Should your handicap dictate your tee box selection?

[Shankster]

I rarely play from the back tees, my distance says I should probably, but a lot of courses I have played have weird angles or obstacles in the way from the back.  Used to to a lot of play the back two boxes on holes where it didn’t have a giant Oak tree in the way.  
 

Probably didn’t help my game progress at all, but it’s like looking at a math problem that I have no business trying to solve.  If 1+1 doesn’t equal 2, that is the end of it.

 

I will say, the last 3-4 times I have been out playing, the group I’m with or the one in front of me shouldn’t even play from even the second from the back.  Not reaching the fairway on tee shots the majority of the time, or green even on medium longish par 3’s really clogs up the entire course.  

[Shankster]

Actually, I may have just solved my short game problem.  Move back.  Short game is atrocious right now, used to be “my game” now it’s a liability.

[chisag]

20 minutes ago, Heyweb said:

Your are totally missing the point. Why would an amateur play the same tees? We started talking about where to play from. My son is a +4 playing mini tour and pursuing his card. From all the way back he’s not hitting a 5i on a par 4. Even in his tournaments he’s not hitting a mid iron to the green on 4’s. Regardless of how far he hits it, why would I play farther back when I can move up and hit my drive and be playing a scoring club on the same hole? We’re not hitting an 8i from the same yardage, he would use a wedge from my 8i distance. But he’s not playing courses that require mid irons. So why is an amateur playing a distance that requires a club the pros are not required to hit? Rory said 80% of their shots are from 150y or less. So why are we playing a length that requires more of our shots to be beyond 150y? That’s the question. Not the distance they hit, it’s the necessary second club, regardless of distance, that I am emphasizing. 

 

... Wow. Should I use bumper guards when I bowl because Pro's don't throw gutter balls so neither should I?  In a recreational softball league should everyone hit from 2nd base because al Pro's can hit Home Runs? How a Pro plays golf has zero relevance to how an Am plays golf. Zero. I don't think anyone here is advocating playing form the same tees as the Pro's unless they have Pro length. Even moving up two tee boxes, many won't be hitting 80% of their approach shots from under 150yds because ... well ... lemme see ... they aren't Pros. 

... The question is what tees should you play that give you the best chance of playing to YOUR ability, not a PROS ability. Like @funkyjudge I want to use all my clubs and play the course the way it was designed. Ideally 6 long holes that require longer clubs, 6 average holes that require mid irons and 6 short holes where I use a short iron or wedge. Many Pros can simply fly most every fairway bunker these days, 99% of Am's can't because the hole was not designed for those bunkers to be flown. They are a design hazard meant to snag errant drives. I think most of us want to play the tees that give us the best challenge for our skill level. I would have to move up to the most forward tees to play the course the way Rory would and a few of the longer, difficult par 4's and 5's I would have to tee off from the fairway to have a mid or short iron approach. In the entire world, only a handful of golfers have Rory's skill so why should we play the course the way he does? 

 

[RetiredBoomer]

This is just a thought:
what do you think?

I pay my membership dues or green fees.
Nobody is picking those up for me.

I think that I'll decide from which tees to play...maybe on a hole by hole basis for that matter.

 

[chisag]

57 minutes ago, Shankster said:

Actually, I may have just solved my short game problem.  Move back.  Short game is atrocious right now, used to be “my game” now it’s a liability.

 

... Excellent plan! Of course bear with me as I am thinking completely outside the box now Shankster, but you could practice your short game. 

[RetiredBoomer]

1 minute ago, chisag said:

 

... Excellent plan! Of course bear with me as I am thinking completely outside the box now Shankster, but you could practice your short game. 

Chi used the "P" word!!!!

To whom do I report this?

[sirchunksalot]

25 minutes ago, RetiredBoomer said:

Chi used the "P" word!!!!

To whom do I report this?

[funkyjudge]

1 hour ago, Heyweb said:

Your are totally missing the point. Why would an amateur play the same tees? We started talking about where to play from. My son is a +4 playing mini tour and pursuing his card. From all the way back he’s not hitting a 5i on a par 4. Even in his tournaments he’s not hitting a mid iron to the green on 4’s. Regardless of how far he hits it, why would I play farther back when I can move up and hit my drive and be playing a scoring club on the same hole? We’re not hitting an 8i from the same yardage, he would use a wedge from my 8i distance. But he’s not playing courses that require mid irons. So why is an amateur playing a distance that requires a club the pros are not required to hit? Rory said 80% of their shots are from 150y or less. So why are we playing a length that requires more of our shots to be beyond 150y? That’s the question. Not the distance they hit, it’s the necessary second club, regardless of distance, that I am emphasizing. 

