What Tees to Play From?

[Dunk]

At my course, it's recommended that players with a handicap 5 and under should play from the tips, from 6-14 the blue tees, 15-24 the whites, and above 24 the reds.

I ocassionally play with a couple of guys that play from the tips, yet I'm sure their hdcps are above 24.  In fact one of them I've never seen break 100.  Still, they insist on playing from the tips.  The reason, they hit the ball a looooong way off the tee. 

My question, what is more important in determining what tees to play from, distance off the tee, or handicap?

[Spanky]

For me it's handicap. I can hit the occasional long ball but it will rarely find the fairway. I tend to always play the white tees.

[Uisce Beatha]

I use slope.  I shoot for something in the 120-130 range.  Sometimes I'll play a tee outside the range but it's seldom.  I play blues at my home club at 131 but I know it very, very well.  Played 119 this morning off the back tees at another course.  No tips at that course.  I don't like it much.  Can't get a good differential there.

[Dunk]

I use slope.  I shoot for something in the 120-130 range.  Sometimes I'll play a tee outside the range but it's seldom.  I play blues at my home club at 131 but I know it very, very well.  Played 119 this morning off the back tees.  No tips at that course.  I don't like it much.  Can't get a good differential there.

I never thought of using slope as a way to determine which tees to play from, but it does make sense.

[Uisce Beatha]

I use slope.  I shoot for something in the 120-130 range.  Sometimes I'll play a tee outside the range but it's seldom.  I play blues at my home club at 131 but I know it very, very well.  Played 119 this morning off the back tees.  No tips at that course.  I don't like it much.  Can't get a good differential there.

I never thought of using slope as a way to determine which tees to play from, but it does make sense.

I hardly pay any attention to length.  While I don't claim to hit the ball 320 every time I'm long enough that a 7100 yard course doesn't bother me.  If it's sloped at 125 I reckon I can handle it.

But then I'll three putt for bogey. 

[spacey]

I tend to play from the whites because I'm not a long hitter (by a long shot) and the *fudge*in' game is difficult enough, i don't really feel like I need to make it tougher on myself. Got nothin' to prove to no one.

[Clive]

I've always felt that the handicap-to-tee rule only worked well for the extremes, especially the high handicappers.  I've met any number of low-cappers who are short as hell off the tee and could NEVER survive playing even the blues, let alone blacks.

In the middle range, it's hard to say.  There are guys (like me) who are long enough that playing whites means not needing driver on any hole (unless perhaps driver + something can get home in two on a par-5).  Not a fan of that.  Not that I need the course or game to be harder than it is, and not that I shoot par from the whites.  Just that everyone likes "taking the test", and golf generally includes a driver or 3-wood off the bulk of the par-4s and par-5s.

For the most part, I follow Uisce's slope rule.

[Aske]

i've posted several time on figs,  the only thing that happens when i move up or back tees is that I keep posting the same damn scores.   

my tee misses (occasional slice/hook tee shot)  would still end up unplayable/unfindable/ob 90% of the time, and the remainder of my 'handicap' would also still likely occur- missing greens just to the left or right... i seem to do this no matter what club is in my hands- it's more of a not adjusting to the lie well enough to counteract the 'lie induced' ballflight.
 

[Clive]

What I find is that, regardless of tee set, the typical player pounds driver off every non-par-3 tee.  So a guy who's mid- to high-handicap because he's wild off the tee will be wild despite moving up.  No time saved.

At least he won't be hitting 3-irons 40 yards wide of the greens, though.

[Uisce Beatha]

What I find is that, regardless of tee set, the typical player pounds driver off every non-par-3 tee.

Can't resist the threadjack... 

This is often due to poor course management by players obviously but I think it's equally due to poor course design at many/most tracks.  So many courses don't force you to think about the smart play off the tee.  At the other end of the extreme is a course like Carnoustie where you saw the best player out there hitting iron off the tee often - including on a par-5.

[stroh]

Chicks dig the long ball.

[stroh]

I agree whiskers!  I have started hitting irons off the tee on many holes I struggle with.



On Topic:  I'm kinda like Aske.  I score pretty much the same from any set of tees.  I usually defer to the group I'm playing with.

[MFAWG]

What I find is that, regardless of tee set, the typical player pounds driver off every non-par-3 tee.  So a guy who's mid- to high-handicap because he's wild off the tee will be wild despite moving up.  No time saved.

At least he won't be hitting 3-irons 40 yards wide of the greens, though.

No, but he'll still hit a 2d shot 3 wood from type of stupid yardage on every par 5, and top it 75 pct of the time...

[Walfredo]

I always play the blues on the courses I play.  Anything around 6600 yards is good for me.  But like aske I can shoot the same from the tips as the whites most of the time.  I lose my strokes around the greens most of the time.  I have plenty of length off the tee and my tee shot misses aren't too bad generally.  The worst thing for me to do to myself lately is give myself a half wedge.  When I play smart to my favorite full yardages I'm fine regardless of the tees.

[Uisce Beatha]

I'm don't know if I tend to shoot roughly the same scores from different sets of tees as I usually stick with one at a any particular course.  However, if this is normally the case for a player keeping an index he should definitely pick one or the other depending on if he wants to lower his index or sandbag. 

Obviously doing the math in reverse yields partial scores that aren't possible but consider what it takes to record an 18.5 differential at Pebble Beach.

Blue

Yardage: 6,737
Rating: 73.8
Slope: 142
Score: 97.05

Gold

Yardage: 6,348
Rating: 72.3
Slope: 137
Score: 94.73

White

Yardage: 6,116
Rating: 71.2
Slope: 134
Score: 93.14

Looking at it another way, here's what a 94 gets you at the same course.

Blue

Yardage: 6,737
Rating: 73.8
Slope: 142
Differential: 16.1

Gold

Yardage: 6,348
Rating: 72.3
Slope: 137
Differential: 17.9

White

Yardage: 6,116
Rating: 71.2
Slope: 134
Differential: 19.2