdies was not much fun. 

I am 73 years old (74 next month), and I play the gold (senior) tees whenever it is possible. On my home course, I play a blended set of white/gold tees (about 5,940 yards/68.5 course rating/118 slope) because these are the recommended tees for seniors in the 13-20 handicap range. On the course across the river in NJ where I play for the senior travel team, we play a mixed set of tees that result in a playing yardage of 5,880 yards (the statewide senior league requires all 26 courses to be set up at about 5,750 to no more than 6,000 yards, and most courses play about 5,800-5,900 yards).

As I have mentioned several times on this forum, my winter golf tour requires all golfers to play from the same tees, regardless of their age, and this results in some courses being nearly unplayable for seniors and short hitters. I try to play in at least 18-19 of the tour’s 22 tournaments every year, so that I can have a decent shot at qualifying for our tour championship. However, with some of the tournaments being played at 6,500-6,600 yards (or more), I have been dropping more courses from my tour schedule in recent years.

Finally, my home course has several of its member tournament setups where the seniors play from the white tees (6,157 yards) or occasionally the white/blue combo tees (6,360 yards). This seems silly to me, since they recommend that seniors in the 13-20 handicap range (that’s most of us, BTW) play from the white/gold tees and 20+ handicap seniors play from the golds (5,653 yards). I had to play from the white/blue tees in two member events last year and it wasn’t much fun. I asked the head pro why and he said because I “play with the young studs on our Challenge Cup team” that those are the tees I should play from. That’s crazy, IMHO!

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My home course here in Key West has five set of tees:  Blues (6531 yards), Whites (6035 yards), Golds (5448 yards), Reds (5035 yards) and Green (not on score card, rated at about 4000 yards).  Until recently, the "men's" tees were the whites, "senior's" tees were golds, "women's" tees were the reds and "super seniors" were the greens.   For the longest time, people played the tees they were told to play.   

With the World Handicap System people started to question why they had to play certain tees.  So, volunteers got together and worked out the combination of age and handicap needed to move up to the next forward tee box.  It seemed fair in that as one moved up, their handicap would go down a few strokes.   For the men, the combination of age and handicap had to be 85 to move up.  Men could not post scores from the red tees as the course was not rated for them at those tees.  Both men and women could move to the green tees with age and handicaps at 100 or better.   It took a while for both men and women to get over moving up to the green tees due to the stigma associated with it.  However, older golfers who had difficulty playing from their previously designated tee boxes were sometimes viewed as an anchor.  When they met the green tee requirements and moved up, they immediately became a valued asset!  Not only they had more fun, but they were desired playing partners and felt better about their game.

The sign that the stigma associated with moving forward tees was starting to melt away was when some senior golfers started to struggle with the golf tees and requested that previous women's red tees be rated for men.   As more people asked, the course was pressured to add the red tee ratings for men.   As a Florida State Golf Association course rater, I was able to hook up the course with the right people and the red tees had a men's rating.  It's taken about six months, but there's about a handful or more golfers who are tired of scoring over a 100 from the gold tees and want to move to the reds.  Another step forward in dropping the stigma associated with moving forward. 

Though I'm 66 years old with a course handicap of 13 from the whites, I struggle every round to score.  A naturally fused back, a new left knee, operations on both shoulders and a broken neck (yeah, I should be dead), let's just say distance is not my strong suit.  I kid my playing partners I've become the golfer I used to hate as a young adult:  short off the tee on a par 4, fairway wood short of the green, pitching close and one putting for par (or two putt for bogey).   I plead with them to allow me to move up to the gold tees (even though my handicap would go down two strokes), they refuse.  So either I have to age faster, start playing worse (highly likely) or find new playing partners!  

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Hey Golf2Much, I feel your pain. I have had a full right knee replacement and two bone spur surgeries on my right elbow. And am a lefty.  Distance was never my strong suit even while younger. After moving up to the seniors, that worked OK for a few years. Then I decided to the heck with it and moved up to the reds/women's tees. But when I told my sons, yupper, they thought I was wimping out. But I stuck to it regardless. Now when I am paired up with strangers, I tell them that I am going to have a sex change in a couple of weeks, and because of that, they are allowing me to start playing the red/up tees. I always get a laugh and they tell me no problems.  As for others, screw them and just go play the tees you feel most comfortable with and having the most fun. No fun playing tees where you hardly if ever can get par, let alone birdies. I am 80, and my GHIN is/or was about an 8 from the red/up tees. But if I moved back to the seniors around 5,600 yds. my scores would average in the high 80s and from the whites 6,000 yds. and over, I'd be hopelessly in the 90s.