Like Sam (a/k/a chisag), I am not at all missing the point. I could choose not to play in either the senior travel league or the winter golf tour on which I play, but I play both of them for the golfing challenges that these venues offer.  I suspect that when I am in my 80s, I will be appreciative of the shorter course lengths that are played on the senior travel league. At that point, I may also opt out of playing on the winter tour, because unlike some of the guys who are near 90 .... and one guy who just "retired" from this tour at age 93 after playing the tour for 54 years, I won't unduly punish myself by playing from the same tees as 40+ PGA professionals and NCAA college golf coaches plus a handful of scratch and scratch-plus amateurs.

[tony@CIC]

Tee box based on handicap? Nope! I tend to play 95% of my rounds at 2 courses one with 3 nines, the other a straight 18. Playing 150+ rounds a year and you can get pretty stale when it comes to course management, so I like to mix it up and alternate playing from 3 different tee boxes with corresponding 18 hole distances between 6,000 and 5,000 yds. 

[Shankster]

1 hour ago, chisag said:

 

... Excellent plan! Of course bear with me as I am thinking completely outside the box now Shankster, but you could practice your short game. 

Haha.  Yea, I used to put many hours a week into my short game.  Maybe I should start again?

[Shankster]

It is mostly the 60-100 yard range.  I can’t remember what to do.  Haha.  I don’t want to hit full 54° wedges that go 90000 miles high, (slight exaggeration of course)… 100 yards is really the one where I’m lost right now.  Flight a PW? 3/4 gap? Chip a 9… I’m not sure what my best option is

[chisag]

2 minutes ago, Shankster said:

It is mostly the 60-100 yard range.  I can’t remember what to do.  Haha.  I don’t want to hit full 54° wedges that go 90000 miles high, (slight exaggeration of course)… 100 yards is really the one where I’m lost right now.  Flight a PW? 3/4 gap? Chip a 9… I’m not sure what my best option is

 

... I never like hitting full wedges unless I have a forced carry. The ball is in the air too long and anything can happen. Kinda like shooting a 3 pointer with the best trajectory for the ball to go through the hoop  instead of a line drive or a moon ball. I always like 3/4 wedges. Get in some practice using all those techniques and either one of them will prove to be a strength or after practicing, you are able to do all of them well (better). 

[Old New Golfer]

On the Humorous side...

Ya could do like Willie Nelson. Buy your own golf course. Decide what par is. You see that hole number three over there? Last week it was a par 7. I always shoot par on my golf course.

[RoverRick]

I’m definitely in the “Tee boxes are determined by how far you hit the ball and handicap is determined by how well you score and consistency” camp. 

Having said that on Saturday there were just 5 golfers showed up for our group. There can be up to 24 or even more. Today, for example, we had 19. Saturday, it was 4 senior golfers, 6-10 handicap, and one son of a senior golfers, who is a 1 handicap and plays the back tees. We talked him into moving up and playing from our tees. He was reluctant to do so, but gave in because of the prospect of being able to drive 4 greens. 

While I can’t drive these greens, they are strategic holes vs bomber holes. Long story short, he played the last 4 days with us. The day he played the short tees, was his worst round. He shot 78 and while he did actually hit one of the shorter greens, he 3 putted for a par. We, of course gave him hell all day long. 
 

Shorter, does not necessarily equal easier, however, last week I played Black Desert in Utah. It made no sense for me to play the Tour tees there where I couldn’t reach the greens if I teed it up in the fairway and hit driver twice on those holes. 

[Heyweb]

On 9/2/2024 at 12:42 PM, RetiredBoomer said:

Chi used the "P" word!!!!

To whom do I report this?

Not a problem. Enjoy. Only issue I have is when the group in front of us is playing from the tee box too hard for their game and holds everyone up. But you don’t sound like that kind of golfer so enjoy!

[RetiredBoomer]

4 minutes ago, Heyweb said:

Not a problem. Enjoy. Only issue I have is when the group in front of us is playing from the tee box too hard for their game and holds everyone up. But you don’t sound like that kind of golfer so enjoy!

I have no problem with forward tees, but our track plays at 6000 from the tips, so....

[Albatrossx4]

I used to play in a group where we played the tips almost everywhere, and could play in less than 4 hours, we had a range of ages and handicaps.  Pace of play has nothing to do with ability, and everything to do with awareness of how to play and not waste time.  You are not a touring pro, you do not need to mark every putt walk around the green 3 times, do aim point every 2 ft.  You can get out of the cart and walk to your ball.    In the end, play the tees that you enjoy, if you can get the ball out there and reach par 4's from the tips, fine, but why beat yourself up if you can not.