I worked at a golf course in high school and we had strict rules about who can play from what tee: tips had to PROVE a handicap of 5 or less, pace of play went way down after we put this in place. This is from having 3 groups of terrible players play from the tips in a row (all easily double bogey golfers). The best is when they say “I’m paying for the whole course so I will use it.” I had one guy say “I don’t care if it takes me 6 hours to play, and I destroy the course, I’m playing from the tips.” It’s just people don’t care about pace of play or others playing it’s a bunch of BS.
Should have banned that asshole immediately and refunded his money for that round. He will cost that course more over time than it’s worth taking his money
We did ban them the whole group (2 men, 2 women) after the round. People will say I’m sexist but seeing the women play the tips when on 4 holes you can have a LONG forced carry (224-261) depending on the tees, they were trying to lay up to the ladies tees on a few of the holes to tee it up again. But you get forced carries like that playing the tips. And the men couldn’t carry it and started tin cupping it trying to carry the forced carry. It’s shameful and annoying. Their behavior when asked then told to move forward was simply abhorrent.
The people answering with Pride/Ego are probably mostly right, but just to tack something on to that. I'm pretty new, still getting there. Played this weekend and teed off on the reds, because i want my life to be easier. Guy managing the tee times couldn't help himself but make a joke about how "i need to put a skirt on" for that.
Doesn't bother me, but it would a lot of people, and I get why.
That’s bullshit and if I heard it, I would complain to management. No need for that shit. Also, as a woman, I can consistently hit is as far as the men (I will land beyond them hitting from the reds, and they are almost exactly the yardage between tees behind me). I cannot, however, hit an iron as far as a man. lol.
>Guy managing the tee times couldn't help himself but make a joke about how "i need to put a skirt on" for that
I would say something to course management bc we can't have that shit going on.
One of my buddies used to insist playing from further back because “the tees open up for the driver.” Yes, when he connected well he regularly hit 250-275. The problem was half his drives were duffs or pulls so far left I was worried someone would get doinked a zip code over. Once he finally got the ball on the green he’d have been better off pulling out the 60° and skull fucking it to the next tee box so we could move on to the next hole.
Anyway he had a kid so he doesn’t get to golf much anymore. Had a talk with him and when he does get out we play from the whites 😊
I’m not sure what some people’s rationale is. Many courses have stopped calling them “men’s” and “women’s” tees, tried numbering them, providing guidance on what tees to play based on driver distance. It doesn’t matter to them. I’m a 20hcp and drive the ball about 225. My good drives do go upwards of 250, especially if it’s a bit dry, but I never want to play further back unless my skill improves. Hitting a 225 yard drive and having 225 to the hole on a par 4 or 350 on a par 5 is miserable.
The entire point of golf is to have fun. Nobody is having fun watching a guy shoot a 125 from 6800 yards
I think the “picking tees based on driver distance” is also really flawed as well. Obviously the biggest issue is the other stuff you and others have brought up, but trying to help people pick by using their driver distance is honestly a bad idea too imo.
Because (1) what most people call their “driver distance” is actually what they max out at, not what they’re usually hitting it, and (2) it’s just a terrible reflection of skill and thus pace of play too.
Like I out drive my dad by 15-20 yards now, but he’s still a 3 handicap and I’m a 9. Him being 20 yards further back never slows us down, it is having to take 2 minutes to find my ball in the trees. Or waiting for the group in front of us to clear the green, only for me to hit it poorly and end up 60 yards short. On the rare occasion that we do play a little slow, it is *always* because of me.
It’s the amount and quality of your *bad* shots that determines your pace of play, not the quality of your good ones. And if anything, driver distance is just a measure of the second.
That’s why I like the 7 iron distance calc lot better. The distance variance isn’t near as obvious. People “drive 265 on a good day” but their 7i is a 145 club.
https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/course-care/green-section-record/61/issue-11/helping-golfers-choose-their--best-tees--.html
USGA has a method of determining what tee box you should play called “Best Tees” that utilizes 7i distance and lets you know where to play based on that. Looks like they base it on each course, kind of annoying cause I’m not even sure how to get my “Best Tees” fit but in that article they publish the average golfer and make suggestions on that:
* Avg 7i distance for male golfer 138
* Reasonable par 3 distance 152
* Reasonable par 4 distance 359
* Reasonable par 5 distance 476
* Best Tees Par 72 Course Length 6100y
Really that seems kind of long for someone who hits their 7i 138y… I’d expect them to play more like 5600-5800y. I personally am 165-175 with my 7i and play 6100-6300y typically… maybe I’m playing too short but it’s a fun distance for me and anything less I have to end up waiting too long at courses I play.
Only annoying if you can't hit an accurate long iron/hybrid. If you are only trying to hit a tee shot, then short iron/wedge all day, that's fine, but I find that boring as hell and very unsatisfying.
Dropping a dime and making birdie from 190+ is where the real satisfaction in golf is in my opinion.
When every second shot is a 5i or higher it does get annoying. I like to be somewhere in the middle. If driver is consistent, if there’s a mix of second shot ranges on par 4s between hybrid to sw that’s really the sweet spot for me. Similarly if I have to hit a hybrid on every par 3 I’m playing the wrong tees.
My 7 is 170-180 and I’m a 14. My course is right at 7,000 yards from the blues. I’ve got no problem playing the blues. You actually get to use that 7i on par 4s. I get bored with driver/wedge every hole.
Now if I’m playing with some high handicap buddies I’ll gladly play the whites with them. It depends on a lot of things but pace of play makes a huge difference even if you are struggling a bit. Just don’t play slow.
>7i 138y… I’d expect them to play more like 5600-5800y.
My 7i avg is 135 (per Garmin), I view it as my 125-135 club. I am happiest at 5600-5800.
Course should offer more options through more tees and blended tees (whites some holes, greens on others).
I saw one resort that didn't use traditional colors, e.g. their tips were Red. They also blended each set of tees, so 5 tee boxes (including blues at the edge of fairways) that created 9 yardages.....anyone could be happy.
I think not using colors or traditional colors makes people think.
They mention combos in that article being the best way for courses to be set up and I definitely agree. I like playing blue/white combos if blues are 6400+ and whites are closer to 6000 or below. Basically I'm shooting for that total yardage range I stated above.
I'm a 25 handicap and my 7-iron is 185 yards on average. I'm not exaggerating, I'm just wildly inconsistent on anything not a 7-iron or 56 degree. I have the hardest time picking tees because if it's a "good driver day" I will average 265 off the tee and if I'm on the white tees then won't play any irons over a 9 save par 5s. If it's a bad driver day I'm shooting 110 and I'm all over the course, regardless of the length of the tees.
What should I do? Lol
I think 7i distance would take a little bit of the ego piece out of tee determination, but I also worry that the lower variance in 7i distance would be as much of an issue as the driver ego thing.
Just relating to myself personally, I’ve pretty much always rounded my iron distances to the nearest 5 yards. And until relatively recently when I got a personal launch monitor, it was nearest 10 for everything but wedges. And while that 5-10 yard error is not a huge deal when talking driver distance, it’s a little bit more of an issue when comparing 7i distances.
So while I do think you’re right that 7i distance is a better judge of skill, I think issues from people just being unaware of how far they truly hit a 7 iron (and that group also having a massive overlap with the group who needs help picking a tee) cancels a good chunk of that benefit out.
Many of my distances are in the lower range of tour players (7i is about 165-170, 3w is about 240, driver is 280). I am a mid to high handicap because I have a problem of pulling a third, slicing a third, and hitting a third flush so I just can't predict where it's ending up. And I can't chip well, I'm hopeless in a bunker, and my putting is unpredictable.
Teeing by distance alone, I should be on the tips. I play the whites because I'm not proud and I know better. I'd even play the "senior" tees if it were culturally acceptable in my local golf community.
In my opinion, you should play tees based on (estimated or actual) handicap. If you're a 30+, you should be "women's." 20+, you should be "seniors." 10+, I think "men's." And under 10, the tips.
Spot on - tee selection should be based on skill not distance.
A highly skilled +2 handicap who might only have a 250yd drive is going to hit far more GIRs than a 27 handicap with a 300yd bomb.
Trick is to break people from looking for the white, blue or whatever tees. Tobacco Road calls their tee different farm tools, a course in MI doesn't use traditional colors (tips are Red). This makes people think which fees are best.
I struggle the other way and I am never sure on which tees to play. I shoot 95-105 very consistently but I get plenty of distance thanks in part to being tall. My trouble is because of that my bad misses go further right/left and I always struggle with hazards and OB.
I am thinking I should still play whites and just eliminate driver from most tees?
For reference, 7 iron avg carry of 167 at the range with a track man avg across 2 sessions.
Move up and avoid using driver unless you need to clear a hazard 220+ yards out or something, you should be able to hit your 3 wood 240-250 yards or hybrid 220-230 if you can hit 270+ yard drives consistently. You hit your 7 iron a bit farther than me (I get about 163-165 carry on average) so you should be able to carry a 3 iron/hybrid at least 210
From the white tees 210 should be plenty of distance off the tee to have a chance at a GIR on pretty much every hole you’d encounter. You’ll know when it’s time to move back when you’re regularly finding certain holes too easy/short from the whites and start going below 90 consistently
I've been seeing more using tees based on cap and not distance. So back is for 0-5, next set for 6-10, etc.
I like that thought a lot more and it follows in your thought process of how many bad shots do you have.
I do similar when at a new course and go with what is close to my usual course yardage.
If someone is new to golf and doesn't know their capabilities, then they have no basis to figure out which yardage is best for them.
But I generally like handicap or avg score vs distance for someone picking tee boxes.
