Interesting article on what tees we should be playing

garyt1957 · 2024-07-20T14:00:39+00:00

Looks like a lot of us should be playing under 5000 yards to play like Rory. Since he's the longest maybe 5100 to equal an average tour pro. https://www.gol...

sdandrea1

Par4QC I just don't care, when it comes down to it. Golf is a challenge, as it's supposed to be

I don't disagree. My tee choices are more often affected by my playing partners. I have no issues moving back as I can change my scoring expectations without getting frustrated. Life's too short. When playing with Jesse and Kurt (his Dad), I play the white tees with them. I get a lot more short game practice that way trying for those up and downs.

scotts33

Eguller One of the easy ways to determine if you should move up - if there are more than a couple of par 4's
that you can't reach in two on a regular basis, move up until you can reasonably get to all of them.

Very good point and I know many that can not reach many longer 380 yard and up par 4's in two. In fact, many on this site are having exactly that issue. Drive 200, 180 and up 2nd shot forget it. We are not all 25 - 60. 😉

Tyrrell Hatton was ticked that pro's couldn't reach par 5's in two (set up too long) at The Open hence not many birdie opportunities. We just want a chance at par. LOL https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/tyrrell-hatton-hits-out-at-course-at-the-open-unfortunately-that-s-where-it-s-going/ar-BB1qgm0l

Eguller

scotts33 Tyrrell Hatton stays ticked period.

Friendly modification. 😉

Par4QC

scotts33 Very good point and I know many that can not reach many longer 380 yard and up par 4's in two.

If playing a new course, I always check the card 1st to see how many of those holes there are. The ones I play do have a couple, but most are under that 380. If there were more than 1-2, I'd either not play the course or would def go forward(even more) on those holes.
I can do that 200/180 deal, but the 180 may not be straight line. Hell, even 200/150 may be hard.😄

But, I'd not want to play a course that has a lot of 320 holes. I own more than 3 clubs for good reasons.

fatshot

scotts33 Very good point and I know many that can not reach many longer 380 yard and up par 4's in two. In fact, many on this site are having exactly that issue. Drive 200, 180 and up 2nd shot forget it.

In my travel group, we don't even play par 4 holes that long! IF the senior tees are more than 350 we just walk up to the 350 mark (Easy to find with a GPS.....even if it's in the fairway!) and tee off there!

I had a revelation this week playing with my brother-in-law in the Cincy area. He plays with a bunch of guys who are actually OLDER than I am (didn't know golfers like that existed, LOL!). Anyway, they play the RED tees......OK, as long as we're all playing the same! I found that I had a chance to hit EVERY par 4 in two with an IRON, which I don't always from the Senior tees. OTOH, they also play the four toughest Hcp. holes (2 on each 9) as a scramble and give everyone in the group the same score. I didn't like that b/c now I have no idea what score I actually shot. Oh well....it was still fun!

sdandrea1

scotts33 Very good point and I know many that can not reach many longer 380 yard and up par 4's in two.

Since most of the holes in any course are par 4s, I check the card at a new course before I tee off. Total distance of over 5000 could be due to the length of the par 3s and par 5s, so if most of the par 4s are 350 and under, I'm in. One of the courses I played in Florida had long par 3s and MANY shortish par 4s. Loved it.

rsvman2

[deleted] I'd like to have Rory's bank account.

I'd be ok with hitting a few drives as long and straight as he does, too, come to think of it.

mulegolf

Eguller Tyrrell Hatton stays ticked period.

I think of him as "Ticked" Hatton. He seems to always be ticked off.

Cwing

It would be interesting to add the LPGA players to this article for another comparison.

MartinD

Cwing It would be interesting to add the LPGA players to this article for another comparison.

Distances on the LPGA Tour are closer to what you would expect to see from good club players. The longest hitters are getting ball speeds into the 170s on their drives (and getting past 300 yards fairly regularly as a result), but there are quite a few LPGA players who play a game (distance-wise) that I'm familiar with, at 135ish ball speed/240 yards off the tee.

