What age did you decide that it was better for you to play the course at a shorter yardage?

[SNIPERBBB]

Im 35 and have never felt the need to play the tips except when forced to or in preparation for tournaments from the tips. Perhaps if I had played high school golf or college golf maybe I would have but I didnt really start playing golf seriously until I left college. Its not really the culture in my area to play from the tips anyways, you almost never see anyone play from those tees unless they played golf in college.

 

If I cared about playing the course as intended, I probably should be playing the tips at my home course as my length allows me to only hit driver on half the par 4s and one of the par 5s I can hit 5 iron and still reach the green in 2 from the member tees.

[Obee]

Much of this is, of course, course dependent, but for me it was right about when I was turning 50. But keep in mind my home course was 7,180, 75.9/148. I just wasn't having much fun playing it in the winter when it was cold or even the summer when the fairways would be overwatered and you would get not roll. So I started playing the golds and blues at 6,900 and 6450 respectively.

 

At my current home course I play the back tees, but it's only 6550.

[tyorke1]

hopefully not for a long time and I am 54

[Sean2]

Though I am closing in on 65, age was never a determinant on which tees to play. I pick tees based on how far I hit my driver. This was from the USGA/PGA:

300 yards – 7,150-7,400 yards275 yards – 6,700-6,900 yards250 yards – 6,200-6,400 yards225 yards – 5,800-6,000 yards200 yards – 5,200-5,400 yards

[Pepperturbo]

A better question is "what makes golf and life enjoyable for this almost 70 year old?" Tackling course challenges and pushing myself to overcome whatever obstacles may exist in front of me makes the golf experience for me. Because par or birdie are my goals I look forward to the challenges I face to get them. Picking shorter tees so I can easily reach a GIR is nice but not motivating. So, what yardages I play any given day depends more on how much abuse my buddies can handle.

[zebra2955]

64 here. I have always played the so called white tees. Especially when I started and probably hit a driver 200 on a good day. Now with todays equipment I actually hit it farther and more accurate still the same. Just that now I look at the yardage on the card of the course I am playing and try to keep it close to 6000 yards. I find that I score better then if I try to stretch it out much more then that. After all it's about having fun. No fun shooting in the mid 90's , much better the mid 80's. I also find that at about 6000, I don't hit driver on every hole, which I find I like a lot more.

[RainShadow]

I've almost always played the "White" men's tees. Was never a serious player as a kid or my younger years.

When I learned the game and at the club my folks belonged to, most guys played the men's tees all the time.

In my mid 40's I started playing with some low cap guys, and played from the tips more, but I found that if the par 3's are all over 180 yrds and more than half of the par 4's are 410 plus from the tips, it's not fun for me all the time.

I play most of my golf at 61-6500 yards, and fully enjoy it.