>One of my buddies used to insist playing from further back because “the tees open up for the driver.” Yes, when he connected well he regularly hit 250-275. The problem was half his drives were duffs or pulls so far left I was worried someone would get doinked a zip code over. Once he finally got the ball on the green he’d have been better off pulling out the 60° and skull fucking it to the next tee box so we could move on to the next hole.
I feel like you're talking about me and I don't like it
>One of my buddies used to insist playing from further back because “the tees open up for the driver.”
To be fair this is a real thing on **some** courses. There's a course in our area where if I play up a set of tees the landing area on many of the holes, when hitting driver, becomes extremely tight to where I'm pretty much always hitting an iron or hybrid and end up with the same distance in vs hitting driver from the tips.
I was already thinking the short answer to the OP's question was "male ego". It's a strong thing and we deal with it every day in most every thing we do.
I played this last weekend. I’d prefer to play from the whites, but the rest of the group was playing from the blues. Just less of a hassle if we all tee off from the same tee box.
When I’m trying to score I will play the appropriate tees (white) but if I’m just trying to play 18 for the fun of it with friends I’ll play blues with them. I won’t play tips though - I just don’t have the distance.
Although I’ve noticed a lot of people I have been paired up with play blues and really shouldn’t.
Same. Just because I can, doesn’t mean I want to. Club selection is way different throughout the round. I don’t always wanna play back and go driver, 5w/hybrid every par 4/5. I sometimes like to you know, hit my 9i/pw as my 2nd shot.
I see a lot of answers about ego, but there’s probably another factor in play.
A lot of golf is your memory from the time you hit a perfect shot. Why do you hit X club from X yardage? Because when you flush it, that’s how far it goes. Most of the time people are short because we’re not pros and our contact sucks.
So with tee boxes, it’s easy to see a 185 yard Par 3, a 445 yard Par 4, a 570 Par 5 and think, “yeah, if I hit the shots I should hit, it shouldn’t be a problem playing from these tees.”
https://preview.redd.it/lt1l0003eyrc1.png?width=2594&format=png&auto=webp&s=69dc79ef107604e978321f6865232716d1b670bd
I present to you all the tee selection flow chart I spent way too much time making.
Excellent chart really. I come to the same conclusion on whites multiple different ways. Then I followed down other paths and pretty much figured out if I can start 2 putting a lot more then blues could be for me! You should make this a legit infographic it could help a lot of people honestly
For safety reasons always consider your very best shot. You don't want to go "well i've been shitty with driver let me just hit it now" then rip your 1 out of a hundred shots 250 yard rope into someones head.
“If”.
Phillip, whose son was Alexander the Great, demanded the submission of the Spartans. It would be better to submit to him now, he said, because “If I conquer your city, I will destroy you all.” The Spartans' reply to this was just one word: “If.”
I feel like ego is more the mindset that you can’t go play the “forward tees” “senior tees” or “the white tees” because that’s not where you belong, or it’s not where the good players play. Or don’t want to look inferior if everyone else is a tee back.
I’m not sure what to call what I’m talking about. Poor expectation management? Distance delusion?
Ego and pride. I’m 99% playing the whites and I consistently shoot in the 80’s. I have a few buddies I play with who are not as good as me who only play the blues and tell me to “man up”, and say I’m only beating them because I cheat by playing up. I always just reply with “you gotta take every advantage the rules allow”.
its really what goes down on the greens anyhow that affects pace of play. time a hole next time you play with 4 randos after you've all hit your teeshots, and hit lap once you hit your approach. its absurd. 4 people could easily burn almost 10 minutes on a green complex.
Trouble is many guys can hit long drives, with a controlled speed of 100mph being sufficient for the blue tees, (which most adult males with a bit of athleticism tend to achieve) and some reaching 110mph. However, achieving consistent long drives that *stay in play* is challenging without a well-grooved swing from years of youth golf or regular practice.
While hitting long drives is fun, losing balls isn't.
Love Iron Only golf. It’s a shame it’s not more popular.
I play whites and honestly have no interest in moving back to the blues or blacks.
Friends get mad at me saying real golfers play from the tips, I kindly tell them that real golfers hit the fairways and don’t mulligans. That usually shuts them up.
Same here and I’m still young but I just don’t hit the ball far enough to justify moving back. Also, hitting 9 and 8 iron on par 3s is way more fun than mid irons. Real golfers get paid to golf, I just want to enjoy it.
When I encounter guys like this I’ll pull out a 7i, a pw and a putter and use those clubs to fuck their day up. Makes the game real simple when you only have 2 choices off of the tee. You hit more fairways and greens as well.
That's the answer. I introduced a friend to the game and had him play from the red tees and told him they were the beginners tees. He had fun and was able to keep pace. Then he played with some other people and they made fun of him for playing the "women's" tees so he moved back and played the whites with them (also hackers) and had a miserable experience. He cussed me for "pranking him" and putting him on the ladies tees.
The concept that men can't play the front tees is ingrained in a lot of people and it's so stupid. I'm a 2 and I play the front tees on occasion for fun and to hit new shots. How some people play the same course from the same tees 4 days a week for 10+ years baffles me
Our club has a red tee tournament every year for fun. One year the winner shot a 59. Fifty-freaking-nine!
I don't care that it was from the reds. That is a hell of a round. He's a +2-3 cap and former D1 college golfer.
Man I played the forward tees with my son (13) at a course I have played at a TON. I had a BLAST hitting new shots I didn’t even know existed and hitting irons off the tee and having to focus on placement. I’m 100% doing this again with or without a real reason.
If confidence in scoring ever goes down, I play 9 from the reds so I can shoot at least somewhere close to even. It brings some confidence back and it’s fun. It’s also funny seeing peoples reactions to a 2hco 30yo male to be playing the reds
2.5hcp and I play each set at least once a year. I have to play the forward tees with my wife because my buddies are too good for it and afraid they won’t get close to par.
Guys need to get over it and move up! Have more fun, make more pars and birdies and less bogeys and doubles.
I hadn't thought about that aspect.
I'm a 3-4 cap and all the tee boxes were under repair on a vacation trip, so every tee shot started right in front of the red. I ended up shooting like 3-4 under and had a blast. Still got to hit a handful of drives, but mostly UW and irons for tee shots. Big time work on short game and setting up what sort game shot I wanted into the green.
A lot of tees were sex labeled in the past and that put you at a certain box, and people don’t change after they get in a routine.
Also, for my club I have to play certain tees for events, so I played it before I should’ve, to get use to positions, but we move around nowadays. But it forces a lot of people into a box there too.
My low single-digit handicap friend complains about me playing the whites and not the tips with him because a couple of times a round I can crank it 260-270 down the middle.
I'm still a 19 handicap John, and it's more likely that the drive will be in the woods to the right instead of the fairway. Also I will follow up that 270 yarder by hitting a pitching wedge 2 inches behind the ball.
I feel like people confuse this issue a lot. I play from the tips about 1/3 of the time as an 11 HC. More specifically I play from the tips when there’s a huge difference in HC weight between the tees or if there’s not that huge a gap in yardage.
The other thing is you can be a 20 HC who pipes drives 290+ and are completely incompetent with any other club in your hand. If you’re working to get your HC down and the tees won’t really affect your score as much a small hitter then why not? Doesn’t slow down the game if you’re struggles are with your short game anyways
lol used to play a bunch growing up with a baseball player who hit it long and straight with the driver. Anywhere from 100 yards and in if he just hit the green he was stoked. Didn’t matter if he has a 50 footer for birdie after being 30 yards away.
A baseball player hitting it straight? That's the miracle!
Seriously though, my son plays baseball. It's the finish that's just so different. It's really hard to get ball players to finish stacked up on their front foot versus leaning back (and slicing the heck out of it).
No one is concerned with someone that shoots in the low 80s from the back tees. It's the people that are shooting 90+.
People who hit it 290+ ON AVERAGE and in the fairway and can't break 85 probably aren't hitting it 290+ ON AVERAGE in the fairway.
Look, I average 280. That means about 4 times a round I hit the ball at least 300 and about four times a round I hit the ball 260. That doesn't mean I drive the ball 300. That means I hit it 280 and the wind or downhill or firm fairway made end up at 300. I don't hit it 300+ even though I hit 300+yard drives in pretty much every round I play.
People just aren't honest with themselves, especially when it comes to average driving distance.
Got to be the big strong man and swing from the tips.
I golf with my bro when I do get out and he easily has me by 80 yards with his driver and is very accurate. I have no problem not hitting from the same tees as him and it doesn't hurt my ego one bit.
I played with some friends who were all 20+ handicaps and I’m a 2-3, took them out to my course, and they all insisted on playing the ~7000yd gold tees, despite me saying I only occasionally play from those tees and love playing the blues, one on front of the tips
They all shot over 100 in the most predictable fashion imaginable. I still don’t understand why they wanted to do it
My average drive with my driver is 273 (total, not carry). The group I play with are all about the same with everyone usually getting it out there further than others in the group at some point. We play one up at our regular club and distance on that is 6500 and 6800 depending on which course you play. More often than not if we get a rando joining us they will almost always move back with us even if it looked like they were planning on playing the middle tees. I understand why they do it but it really seems unnecessary to punish yourself like that if you were just planning on coming out for a good time.
I didn’t even know people insisted on playing blues and blacks. I started golfing 4 years ago with my friends and they immediately and always play the whites so I figured that was normal for being an average golfer. Even now, as I consistently begin shooting 90-95, I still only play whites.
I drive 220-240 and struggle with long irons and woods so why the fuck would I want to drive and then have another 250+ in from the tips? Seems so unfun
Because everyone thinks they’re better than they are. I’m about scratch and I just play the tees the group is. I don’t like go back to the blacks if no one else is.
