Black, White, Yellow - which for you?

I agree that to a point you should be able to play any tee you want, but sometimes championship tees are just too tough for some. I'll give an example of a par 3,4 & 5 competition v championship tees at a place I go to.

Par 3 over water 160 carry V 190 carry to an elevated green surrounded by bunkers, with no mown fairway area to go around the water.

Par 4, approach shot over water, 360 yard hole V 440 yard hole.

Par 5 520 yards V 570, sharp dogleg left 220 yards V 270 to reach the dogleg guarded by big trees that stops you going over it. From the dogleg it's 230 yards to the water and 260 yards to carry the water that goes all the way across the fairway. Basically if you do not have the length to get near the corner then you will just have to chip up to it and still have 300 yards left with a nasty big pond in the fairway.

Competition - 6563 yards, rating 71.3/125
championship - 6974 yards, rating 73.4/131
 
I don't like having to nail a fairway wood or hybrid flat out to reach par 4's either. I don't mind the odd one or two during a round, every course should have a couple or three longer par 4's on them. But when you are having to do it on almost every single hole??
Not fun. When I was younger and could hit the ball a bit further I didn't mind so much, and my ego saw me heading for the furthest tees back that we could play. Nowadays, a course that gives me a set of tees around the 6,000 yards mark does me.
 
A couple of months ago when playing this game I love so much I almost got bored having to continually hit fairway wood on 2nd shots due to the group going off tees that were too long for me

Maybe bored is the wrong word but certainly disenchanted & golf should never feel like that

A decent architect will design the course accounting for the various lengths it can be played

Each course round here has 5 sets of tees and no one plays off the very back unless they're either very very good or very very stupid

The former are a pleasure to watch, the latter are a blight on pace

I'm almost tempted to say that Tees should be aligned to handicap category with cat 1 only off the back, cat 2 one set forward etc etc ... almost tempted as I can see flaws to that system
 
I'd be disappointed to play off anything other than white's or longer especially if I were paying. That's only a comment on the enjoyment I derive from the game, i.e. I want a mix of long irons/woods and shot irons into greens, I want to have to think about different lines off the tee and to have to consider how to manage hazards.

I think most folks want the same challenge (if being honest) but this won't happen making some poor beginner play off the blue tees on a 7000yd monster. Conversely, I don't imagine long hitters want to be playing irons off the tee and then having wedges into greens for most of the round. My lad (9) and I played 9 holes on Sunday with tee differences of 60 yards sometimes, we both enjoyed our game though and the greens proved to be great levellers - especially when a 9 yr old keeps skinning you for 10p bonuses dropping putts in from everywhere:)

The only logical solution is to have tees for each ability bracket, hcp essentially, although this is still only a 'best fit solution' and will leave some a bit isolated.
 
Stick a woman professional off the same back tees as a man in a tournament and you'll get the idea....

Michelle Wie's average driving distance is 257 yards. I don't reckon she'd win much on a course over 7,000 yards long.
;)
 
Last edited:
I play for fun and if I am visting another course and paying for the privelege I especially want to enjoy myself. For me that means not struggling with distance and so it is yellows every time. I like to play whites on my own course because it is good practice for comps but on other courses, unless they are short, I am happy to use the yellows.
 
A lot of sense in the OP, although maybe to quick to write off the red tees. I see plenty of men playing from yellow/white who struggle for distance and would probably enjoy their golf more from the reds if they could "get over themselves".

Don't think the question was really aimed at females but, here's my take on it. When playing a bounce game on an "away" course, especially a marquee course I normally try and weigh a number of factors. The first, since this round is by definition a social one, is who am I playing with? A group of other women playing the reds and so will I. A group of men playing yellows and I would ideally like to join them, so unless it is prohibitively long (much over about 6100 yards for me) I'll do that.

Another factor is that often a number of holes are ruined from the forward tees - changing a challenging tee shot into one that skips most of the trouble with the tee right at the fairway. I'd preferably try to avoid playing from the reds at a course with too many like that.

I'm unlikely to play off the whites but have been goaded into it on occasion, as per the OP it means too many fairway woods into greens and makes a course more monotonous. An interesting challenge once in a while though.

A big issue for me switching to yellow or white tees is that there doesn't tend to be a women's par/SSS measured from them so it's hard to get a realistic idea of how you've scored. Sometimes I opt for the reds simply to get a meaningful score and avoid damaging my confidence....
 
Where do people think the biggest differences are in tees? Between the reds and yellows or between the yellow and whites? As on most courses I've seen it's between the reds and yellows. In which case I can see FD point that a number of holes can be ruined from forward tees.
 
Hacker Khan said:
Where do people think the biggest differences are in tees? Between the reds and yellows or between the yellow and whites? As on most courses I've seen it's between the reds and yellows. In which case I can see FD point that a number of holes can be ruined from forward tees.
Click to expand...

I do agree with you. I have looked (enviously) at the Red tees on a lot of courses and thought that some holes are completely ruined for the ladies that have to play from them.
One in particular is the 5th at Crowborough. From the whites it is a great driving hole where you have to tee off from an elevated tee and cross a ravine to get to the fairway which rises very steeply up towards the green.
The red tee is placed literally 10 yards this side of the ravine and you are teeing off almost into a bank.
Crap hole.
 