I was recently in a head-on car  crash and suffered multiple rib fractures as well as a fractured right pelvis. Luckily, I did not get killed. Going on 7 weeks and slowly healing--walking with a cane with still some pain, but getting there.  I have no Idea How my game will be once I can hit the golf courses when they open in April (live in central NY). That is the thing I am most worried about, as I am an every day playing addict!  Below is an image of my crashed car--a Prius that folded like an accordion! Once I get back on the course, will probably have to start playing from the kids tees! 🙂

1000000430(1).jpg

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I was 26 handicap but now 22 because I changed to KAPITI GOLF CLUB, it's shorter and easier than my previous club and I waited 3 years before I changed because I didn't want a easier golf club. Now I've changed mostly because of the P.C. members b.s. I'm enjoying just playing golf with no dumb rules, I don't have distance issues just a brain out of step lol...

I’m a hacker who loves nothing more than to change how I play, be that grips shafts and heads its all fair game lol…

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On 2/4/2023 at 12:08 AM, yankee said:

I am interested in seeing how many seniors have decided to move from the white or blue/blacks tees to the seniors or red tees. I am 80 years old and now a short hitter. My average drives probably max out at about 170 yards with a swing speed that probably max out around 70mph. When I turned 60, I moved up to the senior tees, and when I turned 72, moved up to the red tees. Made the game more fun and enjoyable. Before that, i had a stigma of doing so. I guess I was worrying that other players might think I was a wuss. But I am past that now.  And when paired with others, I have no problem telling them I play the reds. Never had a problem- not that I should. So, how about you senior guys? Have you stuck with the white tees, or have you decided to move up? For me, it is much more fun playing when you have a shot at par and birdies. Playing mostly bogie for me with hardly any chance for pars and birdies was not much fun. 

When I joined my current course in 2015, I played the Men's tees (Blue) around 6000y (68.8/127).  Last year when I turned 75 I told my wife that I was moving up to the Senior tees (White) around 5400y (66.3/113).  Curiously, I had played from the White tees several times before, and I usually shot the same scores as I did from the Blue tees.  However, from the Blue tees I was hitting more FW/hybrids than iron shots.  I played well with those long clubs, but except for wedges, I never got to use irons much so when I moved up I didn't hit them very well.  Since I played from the White tees exclusively last year, I've gotten much better with irons and my handicap dropped.  

My wife plays from the Forward tees (Red) around 4700y, but she occasionally played from the White tees.  They are a little long for her now but when we travel to play, many courses have Forward tees around 5500y.  When she has to play from there, I move  back a tee, since I think it's only fair.  I can still play from 6000y, but something around 5800y is more enjoyable.  I always look at the par 3 and 5 distances on the card to decide where to play.  I probably won't reach any par 5's in two shots, but I want to make sure that Par 3's are manageable.

BTW, we have a group of seniors that play most every day from our Forward tees, so play wherever is most fun!!

We don’t stop playing the game because we get old; we get old because we stop playing the game.”

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At my old club I would play either the normal men's tees (white) at 6300 yards or the senior tees (gold) at 5700 yards. On average I would say I only gained two strokes moving up. I was able to get on the green in regulation on a par 4 which was 440 yards all uphill. Gold tees brought it to 375. And I was able to get on the green on a par 5 in two because of the tee box location allowing me to get to hit two straight shots in. The white tees put you into a location that you had to take three shots unless you were very good at moving the ball both directions. 503 versus 450 but the second shot was still tough because it was all uphill. But I did have a lot more birdie opportunities playing up. At my new club, well let's just say I haven't figured it out yet. It's been raining a lot and I just joined in January. I don't think there will be much of a difference since there are so many dog legs. You have to lay up to the middle of the turn on 9 out of 18 holes. Take out the par three's and you can only hit driver on five holes. I played from the whites twice and I think I'm going to move up until I get used to the layout. It's tricky to say the least. The pine trees are so freaking tall you can't take any shortcuts. the Pro told me to play from the back tee's so I could use the driver more. But in the end, it is still all position to the center of the dog leg. But the shots into the green are long so even with a great tee shot to be in position there is still 200 yard left into the green on many holes.  Thats why the course rating and the slope are higher.  

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What color tees doesn’t tell us much. My groups (about 20 guys) are mostly late 60’s, early 70’s, and we usually choose whatever is close to 5500 yards. We’ve strayed up to 5800-6000 on some courses, but that’s tough for us. Our local senior league plays red tees, at 5000 yards - most of us met at senior league but rarely play with them anymore. We don’t want to play red tees no matter what…

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Don't know why you wouldn't want to play the reds, unless its because most call them women's tees.  But to me, don't care what they have called them in the past.  And in fact many courses now have gotten away from calling the front tees "women's". And because of that, many are not painting the front tees red anymore. But regardless, you should go ahead and play the tees you are most comfortable with and have fun with and enjoy the most. I play the front tees without any embarrassment.  The course I have a summer membership in down in Tampa the back tees are over 6,900 yards and the front tees (red there) are 4,832. But often when I am playing other courses with my sons, the front tees are well over 5,000 yards, and my scores suffer--probably over 8 strokes worse, which is challenging enough to make it not fun! 

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