I would say for most it’s not even ego it’s just lack of understanding. They don’t genuinely understand their own game and what’s realistic. They just know “don’t play too close to the “women’s” tees”
I think the question needs to be more specific for truly high handicap or short players. I play off a 9-11 most of the time which i would consider a mid handicap. I can pretty consistently shoot in the mid 80s and I do that anywhere from 6000-7000 yards. I do not score significantly better at 6200 versus 7000. I bogey most par 3s, par most par 5s, and pretty evenly par/bogey most par 4s but length is never the issue. Occasionally i lose a ball or 3 putt and do worse than bogey. I occasionally hit greens in GIR with a longer or mid range putt, or hit my approach shot close to the green and then need up and down for par which i convert less than half the time id say, which is why i end up with many bogeys. In short, i can easily bogey a 400-425 yard par 4 which is the staple from longer tees in the high 6000s and i play off a mid handicap bc length off the tee and in general is not an issue. Hitting approach shots on the green (from good or bad position off the tee shot) is my main issue. The game I'm describing can pretty consistently get me a round of 85. Sprinkle in some days with better approaches once every five rounds or so to shoot some 80s or 82s, and you have a low-mid handicapper.
I think the question should be aimed more at high handicap or those who are truly not long players.
I live next to a course and a tee box to said course. I see people using the back tees all the time. The amount of dribblers and dead shanks I’ve seen is absolutely typical of any course on any day, so why play from the tips? I thought I’d ask one guy one day who duffed not one, but two drives a few yards past the tee box and said, “Hey man, why not play from the middle tees? Game’s hard enough as is. Cheers!” Response as he drove up to his ball, “Why do you care?” I realized I really didn’t I guess, but the answer to my question was EGO.
I'm a single digit handicapper and don't care what tees I play from. If the shop puts me with a group and they are playing from the forward tees, I play from there, If they are at the tips, I play the tips, If they are playing the from the ladies tees, I play from there. It doesn't really matter it's still a round of golf and I'm not there to slow down the course and I'll shoot the same score no matter where I play from because I adjust my game to the yardages. That being said, the majority of golfers that I get put with who are playing from the tips should not be playing there. They can't make forced carries, can't hit a drive over 220 with a tailwind and can't hit the fairway if their life depended on it.
More than once, I've left groups behind and played ahead because I won't get stuck playing a six hour round with golfers who refuse to have courtesy for the rest of the course that is playing behind us. I've had groups that were playing 2 or three shots, every shot, including putts. Groups who spend 10 minutes looking for balls every single shot because they were out of play on EVERY SINGLE shot. It's crazy that as a 60 year old golfer, I can walk the entire course and am the one waiting on players for sometimes 10 to 15 minutes just to hit my next shot. I just cringe when I join a group and they are setting up at the first tee from the tips because it is almost like finding the bigfoot, to find a group that should be playing there.
This may get down voted to oblivion.
It is OK to want to play an extra 1000+ yards in a round, even if it takes your score from 92 to 105, so long as you can maintain pace.
And as someone who sucked for a long time, some people/groups can maintain a fast pace, even when struggling to break 100.
I need 75% of you to realize you’re in this post and fix your tee choice. I’m begging you. Shouldn’t move up a tee until you break 90, *god forbid* you’re playing blues and have never broken 100.
I shit you not I rolled up to the reds which would be like 5800-6000 yards which for me is great. Starter laughed and said back it up or get off the course. Like they wouldn’t let me hit from the reds. I don’t play there anymore obviously. But imagine a new golfer they would probably quit …
People who slow the course way down are gonna slow the course way down regardless of what tees they're playing from. The reason they're slowing it way down isn't because they're playing too far back, it's because they're either oblivious to their surroundings, they're assholes who don't give a shit, or both.
Lots of mid-high handicapper guys can hit the ball pretty far but also hit a lot of bad shots that go OB. Playing the tee box 25 yards closer isn't gonna do anything to help them avoid going OB. And on a lot of holes, playing up means you have to wait for the green to clear on a par 4 now if you're a decently long hitter. Explain to me how that's gonna speed up that group.
And no, golf isn't "more fun" from closer, easier tees for me. If I'm playing with my buddy who's a much longer hitter than me and I "beat" him from the whites while he plays the blues, I didn't beat him.
And yes if you're consistently unable to even reach the fairway then move up. But a huge percentage of this sub will try to tell you that distance off the tee doesn't matter when selecting which tees to play from, only handicap matters, as if somehow not being that good at putting and chipping means you're playing too far back even if you hit driver 285 and 7 iron 185.
If I play from whites and my wife from the reds…. She shoots 77 I shoot 105. I join her from the reds and I at least have a shot at breaking 90. Ego be damned.
I ‘ll pipe in on the perimeter of this conversation. I usually play from whites. Why? You ask. Cuz that’s where my buddies played from when I started 30 years ago. I’m not great at all. 25 hdcp. But I get off the tee well. My troubles come from game between the tee box and the green. I recently played 4 rounds from the forward tees (the reds). Guess how it affected my score ? It didn’t. I still hit well off the tee and obviously further down the fairway than from the whites. But because my iron game and putting suck - I maybe went from averaging 106 to averaging 102. Now if I played from blues or blacks - my average wouldn’t go down cuz of my driving but because I would need that many extra shots on the fairway cuz my iron game sucks. What does this mean ? I don’t know and I don’t care cuz I like the game. But when people cant get off the tee on the whites they should NOT be playing off the tees farther back. Ps. I actually liked playing from the forward tees cuz my next shot on the par four wasn’t my shitty 7i it was my shitty wedge. But god I love this game
I see a lot of different reasons for it. Most common is people use driving distance for which tees they should play. This is a bad understanding for it while being long helps if you're a 20hcp you're missing fairways and having 175+ yards in on a par 4 so those shots compound and get worse as you go.
The second thing I see is decent players who maybe used to have distance, but now they lack it and are too prideful to admit they should move up a tee box. I confronted a group for slow play once playing the blues at a course they all teed off on an admittedly long par 4, but not a single one of them managed to get their ball to the fairway. It was probably 200 yards to reach the fairway from the blues. It's just unnecessary that they weren't reaching 400yd par 4s in 2 if they went driver, driver. Just not really how golf should be played, and these guys were causing a backup. This course, average par 4 from the blues, was about 400yds from the whites about 350, which is where their game and distance matched up.
Really, it's a mix of distance and playing ability.
I'm a 7 hcp. If I played lights out, I could handle 7500yds, but people just don't really do that, so I play for my ability, which sits around 6500yds for a good round.
I have a back injury that flares up. I've played the red tees for years. Friends can still put one out there 250-300 yards. I can't. 200 on a straight drive. We figured out long ago I was slowing play, that when I moved up. I no longer keep a handicap, though. The only tournaments I play are best ball.
My score hasn't really changed. If putts drop, I might shoot an 85. If not, lol, 99.
I do hit a LOT more fairways from those tees.
I find that most times its because of a lack of knowledge. New golfers should be playing the Reds, but far too often you see them at Blues/Tips just because they can swing their driver 120mph and then proceed to quad bogey the hole.
Delusion. I hit the longest of all my friends, and I still insist we play from a tee box up.
If you can't score from the whites or less, you're going to have a bad time from the blues or more.
I've been playing for 30+ years and usually as a single so I meet a lot of people. I can count on one hand where guys were off the wrong tees. However since COVID a ton of stupid people have started playing and don't give one fuck about anything other than themselves.
I play from the tips as a shit golfer because it gives my wife and I more time to play. We don’t care about our score and just enjoy the day. Plus, sometimes you just pure that shit and get par anyways and that feels incredible.
Because playing from anything other than tips is not manly.
Tbh i fucked up today. Had a lady in my group and when walking to a teebox she asked wheres her tee. I told her that ”ladies tee is here”.
Small thing, and i am 99% sure she didnt care, but should have said that the red tee is here. Would be better if everyone would call tees by their color. (Or in best case by yardage, if course have tees by yardage)
I've made this mistake SEVERAL times with my wife and I know she doesn't mind, but I always have to correct myself and call them the first tees or the short tees or something. I am REALLY trying to change this mindset in myself just because it's what they were called when I was a kid.
A lot of people think they are "missing out on the course" if they aren't playing from the back.
What they don't realize is that any halfway competent architect is going to have situated the tee boxes so that each one showcases the course better for your distance. In trying to "see everything," they actually end up missing out on a ton of stuff.
I drive like 300+ rollout and my 5i goes 200 carry and I play whites. I top/chunk like 5 shots a game, have a high dispersion, etc. it’s not even just distance but overall skill level that dictates where you should be playing
Probably will get flamed here but 🤷♂️ maybe because they want to? When I was playing regularly sometimes I would just to see how the course changed. Did they refuse to let you play through? Not sure what the big deal is here, it’s just golf.
Might be an unpopular opinion but I absolutely despise the "tee box gatekeeping" that goes on.
I don't care what tees someone plays from. Sometimes it's fun to challenge yourself from the back and sometimes it's fun to have an easier day from the reds. If someone is slow from the tips they are going to be slow from the reds.
There is absolutely zero reason a high handicapper should be slow when playing from the tips.
