Moved up a set of tees and broke 80 for first time!

[Pepperturbo]

When I read the OP's post I am reminded of my golf goals and realized matching my lowest score of 68 and 70 (my age) from the Forward tees is not within me. We're all different with different goals.

Due to medical issues, my index climbed a bit from 2-3 to mid-single. However, it's trending down as I become more comfortable with new equipment and if scores suggests anything. Probably around a 4 now. For that reason, it's possible I may hit least one of those milestones in the near future from Blue or Regulation tees. So, why not move up and reach one or both sooner? That's not how I do things and it's too easy. Any low-single digit golfer can card really low scores from 5700yds as opposed to 6500-6700 yards where my best score last weekend on a tough course was 75 from big kid tees. I am hoping to better that this weekend.

The other factor, though secondary, WHO do I compare myself against, Joe senior, women, PGA tour, NOPE. I measure myself against Champions tour seniors at 6500-6700yd yardages, and guys twenty-thirty years younger than me that I play against. They are my motivating factor so if I don't reach my goal of carding my age, it wasn't meant to happen. However, if I do, and I believe I will, it will be a much larger personal accomplishment. It could also mean I can register to play in a Senior Open qualifying round as an ultra-Senior. Big goals I like much better.

But if moving forward makes your weasel whistle, go for it.

[Carl Spackler3]

6400 is long average, I always like Tom Watson's assertion that recreational golf should be played at 6000

[llewol007]

Big part of the game is distance off the tee. Moving up makes the game a lot more enjoyable and it puts a scoring club in your hands. Great job!

[acemandrake]

Judy Rankin: "Play from the set of tees where the majority of your approach shots are 7-iron or less."

[Texasaggie2016]

i struggle to move up from the tips because I am long with every club but my wedges...which I always leave short. At my home course I don’t play driver much except for the par 5s and a couple long par 4s. I’m most comfortable with a full 6-9i into the greens.

[Sean2]

I am 65 and feel for your father. Playing tees you don't enjoy kind of defeats on of the purposes of playing golf...having fun. I play the senior tees now, and find it much more enjoyable. I can break 80 more often than not, and reach the par 4's with an iron in my hand, and not a fairway wood. It got old playing driver, fairway wood, wedge, as well as hitting a fairway wood on par 3's.

[Sean2]

Sorry to hear that. This kind of thing really annoys me. You are out there to have fun, get some exercise, socialize and should be able to play whatever tees you want without any kind of social stigma attached. Why some people think they should tell others how to play the game is beyond me. They should simply mind their own business and pay attention to their own games.

After my heart attack, I eased back into the game and played the ladies tees for a few weeks. I got some comments, but that was it. I just ignored them, or if I was in a mood, told them to FO, lol. By the way, I came close to dying, so I am grateful just to be able to tee it up, and no one is going to tell me how to enjoy my game.

You can calculate a slope and rating from those front tees if there is no slope/rating for men. https://oga.org/sites/default/files/A%20case%20for%20Tee%20it%20Forward_0.pdf

[4x4GGG]

I'm the shortest driving 14HCP on the planet. My driver is maybe 230ish. I swore my 3w was longer. Just went for a driver fitting and we decided to keep my head and try a new shaft. That being said I tend to play with guys 10 years my age and 10- my HCP. In a few recent rounds we played a course that was 6200 from the tips. OK for me, but playing with a +1, a 4 and an 8 all 15 years younger than me.. it made for a long day. I held my own and shot a 92, but it sucked being 50 to 100 yards short on each drive. 2 of my last 3 rounds I wound up playing the Pro tees because I was walking and so was the +1. High 90 scores each round. Honestly my driver has been the most reliable part of my game this year but it's just so short compared to these guys. At best I've been Driver/5i. These guys are 5w/wedge.

I finally played a round from the Blues and shot an 86. Driver 8 (R.E.M. classic!), Driver 7... made my day a lot better. The biggest thing I had to deal with was a 210 par 3 where I missed the green left from swinging my 4 too hard. Tee boxes are legit.

[phil75070]

That is me. I don't know if it is because I am more cautious with course management? I find myself, in some cases, hitting clubs off the tee to avoid trouble that is now brought into play from the shorter tees and end up with similar approach shots. It is either that or I need to work on my game from 50-100 yards in.

[NoTalentLefty]

I tried to move up this year again due to 2 hip replacements and a revision over a 10 year period ending last year, 61 years old. After two rounds ,back on the men’s tees. But I will watch the yardage to determine to move up a set. Anything close to 6500, I will move up.

I invited a friend of mine to a group of retirees I play with. He is 76 now. We insisted he play the senior tees. He loves it and can compete in our birdie and closest to the pin games . His usual group will not let him play up. That is stupid on all levels . He cannot get the distance he needs to be competitive with those guys.

We need to encourage people to move up and be happy about the game.

My wish would be allow mixing tees . Play men’s tees but if tee is over 4xx on a par 4 , etc. move up.

[phil75070]

"My wish would be allow mixing tees . Play men’s tees but if tee is over 4xx on a par 4 , etc. move up."

One of my golfing partners does that. He moves up on longer par 4's and 5's where he has no hope of getting home in two. Courses should have more "combo" tees that would encourage people to play from appropriate distances. At my home course the forward tees are 5160 yards and the next set, the White, are 6004. That is an 840 yard difference and guys look at the forward tees and say they are way too short. They could make a nice set of combo tees that could come in around 5600-5700 yards that would probably see a lot more play. I think it is a simple process to get a new set of tees rated.