PGA Tour driving distance stats: https://www.pgatour.com/stats/detail/101
LPGA Tour driving distance stats: https://www.lpga.com/statistics/driving/average-driving-distance?year=2024

There's about a 40-yard difference - 320 to 280 at the top end (with McIlroy near the top on the PGA Tour), 275 to 235 for the shortest hitters.

ode

scotts33 agreed that too few courses have tees far enough up. Baraboo CC does. Old Hickory has a single green tee way up in the fairway to mark the up tees...to name a few older school courses. i think the article is another way to get at the ball/rollback/pros hit it too far, whilst also saying here is a reason to move up!

garyt1957

ode agree, especially for women
A lot of courses the front tees are still 5000 yards which is too long for a lot of women. Thete should be an option in the 4000 yard range.

Typhoon

The stupid factor is huge. You put 5 sets of tees out there and most people won’t know where to hit from. What I hear a lot of from the shooters who go to play the tips is “I want to see the whole golf course”…. Who the f came up with that assinine phrase. I tell them, with that swing you’ll see the whole property…

There is no solution, you can’t fix stupid. And you can’t follow these idiots around to make sure they play the forward tees. As I’ve said before, new people are only here to drink, smoke, listen to music and drive around in carts. They don’t care about their golf score or how long it takes. They are “ here for the day”.

Growing up in a caddy program we all were taught Blue was for PGA Pros, white was amatuer and red was ladies. There were no senior tees. If people could at least abide by those rules it’s be a little better

DonM

Typhoon Once in a while I’ve seen a starter, after a little conversation, suggest the appropriate tees. I don’t know how successful that is.

pellmell

MartinD 135ish ball speed/240 yards off the tee

That's an optimized best scenario yardage which includes 50 yards of roll.

DonM

We (60+++ years old) play a 5900 yard combo. Our drives run out a lot, so it plays shorter. I get a lot of short irons and wedges, and that is fun. But it’s target golf, and with very firm greens. So if you do have a long club into a green, it’s not fun.

My so called 6 iron is my 150 club. Maybe my 7 iron on a hot day.

johnnydoom

I pretty much play the white tees no matter where I go. However, there isn't much difference in my scores when I play blue as most of my strokes generally come from near or on the green. There are days, like in the past two weeks where I hit wayward drives, but most of the time I'm ok on the long stuff and suck at touch shots. Only one public course around here has senior tees that I'm aware of, but haven't tried them yet because I don't want wedges into a lot of greens, which is what that will give me right now. I do avoid tees that have multiple par fours over 400 yards as I don't have any real desire to hit 4 woods into a lot of greens either.

azgreg

If you're just out playing you can tee off from wherever the hell you want. Who says it has to be a tee box?

ode

azgreg yes.....but it's rarely done. Courses should consider throwing down a marker in the fwy for up tees and ridding tees of the color red!

Weirfan

Sneakylong You have more brains than ego

Giphy - Sarcastic Schitts Creek GIF by CBC

Par4QC

ode Some courses here have a silver tee, in front of the red. Another has some 'Jr.' tees way ahead of the red.

I've been playing the silver on the last hole at 1 course, a Par 5. Still about 435. (+550 from white)

sdandrea1

garyt1957 agree, especially for women

I ranted on this a few years ago on a similar thread in FGI. My wife is a 28 capper who hits most fairways and her misses are usually straight low shots. IOW, she's usually in play, but doesn't stand a chance of hitting GIRs from most courses' red tees. It's about the equivalent of me playing the tips on many courses and most of her peers have the same disadvantage. Courses need more FORWARD tees!

garyt1957

sdandrea1 I agree, I always tell my wife she is playing a harder course than I am. When I play the senior tees they are often on the same tee box as the women's with maybe 10 yards separating them. It's ridiculous. And my wife is a fairly long hitter for a 64 year old woman playing a short (43") driver. She hit one 210 the other day but most are now in the 180 range and mishits are of course less. Front tees should be well under 5000 yards imo

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