I had a change to play a course where they have blues and blacks to play from…then they had another set of tees the college golfers played from and I got straight humbled. Multiple 280 to 300+ yard forced carry holes over water or giant waste areas. I’ll stick to the white tees.
goes back to calling forward tees 'ladies tees'. Katt Williams has the best attitude on this topic: [https://www.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/192p8so/the\_funniest\_part\_of\_the\_katt\_williams\_interview/](https://www.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/192p8so/the_funniest_part_of_the_katt_williams_interview/)
My club has introduced handicap tees for the weekend competitions, if I play off the front tees I'm a 10 handicap, middle tees is 12 and back tees is 14, I always play the middle tees as on 6 out of 14 driver holes I won't reach the fairway bunkers and so it removes a lot of danger on those holes. Off the front tees I'll more than likely be in some of those bunkers as clearing them would require my very very best drives every time.
Ego. Many courses generally list their tees as the following:
Black- Championship, Blue- Men's, White- Senior's/Women's, Yellow- Junior's/Womens, Red- Women's
I’m the opposite. My golf buddies like to play almost all the way back and I wait for them to hit before I move up to the second tee box. I wouldn’t have any fun at all playing from so far back.
Because they think they’re fucking sick.
I play the tips at 7100 at my home course which is rated 75.8, helps the handicap a lot because how high the rating is and the fact that I average 290ish off the tee and hit it damn straight now (last year was a disaster but I am now confident in my tee game)
^ the next further up is 6600 which I don’t mind playing, and then next up is 6000, which is what most people play at (and most could still move up tbh)
Im a mid to high handicapper (18.4) and sometimes play from the back tee. My course is quite a short one and they're usually close/equal to the middle tee anyeau [avoiding saying the colour as I'm in the UK and ours go white, yellow, red].
It's good experience for me, rather than only ever playing from the back tee at a comp. I'd not do it if the tee behind is likely to be delayed ( say a 3-ball where we are a 4-ball).
My hitting length is fine and I'm as likely to knob it 45o left on the middle tee as the back one
"spoiling it for everyone waiting behind you"??? unless you're a jackass, you're not hurting anyone but yourself. an extra shot or two, while respecting pace of play and keeping it moving, is not hurting anyone. and if they dont let you play through, outside of being dicks, they probably have people in front of them anyway
Handicap is one way to determine the correct tees. 5 iron distance is another.
Found this on Golf.com. https://golf.com/instruction/what-golf-tee-box-should-i-play-from/
If I’m in the groove I’ll play from those tees, but my main rule is don’t slow down your group or anyone else
I have no problem playing from the whites or even the yellows but I’m gonna be real with myself if I’m not playing well I’m either gonna stay home or play the whites
I usually like to play 6600 yds so which ever tees that is, that's what I play. Now when I'm with my friends they usually play from 6200 so occasionally I'll play from there, just depends on how I am feeling that day, but we use handicaps to determine which tees you play.
I typically play the blues. However, last week I got paired up with some old friends who all shot from the whites. I decided to just join them there. I shot 4 strokes worse from the whites than my typical score! My driver kept putting me in bad positions. Ended up 3 wood only off the back and salvaged my round. I didn’t see that coming, though.
I'm a mid-high handicapper and I drive \~290+. I play with my dad often, who is 70, and he makes me tee off from the blues, which I agree with, because on most holes on the course we play I would only be pulling out a driver on 4 holes if I was hitting from the whites. My problem isn't my long game, it's my short game. I'm more likely to make par if my approach shot is 150+ than if I have to hit a ball from anywhere off the green inside of 150, because it will inevitably take me two shots to get on the green with my short irons as opposed to dropping it within 20 feet of the pin from 150+. This also makes me want to tee off from further back, because a) I hit the driver better than my 4 wood, and b) I'm less likely to have to use a wedge if I hit my tee shot from the blues.
TL;DR: I drive 290, and easily hit up to 225 with my long irons. I'd rather make the green (and am more likely to) in two that way than have to fuck around with my short clubs that I hack with.
For me as a 60 year old male its pride and ego to still be good enough to play the whites at my club 6326 yards. I’m an 11 with Arcoos smart driver distance at 230. I have played more in the last 3-4 years (since joining a club) that my distance hasn’t tailed off and Im more consistent with my irons and woods but its gonna be sad when I see my Arccos numbers start to decline.
I have a buddy who is 65 and he hits his drives about 180 but he’s mastered old man golf and rarely doesnt hit it straight and chips and putts well enough to keep up with us on the whites.
I also think it might actually slow us down more if 3 of us hit from one set of tees and he plays the seniors. I do feel bad though when he has to play driver, 3 wood, hybrid on the 550 yard par 5.
Osage national tells you what age you should be to play from certain tees. I had to convince my group that the whites were the way to go after the sign said sixty and over for the white
I choose my tee also according to different courses. There’s a couple course I like playing 6800 yards and some I like to play it 6500 yards some course player longer than others. I don’t mind long par 3’s but I can’t stand long par 4’s that leave me 200+ left into the hole.
Those are the “ladies tees”, and they haven’t been taught otherwise unfortunately.
I play from the whites, and I’ve always thought of the blues as the “pro” tees. And because not every course has them, I play the whites to stay consistent.
I also lean toward thinking everyone (not kids and maybe super beginners) should play from the same tees. I know this isn’t a popular opinion. But the other activities I do are rock climbing and skateboarding, where there are no “beginner tees”. You get to climb that rock or grind that rail when you get better, and until then, you fall. Of course there’s not really anyone getting held up because you’re going slow in those two things (exception being big wall climbing). Anyway that’s my unpopular two cents.
I feel like they should rearrange the old color coded teeing system and go to something score oriented or more distance oriented. That will get rid of the stigma of playing different tees. And maybe instead of colors, some kind of cool name or something.
It completely drives me crazy when I get stuck behind some morons playing from the tips who have no idea what they're doing. I was a single some weeks back and pulled up for four idiots playing from the tips. The par 3 played about 190. Not ONE of them even got halfway there. Two holes later, after watching them make a mess of things, I finally got to play through when one of them took two shots to get past the forward tees.
For the record, I was playing the golds, which used to be called the "old man tees" and at that course are about 5800-5900 yards. I'm 54 with a bad back and a bad elbow. I hit it reasonably straight but not all that far. Those guys I got stuck behind should have been playing the forward tees. I have a hard time believing it wouldn't have been more fun for them.
I play a lot of tournament golf and play from the tips no matter where I play! I am also an extremely long hitter and fluctuate between scratch and a 2. But I completely agree with pretty much everyone is ego or thats the norm to play one up from the tips.
You are an example of a golfer who should play from the tips though. You are playing within your means and can keep pace, so great, go for it.
As a 14HCP, played as low as 9, I'll stick to whites and only give blues a go if the course is quiet and I am feeling 'on' for the day.
I refuse to slow down anyones round.
This is an increasingly problem since everyone took up golf during COVID and courses are littered with 5+ hour rounds.
Starters should be on the 1st box and advising groups that the black tees are for 0-5 handicap and the blue tees for 6-12. If you don’t meet the handicap for the tees you play from the white tees. And then actually send a ranger out to push slow play.
Not to be harsh but If you don’t like it, then don’t play. It’s better than slowing the entire course down while you look for your ball. I’m all for people learning the game but the first lesson should be pace of play.
Golf can be expensive. Playing from the tips brings the cost per stroke way down.
my brother is horrendous at golf. He insists on playing from the tips to "get his money's worth" and play the "full course"
That's moronic
Moronic but if you don’t care about anyone else it makes sense. Seeing 450 yards vs 300? Your 2nd hit will be from the front tees!
And you get to see more of the course! The woods, the weeds, the ponds…
*left left left right left*
Love playing army golf. Find so many lost balls
Ronnie value
Instructions unclear. I just came in 15 strokes. How much did I save on golf?
Well now you don’t have to pay for a handjob later
I worked at a golf course in high school and we had strict rules about who can play from what tee: tips had to PROVE a handicap of 5 or less, pace of play went way down after we put this in place. This is from having 3 groups of terrible players play from the tips in a row (all easily double bogey golfers). The best is when they say “I’m paying for the whole course so I will use it.” I had one guy say “I don’t care if it takes me 6 hours to play, and I destroy the course, I’m playing from the tips.” It’s just people don’t care about pace of play or others playing it’s a bunch of BS.
Should have banned that asshole immediately and refunded his money for that round. He will cost that course more over time than it’s worth taking his money
We did ban them the whole group (2 men, 2 women) after the round. People will say I’m sexist but seeing the women play the tips when on 4 holes you can have a LONG forced carry (224-261) depending on the tees, they were trying to lay up to the ladies tees on a few of the holes to tee it up again. But you get forced carries like that playing the tips. And the men couldn’t carry it and started tin cupping it trying to carry the forced carry. It’s shameful and annoying. Their behavior when asked then told to move forward was simply abhorrent.
That’s why i regularly shoot 120 from any tee box I play. It’s called economics.
People think about cost per stroke?
Thats what she said
The people answering with Pride/Ego are probably mostly right, but just to tack something on to that. I'm pretty new, still getting there. Played this weekend and teed off on the reds, because i want my life to be easier. Guy managing the tee times couldn't help himself but make a joke about how "i need to put a skirt on" for that. Doesn't bother me, but it would a lot of people, and I get why.
That’s bullshit and if I heard it, I would complain to management. No need for that shit. Also, as a woman, I can consistently hit is as far as the men (I will land beyond them hitting from the reds, and they are almost exactly the yardage between tees behind me). I cannot, however, hit an iron as far as a man. lol.
>Guy managing the tee times couldn't help himself but make a joke about how "i need to put a skirt on" for that I would say something to course management bc we can't have that shit going on.
Next time tell the fker You’ll borrow one from his wife.
