Tournament Flighted Tees

TheLarch · August 27, 2017

I played in a two day tournament this weekend and experienced something today I've never seen before. Yesterday I played so-so, not great but well enough to be in the bottom of the championship flight. Today I'm paired with three other guys who are in the top of the first flight. All good guys, good friends, and fun to play with. The issue is the first flight players all go from the blue tees, championship goes from the black tees. Several tees are as much as thirty to forty yards different. Once the tournament is complete I find I'm the only one in the field that went from one set of tees while the rest of the group went from another set. I understand it was a "numbers" thing as far as pairings are concerned, but it made a huge difference not being able to see players hit from the same or comparable distances off the tee and approach shots. I go back to the tips, tee off, the the rest of the group goes up to their tees. Totally disputed any rhythm we might have had. Needless to say, today's round was not my best. Part of me feels like I should have said "wtf" to the person in charge of pairings, but I let it go. What would you have done?

Moonlightgrm · October 31, 2020

I would have played my game, just as I always do.

I apologize if this sounds harsh, but you’ve got to suck it up and PLAY. No excuses!

EdY · January 1

I’d like to resurrect this topic. It’s so controversial at our club to the point where people are thinking about opting out of club events. I’ll explain. Let’s take a simple 2 man better ball 2 day gig. Chp flight can have members playing from 3 different tees. They set flights to equal out the number of teams per flight. Our course hole rating does not vary based on which tee you play from. Skins (gross and net per 9) are against the field. Some tee boxes vary by 50 yds. Tourney committee says hcp equals it out. $ payout says differently. Low hcp can’t compete on net payouts….ever. I believe flights based on tees would be the fair way to go and let hcp within the flight adjust.

What say you?

Sparty4202 · February 3

Not quite sure how your tee selection works..by handicap, age, both?

We are experiencing something similar at our club. Our course is unique, we are a 9 hole course with different tee boxes for the front and back nines. There are 3 sets of tees…6400/6000/5600 yds.

We have had a large increase in young members the last 4-5 years that are very long hitter and the we only have 4 par 4 holes that are 410 yards long.
During Tournament play all men must play the 6400 yd tees boxes. Many of the older players with single digit handicaps struggle to keep up with the “kids” from those tees and the older better players are losing interest in playing in many of the tournaments.
Personally I believe the tee should be established based on two factors, age & handicap. However our Pro and golf committee won’t change their positions.

ChipNRun · March 7

On 8/27/2017 at 2:41 PM, TheLarch said:

Once the tournament is complete I find I'm the only one in the field that went from one set of tees while the rest of the group went from another set.

Possibly you don't play in Team tournaments very often?

In my club's scrambles, members within a group regularly play from different tees. A common age-based tee assignment scheme:

An alternative: Tee box assignments based upon HDCP>