[Sean2]

There are four holes from the middle tees that I can't get home in regulation. I could play those from the senior tees, but then I couldn't post a score for HI purposes. I like the idea though.

[NoTalentLefty]

That’s the problem. HCP posting. I’ve been to courses that allowed this and set the Slope and Rating accordingly. But every time I got to play them , it was abandoned . Something about cost . Wonder if it was related to association cost to the regional USGA.

[phil75070]

Iasked about that in the Rules forum and got this response, so it can be done:

Maybe. If the nearest rated tees are less than 300 yards different in length then there is a procedure for adjusting the rating/slope and posting manually. If the difference is less than 100 yards then no adjustment is necessary (or allowed). If the difference is between 100 and 300 yards then the USGA has a lookup table with the appropriate adjustments vs. yardage difference. Look in the USGA Handicapping Manual online under score posting for unrated tees.

[Bgreene18]

Back in the winter on a pretty chilly day we were about the only people on the course. We had 6 so it really didn’t matter, but we played the red (ladies) tees just to speed it up and have fun gambling. It was a super fun day. All par 4s were drivable. Par 5 very reachable. Scores were good, but as a group not as low as you would think. Move it up and have fun. There’s a lot to be said for learning how to score.

[PhilsFanDrew]

It's definitely very eye opening. I did something similar in the fall and played the senior tees which are in the same large tee box with the forward red tees but just back 15 yards or so. Predictably I had more wedges in my hands and on par 5 I was reachable in two with long irons at most. What I didn't realize was my proximity to the hole on approach with a gap/sand wedge was not that much better than an 8/9 iron I would be approaching with playing the middle (white) tees. It actually exposed my wedge play as being pretty substandard and gave me something to work on this season.

[nk_716]

I play weekly with my father and brother in-law. Father will always play the whites (which are actually the Senior tees at this particular course) but I will never have the heart to break it to him that they are in fact the Senior tees so I play them with him. Moving forward as a 'longer' hitter is actually quite an adjustment. On most holes I'm driver/wedge so it's a welcomed practice round to dial in some knock-downs. It's funny how moving forward or backward on the tee box can have such an impact on your game.

[Bgreene18]

Agree. It definitely exposed wedge game for us as well. It also taught me that when I move back to the normal tees that I didn’t have to bomb driver on every hole like I once thought I had to do. We have several holes with water on both sides of the fairway and pretty tight. I now pick my battle with the second shot on those holes with a little longer club rather than play risk/reward off the tee.

[jdl]

I am breaking 80 far more often this season. Due to Covid canceling a good chunk of the early season I did not get a membership at the club I've been playing for many years. Instead, playing a different course that is par 70 instead of 72. Since my rounds typically have equal amounts of pars and bogeys, on those days when I can avoid any big numbers and/or add in a couple of birdies, not as tough to have a score than starts with a 7.

[Moonlightgrm]

Our beautiful golf course has gone from private (1958-2015) to semi-private (2016-present). With COVID-19, we are getting a boatload of public players, even at $95 per round. No one is taking a vacation this summer. Our course has 5-sets of tees from RED (5,800 yards) to BLACK (7,050 yards). I am amazed at how many public players are playing the wrong set of tees. Our course is a very challenging layout with daily green speeds at 10+. Yesterday our Stimp reading was 11.5. Why do high handicap players insist on playing our blue tees (6,800 yards) or black tees (7,050 yards)? On most days, the average time of our round has increased from 3.5 hours to 4.5 hours.

I applaud the original poster for moving up to a more manageable set of tees. My wish is that more players would do the same. We’d all enjoy the game more!

[Gsea]

You have no idea. I am a starter at a semi-private course. People have no idea how bad they are lol.

[tpogue88]

Im all about having a W,9,8,7 into your typical par four. Anything longer and I don’t feel guilty about moving up a tee box.

[Conrad1953]

What I often have seen is the more a round costs the more likely golfers play longer tees......to get their money's worth, lol

[LOA]

If I am playing with guys and we are not keeping score for handicap purposes and some want to play the whites, we often play White/Blue on alternating holes. This mixes things up and makes everyone pretty happy.

When playing with friends who struggle with distance off the tee and we move up to the Whites, I usually only use 3 wood or 5 Wood off the tee. There are lots of ways to even things out for friendly matches without anyone having hard feelings.

 

 

[Sean2]

Yes, they want to see the whole course. :-)

[Conrad1953]

Ya, as soon as you pick a tee you can no longer see anything behind that tee. Amazing how that works.

[ode1]

Kudos to you....an no don't ever go back....at least not regularly....but do go back to remind yourself!

I'm 40-50 yards longer and play a similar yardage @ 125 slope! It's plenty challenging and I typically use every club in the bag during a round....and only hit driver 7-8 x's.....could hit it 11 X's. Stating the obvious but layout makes a huge difference on how the ~6400 yards are added up.

[ode1]

Those who suggested 5i x 36....who comes up with such equations? and what was the lift of a 5i when it was invented?

That puts me at ~6700-6800....Nope!

 

I've also seen one for driver yardage

x28?. They don't have enough land in the world to add on the necessary yardages to accommodate. The driver equation is far out of bounds. The 5i equation could work if we talking reasonable lofts but IMO is seriously pushing it. I would strongly urge against using either!

[tatertot]

Golf is supposed to be fun ... if you're not holding anybody up, play the tees that let you accomplish what you want to accomplish, whether it's having fun, getting better, making yourself miserable, whatever.

[Jwin323]

Like dunking on an 8’ rim. Feels good but not impressive.