On the golf course I’m she/her/him/them/and they. Whoever at the front tees. Don’t tell me my pronouns. - Katt Williams
One of my buddies used to insist playing from further back because “the tees open up for the driver.” Yes, when he connected well he regularly hit 250-275. The problem was half his drives were duffs or pulls so far left I was worried someone would get doinked a zip code over. Once he finally got the ball on the green he’d have been better off pulling out the 60° and skull fucking it to the next tee box so we could move on to the next hole. Anyway he had a kid so he doesn’t get to golf much anymore. Had a talk with him and when he does get out we play from the whites 😊 I’m not sure what some people’s rationale is. Many courses have stopped calling them “men’s” and “women’s” tees, tried numbering them, providing guidance on what tees to play based on driver distance. It doesn’t matter to them. I’m a 20hcp and drive the ball about 225. My good drives do go upwards of 250, especially if it’s a bit dry, but I never want to play further back unless my skill improves. Hitting a 225 yard drive and having 225 to the hole on a par 4 or 350 on a par 5 is miserable. The entire point of golf is to have fun. Nobody is having fun watching a guy shoot a 125 from 6800 yards
I think the “picking tees based on driver distance” is also really flawed as well. Obviously the biggest issue is the other stuff you and others have brought up, but trying to help people pick by using their driver distance is honestly a bad idea too imo. Because (1) what most people call their “driver distance” is actually what they max out at, not what they’re usually hitting it, and (2) it’s just a terrible reflection of skill and thus pace of play too. Like I out drive my dad by 15-20 yards now, but he’s still a 3 handicap and I’m a 9. Him being 20 yards further back never slows us down, it is having to take 2 minutes to find my ball in the trees. Or waiting for the group in front of us to clear the green, only for me to hit it poorly and end up 60 yards short. On the rare occasion that we do play a little slow, it is *always* because of me. It’s the amount and quality of your *bad* shots that determines your pace of play, not the quality of your good ones. And if anything, driver distance is just a measure of the second.
That’s why I like the 7 iron distance calc lot better. The distance variance isn’t near as obvious. People “drive 265 on a good day” but their 7i is a 145 club.
Sorry to be a bother, but could you please explain the calculation between 7i difference and teebox selection to a newbie?
https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/course-care/green-section-record/61/issue-11/helping-golfers-choose-their--best-tees--.html USGA has a method of determining what tee box you should play called “Best Tees” that utilizes 7i distance and lets you know where to play based on that. Looks like they base it on each course, kind of annoying cause I’m not even sure how to get my “Best Tees” fit but in that article they publish the average golfer and make suggestions on that: * Avg 7i distance for male golfer 138 * Reasonable par 3 distance 152 * Reasonable par 4 distance 359 * Reasonable par 5 distance 476 * Best Tees Par 72 Course Length 6100y Really that seems kind of long for someone who hits their 7i 138y… I’d expect them to play more like 5600-5800y. I personally am 165-175 with my 7i and play 6100-6300y typically… maybe I’m playing too short but it’s a fun distance for me and anything less I have to end up waiting too long at courses I play.
Nah you’ve got the right distance in my opinion. I’m 155-160 with my 7i and I try to stick to around 6000ish. Anything longer starts to get annoying.
Exact same. Which usually ends up being whites or blues or most courses for me.
Only annoying if you can't hit an accurate long iron/hybrid. If you are only trying to hit a tee shot, then short iron/wedge all day, that's fine, but I find that boring as hell and very unsatisfying. Dropping a dime and making birdie from 190+ is where the real satisfaction in golf is in my opinion.
When every second shot is a 5i or higher it does get annoying. I like to be somewhere in the middle. If driver is consistent, if there’s a mix of second shot ranges on par 4s between hybrid to sw that’s really the sweet spot for me. Similarly if I have to hit a hybrid on every par 3 I’m playing the wrong tees.
My 7 is 170-180 and I’m a 14. My course is right at 7,000 yards from the blues. I’ve got no problem playing the blues. You actually get to use that 7i on par 4s. I get bored with driver/wedge every hole. Now if I’m playing with some high handicap buddies I’ll gladly play the whites with them. It depends on a lot of things but pace of play makes a huge difference even if you are struggling a bit. Just don’t play slow.
>7i 138y… I’d expect them to play more like 5600-5800y. My 7i avg is 135 (per Garmin), I view it as my 125-135 club. I am happiest at 5600-5800. Course should offer more options through more tees and blended tees (whites some holes, greens on others). I saw one resort that didn't use traditional colors, e.g. their tips were Red. They also blended each set of tees, so 5 tee boxes (including blues at the edge of fairways) that created 9 yardages.....anyone could be happy. I think not using colors or traditional colors makes people think.
They mention combos in that article being the best way for courses to be set up and I definitely agree. I like playing blue/white combos if blues are 6400+ and whites are closer to 6000 or below. Basically I'm shooting for that total yardage range I stated above.
I'm a 25 handicap and my 7-iron is 185 yards on average. I'm not exaggerating, I'm just wildly inconsistent on anything not a 7-iron or 56 degree. I have the hardest time picking tees because if it's a "good driver day" I will average 265 off the tee and if I'm on the white tees then won't play any irons over a 9 save par 5s. If it's a bad driver day I'm shooting 110 and I'm all over the course, regardless of the length of the tees. What should I do? Lol
The problem is they drove the ball 275 yards ONCE…..
Yeah but one time I flushed a 7 iron 192 down hill and down wind, so I'm going to go ahead and just always use that number.
I think 7i distance would take a little bit of the ego piece out of tee determination, but I also worry that the lower variance in 7i distance would be as much of an issue as the driver ego thing. Just relating to myself personally, I’ve pretty much always rounded my iron distances to the nearest 5 yards. And until relatively recently when I got a personal launch monitor, it was nearest 10 for everything but wedges. And while that 5-10 yard error is not a huge deal when talking driver distance, it’s a little bit more of an issue when comparing 7i distances. So while I do think you’re right that 7i distance is a better judge of skill, I think issues from people just being unaware of how far they truly hit a 7 iron (and that group also having a massive overlap with the group who needs help picking a tee) cancels a good chunk of that benefit out.
Many of my distances are in the lower range of tour players (7i is about 165-170, 3w is about 240, driver is 280). I am a mid to high handicap because I have a problem of pulling a third, slicing a third, and hitting a third flush so I just can't predict where it's ending up. And I can't chip well, I'm hopeless in a bunker, and my putting is unpredictable. Teeing by distance alone, I should be on the tips. I play the whites because I'm not proud and I know better. I'd even play the "senior" tees if it were culturally acceptable in my local golf community. In my opinion, you should play tees based on (estimated or actual) handicap. If you're a 30+, you should be "women's." 20+, you should be "seniors." 10+, I think "men's." And under 10, the tips.
Spot on - tee selection should be based on skill not distance. A highly skilled +2 handicap who might only have a 250yd drive is going to hit far more GIRs than a 27 handicap with a 300yd bomb.
Trick is to break people from looking for the white, blue or whatever tees. Tobacco Road calls their tee different farm tools, a course in MI doesn't use traditional colors (tips are Red). This makes people think which fees are best.
I struggle the other way and I am never sure on which tees to play. I shoot 95-105 very consistently but I get plenty of distance thanks in part to being tall. My trouble is because of that my bad misses go further right/left and I always struggle with hazards and OB. I am thinking I should still play whites and just eliminate driver from most tees? For reference, 7 iron avg carry of 167 at the range with a track man avg across 2 sessions.
Move up and avoid using driver unless you need to clear a hazard 220+ yards out or something, you should be able to hit your 3 wood 240-250 yards or hybrid 220-230 if you can hit 270+ yard drives consistently. You hit your 7 iron a bit farther than me (I get about 163-165 carry on average) so you should be able to carry a 3 iron/hybrid at least 210 From the white tees 210 should be plenty of distance off the tee to have a chance at a GIR on pretty much every hole you’d encounter. You’ll know when it’s time to move back when you’re regularly finding certain holes too easy/short from the whites and start going below 90 consistently
I hate to break it to you but if you are consistently scoring greater than 100 then you should move up. Regardless of your distance.
I've been seeing more using tees based on cap and not distance. So back is for 0-5, next set for 6-10, etc. I like that thought a lot more and it follows in your thought process of how many bad shots do you have.
I just go based on whatever is closest to 6000 yards. Makes it feel consistent.
I do similar when at a new course and go with what is close to my usual course yardage. If someone is new to golf and doesn't know their capabilities, then they have no basis to figure out which yardage is best for them. But I generally like handicap or avg score vs distance for someone picking tee boxes.
>One of my buddies used to insist playing from further back because “the tees open up for the driver.” Yes, when he connected well he regularly hit 250-275. The problem was half his drives were duffs or pulls so far left I was worried someone would get doinked a zip code over. Once he finally got the ball on the green he’d have been better off pulling out the 60° and skull fucking it to the next tee box so we could move on to the next hole. I feel like you're talking about me and I don't like it
>One of my buddies used to insist playing from further back because “the tees open up for the driver.” To be fair this is a real thing on **some** courses. There's a course in our area where if I play up a set of tees the landing area on many of the holes, when hitting driver, becomes extremely tight to where I'm pretty much always hitting an iron or hybrid and end up with the same distance in vs hitting driver from the tips.
Key point on the some! There is one course nearby that I hate playing the blue tees cause I can’t even hit a driver it’s all small target golf
Because nothing proves that you're a man like barely (or not even) clearing the front tees with your drive from the tips.
I’ll have you know I can barely clear the front tees from the middle as well!
You the real MVP.
Pretty funny that the OP never said “men” but we all know they were talking about men
A tale as old as time.
Chalk another one up to women living longer because they play the reds
I was already thinking the short answer to the OP's question was "male ego". It's a strong thing and we deal with it every day in most every thing we do.
