Why don't you just play from the right tees

Why is it that almost every golfer feels that they must play the back tees at every golf course they play.  Recently, I have played with different golfers that shoot over 100 and have handicaps over 30 and they have decided that playing the back tees will help them with their game.  I will be the first of many to tell you it only hurts your game therefore, giving you a higher handicap.

Let's look at Thunderhawk Golf Club as an example.  They happen to have four different sets of tees.  They are the following;

Black Tees: 7031

Brass Tees: 6631

Silver Tees: 6124

Auburn Tees: 5046

This is quite the range if you are looking at the different tee boxes.  Thunderhawk offers course ratings for men and women under the Silver Tees and Women Only for the Auburn Tees.

Now let's look at a hole as an example. I will use a guy that has a 5 handicap and a guy who has a 25 handicap.

The 5 handicap will most likely take the challenge and play the Black tees, I would because I know I will be fine.  The gentleman with a 25 handicap should be playing the silver tees. 

Here are list of reasons;

1. Pace of Play

2. The 5 handicap drives the ball 270 yards on a regular basis. While the person with the 25 handicap will drive the ball around 200 to 240 yards. Yes, now and then you might hit it 260 and I say " Good for you".  Here is an example of the number one hole at the Thunderhawk Golf Club.
             Black Tees, 414 yards

             Silver Tees, 326 yards

The five handicap  will drive his ball in the fairway and his ball will have 145  yards to the pin.  The 25 handicap hits his ball 220 yards and now is 106 yards away from the pin.  If the 25 handicapper would have teed off from the Black tees he would now have 200 yards to the pin.  The 25 handicapper has a better chance of parring the hole from the silver tees than he does from the black tees. 

3. Confidence- if you play the right tees you will gain confidence on the golf course because your scores will drop.

4. Keeping everyone around you happy- playing the right tees keeps the foursome ecstatic because they are not waiting on the bad players. 

5. Your handicap will improve. Don't you want better scores?

There are many more reasons however, why dwell on them as you are getting the point as you need to play the correct tees.  If the USGA didn't feel that this was necessary then we would have one set of tees for everybody.  If I was to play with a PGA Tour player I would then play from another tee box.  This will help me have a better chance in beating them. 

Two weeks ago I had enough time to get 18 holes in at Indian Boundry (This is what I call a confidence booster course). The foursome in front of the two gentleman that I was playing with decided that they were going to play from the back tees.  None of them should have been playing from the Back tees.  They were slowing the golf course down and upsetting everyone around them.  Finally, after a call to the Pro Shop from one of the men that I was playing with pushed the golf course to get the ranger back on the course. The ranger then informed the players that they need to speed it up and play from the white tees. This was around hole 11. 

After the round, I asked one of the players how he played on the back.  His exact words were " I actually had my first birdie of the year today"  quickly my response was "Which hole?  " I believe it was hole 16" he said.  I said congratulations and moved on to put my bags in the back of the car.  Here is the funny part.  This hole measures 425 from the white tees and 470 yards from the blue tees.  This kid walked off bragging about a birdie and no one cared which tees he was playing from. A birdie is a birdie no matter how we look at it.

Here is my advice;

Play from the right tees and your scores will improve.

Until Later,

Trent

By the way I am always open to suggestion on my grammar.  I know it's bad.  However, it's improving and this helps.