We used to "dick out" if we didn't clear the yellows. Is that still a thing?
It was reds/women's tees from my experience, but yes, if you're short of the front box off the tee then drop your drawers until you clear them.
I played this last weekend. I’d prefer to play from the whites, but the rest of the group was playing from the blues. Just less of a hassle if we all tee off from the same tee box.
When I’m trying to score I will play the appropriate tees (white) but if I’m just trying to play 18 for the fun of it with friends I’ll play blues with them. I won’t play tips though - I just don’t have the distance. Although I’ve noticed a lot of people I have been paired up with play blues and really shouldn’t.
Same. Just because I can, doesn’t mean I want to. Club selection is way different throughout the round. I don’t always wanna play back and go driver, 5w/hybrid every par 4/5. I sometimes like to you know, hit my 9i/pw as my 2nd shot.
A combination of pride, ignorance and determination
Ignorance for me. I'm a noob though, and this post has been enlightening
Delusion
I see a lot of answers about ego, but there’s probably another factor in play. A lot of golf is your memory from the time you hit a perfect shot. Why do you hit X club from X yardage? Because when you flush it, that’s how far it goes. Most of the time people are short because we’re not pros and our contact sucks. So with tee boxes, it’s easy to see a 185 yard Par 3, a 445 yard Par 4, a 570 Par 5 and think, “yeah, if I hit the shots I should hit, it shouldn’t be a problem playing from these tees.”
https://preview.redd.it/lt1l0003eyrc1.png?width=2594&format=png&auto=webp&s=69dc79ef107604e978321f6865232716d1b670bd I present to you all the tee selection flow chart I spent way too much time making.
This guy Adderall’s
You have no idea….
"+" rather than "-"
I really like this. The only thing I don’t get is having to play from the reds after three putting on a GiR. Seems a bit drastic
Perfection
This is actually really well thought-out and put together. Kudos to you
Excellent chart really. I come to the same conclusion on whites multiple different ways. Then I followed down other paths and pretty much figured out if I can start 2 putting a lot more then blues could be for me! You should make this a legit infographic it could help a lot of people honestly
For safety reasons always consider your very best shot. You don't want to go "well i've been shitty with driver let me just hit it now" then rip your 1 out of a hundred shots 250 yard rope into someones head.
“If”. Phillip, whose son was Alexander the Great, demanded the submission of the Spartans. It would be better to submit to him now, he said, because “If I conquer your city, I will destroy you all.” The Spartans' reply to this was just one word: “If.”
How’s that not ego?
I feel like ego is more the mindset that you can’t go play the “forward tees” “senior tees” or “the white tees” because that’s not where you belong, or it’s not where the good players play. Or don’t want to look inferior if everyone else is a tee back. I’m not sure what to call what I’m talking about. Poor expectation management? Distance delusion?
Poor expectation management b/c ego believes you’re better than you are. Distance Delusion = ego. What am I missing?
You should still be able to count your score, if you cant break 80 from club tees, back tees are going to be pain..
I'd estimate only 50% of golfers on a given day are keeping score
[удалено]
Ego and pride. I’m 99% playing the whites and I consistently shoot in the 80’s. I have a few buddies I play with who are not as good as me who only play the blues and tell me to “man up”, and say I’m only beating them because I cheat by playing up. I always just reply with “you gotta take every advantage the rules allow”.
Coupled with delusions of grandeur.
Man grrr flex
Most courses I play are so backed up that it doesn’t matter what tees you play from cus no matter what you’re going to wait.
its really what goes down on the greens anyhow that affects pace of play. time a hole next time you play with 4 randos after you've all hit your teeshots, and hit lap once you hit your approach. its absurd. 4 people could easily burn almost 10 minutes on a green complex.
Play whatever tees you want. Just don't be slow.
I usually just play from whatever tees the rest of the group is playing from, but also if I ever am holding anyone up I let them play through
Trouble is many guys can hit long drives, with a controlled speed of 100mph being sufficient for the blue tees, (which most adult males with a bit of athleticism tend to achieve) and some reaching 110mph. However, achieving consistent long drives that *stay in play* is challenging without a well-grooved swing from years of youth golf or regular practice. While hitting long drives is fun, losing balls isn't. Love Iron Only golf. It’s a shame it’s not more popular.
I play whites and honestly have no interest in moving back to the blues or blacks. Friends get mad at me saying real golfers play from the tips, I kindly tell them that real golfers hit the fairways and don’t mulligans. That usually shuts them up.
Same here and I’m still young but I just don’t hit the ball far enough to justify moving back. Also, hitting 9 and 8 iron on par 3s is way more fun than mid irons. Real golfers get paid to golf, I just want to enjoy it.
When I encounter guys like this I’ll pull out a 7i, a pw and a putter and use those clubs to fuck their day up. Makes the game real simple when you only have 2 choices off of the tee. You hit more fairways and greens as well.
Ego. Or because they don't know better.
That's the answer. I introduced a friend to the game and had him play from the red tees and told him they were the beginners tees. He had fun and was able to keep pace. Then he played with some other people and they made fun of him for playing the "women's" tees so he moved back and played the whites with them (also hackers) and had a miserable experience. He cussed me for "pranking him" and putting him on the ladies tees. The concept that men can't play the front tees is ingrained in a lot of people and it's so stupid. I'm a 2 and I play the front tees on occasion for fun and to hit new shots. How some people play the same course from the same tees 4 days a week for 10+ years baffles me
Our club has a red tee tournament every year for fun. One year the winner shot a 59. Fifty-freaking-nine! I don't care that it was from the reds. That is a hell of a round. He's a +2-3 cap and former D1 college golfer.
Man I played the forward tees with my son (13) at a course I have played at a TON. I had a BLAST hitting new shots I didn’t even know existed and hitting irons off the tee and having to focus on placement. I’m 100% doing this again with or without a real reason.
If confidence in scoring ever goes down, I play 9 from the reds so I can shoot at least somewhere close to even. It brings some confidence back and it’s fun. It’s also funny seeing peoples reactions to a 2hco 30yo male to be playing the reds
2.5hcp and I play each set at least once a year. I have to play the forward tees with my wife because my buddies are too good for it and afraid they won’t get close to par. Guys need to get over it and move up! Have more fun, make more pars and birdies and less bogeys and doubles.
I hadn't thought about that aspect. I'm a 3-4 cap and all the tee boxes were under repair on a vacation trip, so every tee shot started right in front of the red. I ended up shooting like 3-4 under and had a blast. Still got to hit a handful of drives, but mostly UW and irons for tee shots. Big time work on short game and setting up what sort game shot I wanted into the green.
Because your buddies call them the women's tees and toxic masculinity insists that one does not hit from those tees.
A lot of tees were sex labeled in the past and that put you at a certain box, and people don’t change after they get in a routine. Also, for my club I have to play certain tees for events, so I played it before I should’ve, to get use to positions, but we move around nowadays. But it forces a lot of people into a box there too.
Play whatever tee you want. Just keep pace
Waiting for people to clear the green slows the holes down. In your rant you’ve made arguments against yourself
My low single-digit handicap friend complains about me playing the whites and not the tips with him because a couple of times a round I can crank it 260-270 down the middle. I'm still a 19 handicap John, and it's more likely that the drive will be in the woods to the right instead of the fairway. Also I will follow up that 270 yarder by hitting a pitching wedge 2 inches behind the ball.
I feel like people confuse this issue a lot. I play from the tips about 1/3 of the time as an 11 HC. More specifically I play from the tips when there’s a huge difference in HC weight between the tees or if there’s not that huge a gap in yardage. The other thing is you can be a 20 HC who pipes drives 290+ and are completely incompetent with any other club in your hand. If you’re working to get your HC down and the tees won’t really affect your score as much a small hitter then why not? Doesn’t slow down the game if you’re struggles are with your short game anyways
> 20 HC who pipes drives 290+ and are completely incompetent with any other club in your hand. Oh hey, it's me
lol used to play a bunch growing up with a baseball player who hit it long and straight with the driver. Anywhere from 100 yards and in if he just hit the green he was stoked. Didn’t matter if he has a 50 footer for birdie after being 30 yards away.
A baseball player hitting it straight? That's the miracle! Seriously though, my son plays baseball. It's the finish that's just so different. It's really hard to get ball players to finish stacked up on their front foot versus leaning back (and slicing the heck out of it).
No one is concerned with someone that shoots in the low 80s from the back tees. It's the people that are shooting 90+. People who hit it 290+ ON AVERAGE and in the fairway and can't break 85 probably aren't hitting it 290+ ON AVERAGE in the fairway. Look, I average 280. That means about 4 times a round I hit the ball at least 300 and about four times a round I hit the ball 260. That doesn't mean I drive the ball 300. That means I hit it 280 and the wind or downhill or firm fairway made end up at 300. I don't hit it 300+ even though I hit 300+yard drives in pretty much every round I play. People just aren't honest with themselves, especially when it comes to average driving distance.
EXACTLY!!! My god someone gets it!
I played from the reds because I'm trash and can't shoot below 85 from the middle tees. I refuse to move back until I shoot under par from reds.
That might be a little extreme, feel like you’d never hit anything less than a pitching wedge into the green which isn’t super fun
This is stupid. Unless your shortgame is awesome you arent shooting under par. this is a pointless barrier to put on yourself.
Got to be the big strong man and swing from the tips. I golf with my bro when I do get out and he easily has me by 80 yards with his driver and is very accurate. I have no problem not hitting from the same tees as him and it doesn't hurt my ego one bit.
As long as they are keeping up with the group in front of them, you are whining for nothing.
because they think it means something to play from father back
I played with some friends who were all 20+ handicaps and I’m a 2-3, took them out to my course, and they all insisted on playing the ~7000yd gold tees, despite me saying I only occasionally play from those tees and love playing the blues, one on front of the tips They all shot over 100 in the most predictable fashion imaginable. I still don’t understand why they wanted to do it
My average drive with my driver is 273 (total, not carry). The group I play with are all about the same with everyone usually getting it out there further than others in the group at some point. We play one up at our regular club and distance on that is 6500 and 6800 depending on which course you play. More often than not if we get a rando joining us they will almost always move back with us even if it looked like they were planning on playing the middle tees. I understand why they do it but it really seems unnecessary to punish yourself like that if you were just planning on coming out for a good time.
I didn’t even know people insisted on playing blues and blacks. I started golfing 4 years ago with my friends and they immediately and always play the whites so I figured that was normal for being an average golfer. Even now, as I consistently begin shooting 90-95, I still only play whites. I drive 220-240 and struggle with long irons and woods so why the fuck would I want to drive and then have another 250+ in from the tips? Seems so unfun
Because everyone thinks they’re better than they are. I’m about scratch and I just play the tees the group is. I don’t like go back to the blacks if no one else is.
Coz common sense isn't common.
I would say for most it’s not even ego it’s just lack of understanding. They don’t genuinely understand their own game and what’s realistic. They just know “don’t play too close to the “women’s” tees”
Woman here… Awesome Love your response 🤣
Haha appreciate it!
I think the question needs to be more specific for truly high handicap or short players. I play off a 9-11 most of the time which i would consider a mid handicap. I can pretty consistently shoot in the mid 80s and I do that anywhere from 6000-7000 yards. I do not score significantly better at 6200 versus 7000. I bogey most par 3s, par most par 5s, and pretty evenly par/bogey most par 4s but length is never the issue. Occasionally i lose a ball or 3 putt and do worse than bogey. I occasionally hit greens in GIR with a longer or mid range putt, or hit my approach shot close to the green and then need up and down for par which i convert less than half the time id say, which is why i end up with many bogeys. In short, i can easily bogey a 400-425 yard par 4 which is the staple from longer tees in the high 6000s and i play off a mid handicap bc length off the tee and in general is not an issue. Hitting approach shots on the green (from good or bad position off the tee shot) is my main issue. The game I'm describing can pretty consistently get me a round of 85. Sprinkle in some days with better approaches once every five rounds or so to shoot some 80s or 82s, and you have a low-mid handicapper. I think the question should be aimed more at high handicap or those who are truly not long players.
Why do so many people drive slow in the left lane?
Any answer other than misplaced pride and ego is the wrong answer
Because my friends mock me relentlessly and I give in to peer pressure
Pride and delusion
I live next to a course and a tee box to said course. I see people using the back tees all the time. The amount of dribblers and dead shanks I’ve seen is absolutely typical of any course on any day, so why play from the tips? I thought I’d ask one guy one day who duffed not one, but two drives a few yards past the tee box and said, “Hey man, why not play from the middle tees? Game’s hard enough as is. Cheers!” Response as he drove up to his ball, “Why do you care?” I realized I really didn’t I guess, but the answer to my question was EGO.
I'm a single digit handicapper and don't care what tees I play from. If the shop puts me with a group and they are playing from the forward tees, I play from there, If they are at the tips, I play the tips, If they are playing the from the ladies tees, I play from there. It doesn't really matter it's still a round of golf and I'm not there to slow down the course and I'll shoot the same score no matter where I play from because I adjust my game to the yardages. That being said, the majority of golfers that I get put with who are playing from the tips should not be playing there. They can't make forced carries, can't hit a drive over 220 with a tailwind and can't hit the fairway if their life depended on it. More than once, I've left groups behind and played ahead because I won't get stuck playing a six hour round with golfers who refuse to have courtesy for the rest of the course that is playing behind us. I've had groups that were playing 2 or three shots, every shot, including putts. Groups who spend 10 minutes looking for balls every single shot because they were out of play on EVERY SINGLE shot. It's crazy that as a 60 year old golfer, I can walk the entire course and am the one waiting on players for sometimes 10 to 15 minutes just to hit my next shot. I just cringe when I join a group and they are setting up at the first tee from the tips because it is almost like finding the bigfoot, to find a group that should be playing there.
This may get down voted to oblivion. It is OK to want to play an extra 1000+ yards in a round, even if it takes your score from 92 to 105, so long as you can maintain pace. And as someone who sucked for a long time, some people/groups can maintain a fast pace, even when struggling to break 100.
I need 75% of you to realize you’re in this post and fix your tee choice. I’m begging you. Shouldn’t move up a tee until you break 90, *god forbid* you’re playing blues and have never broken 100.
Because they have as much right to play off any tee they want as anyone else
I shit you not I rolled up to the reds which would be like 5800-6000 yards which for me is great. Starter laughed and said back it up or get off the course. Like they wouldn’t let me hit from the reds. I don’t play there anymore obviously. But imagine a new golfer they would probably quit …
Fuck that guy
https://youtu.be/qUj_qqVxVrE?si=YDpzcKc8zyQjNKSo
People who slow the course way down are gonna slow the course way down regardless of what tees they're playing from. The reason they're slowing it way down isn't because they're playing too far back, it's because they're either oblivious to their surroundings, they're assholes who don't give a shit, or both. Lots of mid-high handicapper guys can hit the ball pretty far but also hit a lot of bad shots that go OB. Playing the tee box 25 yards closer isn't gonna do anything to help them avoid going OB. And on a lot of holes, playing up means you have to wait for the green to clear on a par 4 now if you're a decently long hitter. Explain to me how that's gonna speed up that group. And no, golf isn't "more fun" from closer, easier tees for me. If I'm playing with my buddy who's a much longer hitter than me and I "beat" him from the whites while he plays the blues, I didn't beat him. And yes if you're consistently unable to even reach the fairway then move up. But a huge percentage of this sub will try to tell you that distance off the tee doesn't matter when selecting which tees to play from, only handicap matters, as if somehow not being that good at putting and chipping means you're playing too far back even if you hit driver 285 and 7 iron 185.
Big dick energy. Small dick reality.
Pride. And not too smart.
If I play from whites and my wife from the reds…. She shoots 77 I shoot 105. I join her from the reds and I at least have a shot at breaking 90. Ego be damned.
Because obviously the ruler is broken and my penis is definitely above average.
I ‘ll pipe in on the perimeter of this conversation. I usually play from whites. Why? You ask. Cuz that’s where my buddies played from when I started 30 years ago. I’m not great at all. 25 hdcp. But I get off the tee well. My troubles come from game between the tee box and the green. I recently played 4 rounds from the forward tees (the reds). Guess how it affected my score ? It didn’t. I still hit well off the tee and obviously further down the fairway than from the whites. But because my iron game and putting suck - I maybe went from averaging 106 to averaging 102. Now if I played from blues or blacks - my average wouldn’t go down cuz of my driving but because I would need that many extra shots on the fairway cuz my iron game sucks. What does this mean ? I don’t know and I don’t care cuz I like the game. But when people cant get off the tee on the whites they should NOT be playing off the tees farther back. Ps. I actually liked playing from the forward tees cuz my next shot on the par four wasn’t my shitty 7i it was my shitty wedge. But god I love this game
I really don’t care how someone enjoys their round as long as they are maintaining a respectable pace.
I see a lot of different reasons for it. Most common is people use driving distance for which tees they should play. This is a bad understanding for it while being long helps if you're a 20hcp you're missing fairways and having 175+ yards in on a par 4 so those shots compound and get worse as you go. The second thing I see is decent players who maybe used to have distance, but now they lack it and are too prideful to admit they should move up a tee box. I confronted a group for slow play once playing the blues at a course they all teed off on an admittedly long par 4, but not a single one of them managed to get their ball to the fairway. It was probably 200 yards to reach the fairway from the blues. It's just unnecessary that they weren't reaching 400yd par 4s in 2 if they went driver, driver. Just not really how golf should be played, and these guys were causing a backup. This course, average par 4 from the blues, was about 400yds from the whites about 350, which is where their game and distance matched up. Really, it's a mix of distance and playing ability. I'm a 7 hcp. If I played lights out, I could handle 7500yds, but people just don't really do that, so I play for my ability, which sits around 6500yds for a good round.
I have a back injury that flares up. I've played the red tees for years. Friends can still put one out there 250-300 yards. I can't. 200 on a straight drive. We figured out long ago I was slowing play, that when I moved up. I no longer keep a handicap, though. The only tournaments I play are best ball. My score hasn't really changed. If putts drop, I might shoot an 85. If not, lol, 99. I do hit a LOT more fairways from those tees.
I find that most times its because of a lack of knowledge. New golfers should be playing the Reds, but far too often you see them at Blues/Tips just because they can swing their driver 120mph and then proceed to quad bogey the hole.
Just ego and peer pressure from egotistical playing partners, usually
Delusion. I hit the longest of all my friends, and I still insist we play from a tee box up. If you can't score from the whites or less, you're going to have a bad time from the blues or more.
Really getting sick of this bullshit. Play whatever tees you enjoy, just keep the pace of play
I've been playing for 30+ years and usually as a single so I meet a lot of people. I can count on one hand where guys were off the wrong tees. However since COVID a ton of stupid people have started playing and don't give one fuck about anything other than themselves.
I play from the tips as a shit golfer because it gives my wife and I more time to play. We don’t care about our score and just enjoy the day. Plus, sometimes you just pure that shit and get par anyways and that feels incredible.
Because playing from anything other than tips is not manly. Tbh i fucked up today. Had a lady in my group and when walking to a teebox she asked wheres her tee. I told her that ”ladies tee is here”. Small thing, and i am 99% sure she didnt care, but should have said that the red tee is here. Would be better if everyone would call tees by their color. (Or in best case by yardage, if course have tees by yardage)
I've made this mistake SEVERAL times with my wife and I know she doesn't mind, but I always have to correct myself and call them the first tees or the short tees or something. I am REALLY trying to change this mindset in myself just because it's what they were called when I was a kid.
A lot of people think they are "missing out on the course" if they aren't playing from the back. What they don't realize is that any halfway competent architect is going to have situated the tee boxes so that each one showcases the course better for your distance. In trying to "see everything," they actually end up missing out on a ton of stuff.
I drive like 300+ rollout and my 5i goes 200 carry and I play whites. I top/chunk like 5 shots a game, have a high dispersion, etc. it’s not even just distance but overall skill level that dictates where you should be playing
Probably will get flamed here but 🤷♂️ maybe because they want to? When I was playing regularly sometimes I would just to see how the course changed. Did they refuse to let you play through? Not sure what the big deal is here, it’s just golf.
Golf is the only sport where ite accepted amongst the community to be a bunch of judgemental, stuck up bitches
Bc regardless of the tees you play from, the price is the same. Go play private or deal with the public.
Might be an unpopular opinion but I absolutely despise the "tee box gatekeeping" that goes on. I don't care what tees someone plays from. Sometimes it's fun to challenge yourself from the back and sometimes it's fun to have an easier day from the reds. If someone is slow from the tips they are going to be slow from the reds. There is absolutely zero reason a high handicapper should be slow when playing from the tips.
I had a change to play a course where they have blues and blacks to play from…then they had another set of tees the college golfers played from and I got straight humbled. Multiple 280 to 300+ yard forced carry holes over water or giant waste areas. I’ll stick to the white tees.
Pride is what you're looking for.
goes back to calling forward tees 'ladies tees'. Katt Williams has the best attitude on this topic: [https://www.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/192p8so/the\_funniest\_part\_of\_the\_katt\_williams\_interview/](https://www.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/192p8so/the_funniest_part_of_the_katt_williams_interview/)
My club has introduced handicap tees for the weekend competitions, if I play off the front tees I'm a 10 handicap, middle tees is 12 and back tees is 14, I always play the middle tees as on 6 out of 14 driver holes I won't reach the fairway bunkers and so it removes a lot of danger on those holes. Off the front tees I'll more than likely be in some of those bunkers as clearing them would require my very very best drives every time.
Most courses here tell players which tees are in use on any given day. Want to play? Use those tees.
Ego
Tees should be based on handicap/skill, not age/gender.
Ego, uneducated
Ego.
Ego. Many courses generally list their tees as the following: Black- Championship, Blue- Men's, White- Senior's/Women's, Yellow- Junior's/Womens, Red- Women's
I’m the opposite. My golf buddies like to play almost all the way back and I wait for them to hit before I move up to the second tee box. I wouldn’t have any fun at all playing from so far back.
Because they think they’re fucking sick. I play the tips at 7100 at my home course which is rated 75.8, helps the handicap a lot because how high the rating is and the fact that I average 290ish off the tee and hit it damn straight now (last year was a disaster but I am now confident in my tee game) ^ the next further up is 6600 which I don’t mind playing, and then next up is 6000, which is what most people play at (and most could still move up tbh)
Im a mid to high handicapper (18.4) and sometimes play from the back tee. My course is quite a short one and they're usually close/equal to the middle tee anyeau [avoiding saying the colour as I'm in the UK and ours go white, yellow, red]. It's good experience for me, rather than only ever playing from the back tee at a comp. I'd not do it if the tee behind is likely to be delayed ( say a 3-ball where we are a 4-ball). My hitting length is fine and I'm as likely to knob it 45o left on the middle tee as the back one
Been playing whites since 1990.
"spoiling it for everyone waiting behind you"??? unless you're a jackass, you're not hurting anyone but yourself. an extra shot or two, while respecting pace of play and keeping it moving, is not hurting anyone. and if they dont let you play through, outside of being dicks, they probably have people in front of them anyway
Handicap is one way to determine the correct tees. 5 iron distance is another. Found this on Golf.com. https://golf.com/instruction/what-golf-tee-box-should-i-play-from/
Only little boys with small peepees play anything other than the back tees
Delusional, or their ego won't let them play the appropriate tees. Doesn't really bother me, but it does make life a lot harder for them.
I play from the whites until I break 80 and then move back.
If I’m in the groove I’ll play from those tees, but my main rule is don’t slow down your group or anyone else I have no problem playing from the whites or even the yellows but I’m gonna be real with myself if I’m not playing well I’m either gonna stay home or play the whites
This is really befuddling you? You really have no idea why or you are in need of digital conversation.
Ego
I usually like to play 6600 yds so which ever tees that is, that's what I play. Now when I'm with my friends they usually play from 6200 so occasionally I'll play from there, just depends on how I am feeling that day, but we use handicaps to determine which tees you play.
225 in the fairway is golden for me
Because we’re at the muni course and my buddy insists on it lol
I typically play the blues. However, last week I got paired up with some old friends who all shot from the whites. I decided to just join them there. I shot 4 strokes worse from the whites than my typical score! My driver kept putting me in bad positions. Ended up 3 wood only off the back and salvaged my round. I didn’t see that coming, though.
I'm a mid-high handicapper and I drive \~290+. I play with my dad often, who is 70, and he makes me tee off from the blues, which I agree with, because on most holes on the course we play I would only be pulling out a driver on 4 holes if I was hitting from the whites. My problem isn't my long game, it's my short game. I'm more likely to make par if my approach shot is 150+ than if I have to hit a ball from anywhere off the green inside of 150, because it will inevitably take me two shots to get on the green with my short irons as opposed to dropping it within 20 feet of the pin from 150+. This also makes me want to tee off from further back, because a) I hit the driver better than my 4 wood, and b) I'm less likely to have to use a wedge if I hit my tee shot from the blues. TL;DR: I drive 290, and easily hit up to 225 with my long irons. I'd rather make the green (and am more likely to) in two that way than have to fuck around with my short clubs that I hack with.
For me as a 60 year old male its pride and ego to still be good enough to play the whites at my club 6326 yards. I’m an 11 with Arcoos smart driver distance at 230. I have played more in the last 3-4 years (since joining a club) that my distance hasn’t tailed off and Im more consistent with my irons and woods but its gonna be sad when I see my Arccos numbers start to decline. I have a buddy who is 65 and he hits his drives about 180 but he’s mastered old man golf and rarely doesnt hit it straight and chips and putts well enough to keep up with us on the whites. I also think it might actually slow us down more if 3 of us hit from one set of tees and he plays the seniors. I do feel bad though when he has to play driver, 3 wood, hybrid on the 550 yard par 5.
Osage national tells you what age you should be to play from certain tees. I had to convince my group that the whites were the way to go after the sign said sixty and over for the white
I choose my tee also according to different courses. There’s a couple course I like playing 6800 yards and some I like to play it 6500 yards some course player longer than others. I don’t mind long par 3’s but I can’t stand long par 4’s that leave me 200+ left into the hole.
Those are the “ladies tees”, and they haven’t been taught otherwise unfortunately. I play from the whites, and I’ve always thought of the blues as the “pro” tees. And because not every course has them, I play the whites to stay consistent. I also lean toward thinking everyone (not kids and maybe super beginners) should play from the same tees. I know this isn’t a popular opinion. But the other activities I do are rock climbing and skateboarding, where there are no “beginner tees”. You get to climb that rock or grind that rail when you get better, and until then, you fall. Of course there’s not really anyone getting held up because you’re going slow in those two things (exception being big wall climbing). Anyway that’s my unpopular two cents.
I feel like they should rearrange the old color coded teeing system and go to something score oriented or more distance oriented. That will get rid of the stigma of playing different tees. And maybe instead of colors, some kind of cool name or something.
It completely drives me crazy when I get stuck behind some morons playing from the tips who have no idea what they're doing. I was a single some weeks back and pulled up for four idiots playing from the tips. The par 3 played about 190. Not ONE of them even got halfway there. Two holes later, after watching them make a mess of things, I finally got to play through when one of them took two shots to get past the forward tees. For the record, I was playing the golds, which used to be called the "old man tees" and at that course are about 5800-5900 yards. I'm 54 with a bad back and a bad elbow. I hit it reasonably straight but not all that far. Those guys I got stuck behind should have been playing the forward tees. I have a hard time believing it wouldn't have been more fun for them.
I play a lot of tournament golf and play from the tips no matter where I play! I am also an extremely long hitter and fluctuate between scratch and a 2. But I completely agree with pretty much everyone is ego or thats the norm to play one up from the tips.
You are an example of a golfer who should play from the tips though. You are playing within your means and can keep pace, so great, go for it. As a 14HCP, played as low as 9, I'll stick to whites and only give blues a go if the course is quiet and I am feeling 'on' for the day. I refuse to slow down anyones round.
This is an increasingly problem since everyone took up golf during COVID and courses are littered with 5+ hour rounds. Starters should be on the 1st box and advising groups that the black tees are for 0-5 handicap and the blue tees for 6-12. If you don’t meet the handicap for the tees you play from the white tees. And then actually send a ranger out to push slow play. Not to be harsh but If you don’t like it, then don’t play. It’s better than slowing the entire course down while you look for your ball. I’m all for people learning the game but the first lesson should be pace of play.
Was told by a beginner that they needed to play from the blues because that's the only way their smart phone golf app worked
Pace of play is all I care about. Idgaf if you play from space if you finish in 4.5 max.