Smiffy said:
I do agree with you. I have looked (enviously) at the Red tees on a lot of courses and thought that some holes are completely ruined for the ladies that have to play from them.
One in particular is the 5th at Crowborough. From the whites it is a great driving hole where you have to tee off from an elevated tee and cross a ravine to get to the fairway which rises very steeply up towards the green.
The red tee is placed literally 10 yards this side of the ravine and you are teeing off almost into a bank.
Crap hole.
Click to expand...

Is that while they were occupied? ;)

I agree with you though. We play from the red tees in a fun comp once a year and they straighten so many holes it just makes them a bit boring, especially being shorter as well.

Being just once a year it's fun seeing how much better you can score, but if I played off them much more than that it would become very boring.
 
Well I am in my mid 50`s but i still get it out there and still long , for me a 7000 yard course is about the limit as above that it takes the fun out of it and even more so if you not getting any run on the ball and its all carry . A 7000 yard course is ok if off the tee you are hitting to a wide fairway which is modern design , but a tight long course then you just playing golf and paying to be punished and thats not enjoyable , my home course is 6300 appox , i was also a member before at Dudsbury which is 6996 and the longest course in the area would be East Dorset at just over 7000 , Remedy Oak is longer still but they are doing all the greens again this year , if you are always hitting 6 irons or less into greens at your home club and then go away to play a long course and your short game is not good you will not score anywhere near your handicap
 
I'll always try to play from the furthest back I can...as I like the challenge. As it is, when going away, I'll play from wherever told! The only place where we have been given the choice was Aldeburgh, where, we played off the very backs. Playing a course of 6,603 yards but with no par fives is a challenge, even for the best golfers. The SSS off the Blue tees is 73 against a par of 68!
 
I've not read this whole thread but today at Hanbury was a prime example of playing of the yellows when the conditions suit. Absolutely no run from drives at all today playing the yellows was a sensibe choice. Driver, then 8/7/6 iron in to a par 4.
 
FairwayDodger said:
A lot of sense in the OP, although maybe to quick to write off the red tees. I see plenty of men playing from yellow/white who struggle for distance and would probably enjoy their golf more from the reds if they could "get over themselves".

Don't think the question was really aimed at females but, here's my take on it. When playing a bounce game on an "away" course, especially a marquee course I normally try and weigh a number of factors. The first, since this round is by definition a social one, is who am I playing with? A group of other women playing the reds and so will I. A group of men playing yellows and I would ideally like to join them, so unless it is prohibitively long (much over about 6100 yards for me) I'll do that.

Another factor is that often a number of holes are ruined from the forward tees - changing a challenging tee shot into one that skips most of the trouble with the tee right at the fairway. I'd preferably try to avoid playing from the reds at a course with too many like that.

I'm unlikely to play off the whites but have been goaded into it on occasion, as per the OP it means too many fairway woods into greens and makes a course more monotonous. An interesting challenge once in a while though.

A big issue for me switching to yellow or white tees is that there doesn't tend to be a women's par/SSS measured from them so it's hard to get a realistic idea of how you've scored. Sometimes I opt for the reds simply to get a meaningful score and avoid damaging my confidence....
Click to expand...

I think the big problem is that they are referred to as the 'ladies' tees. Over here the tees are referred to by colour and every tee box has a rating for both men and women. So for instance if you wanted to play from the white tees with me your rating would be 78/140, I would be playing 71.3/125.

I have been in the course playing and in my group once 2 of us played off the back, 1 off whites and 1 off yellows. But because of the slope rating all our handicaps got adjusted accordingly and we played against each other without a problem. This did throw up some interesting things. The old boy playing from the yellows was always alongside me on the fairway most holes as he had a 50/60 yard head start, which made things more sociable because someone is not waiting on his own 50 yards behind you for the green to clear.

I would love to see them adopt this slope and rating system back in the UK.
 
MadAdey said:
I think the big problem is that they are referred to as the 'ladies' tees. Over here the tees are referred to by colour and every tee box has a rating for both men and women. So for instance if you wanted to play from the white tees with me your rating would be 78/140, I would be playing 71.3/125.

I have been in the course playing and in my group once 2 of us played off the back, 1 off whites and 1 off yellows. But because of the slope rating all our handicaps got adjusted accordingly and we played against each other without a problem. This did throw up some interesting things. The old boy playing from the yellows was always alongside me on the fairway most holes as he had a 50/60 yard head start, which made things more sociable because someone is not waiting on his own 50 yards behind you for the green to clear.

I would love to see them adopt this slope and rating system back in the UK.
Click to expand...

That sounds great.
 
I alway try to play from the White tees where ever possible but don't mind the yellow tees but would never even consider the red tees.
 
NWJocko said:
Agreed, there was something similar at Castle Stuart I remember with composite courses based on handicap/ability?

Very rare to see in this country though, the way Adey describes it sounds pretty good.
Click to expand...

There was - I think the "greens" were a mixture of red/yellow tees - some holes you played from red, others from yellow. That's what I did but there weren't IIRC separate male/female par/SSS scores.

When I played the Kings at Gleneagles recently they didn't have male/female SSS for all tees but they did have female championship tees which were a much better length (for me) than the reds and, of course, a female par/SSS.

I'd love to see more courses rating all tees for both men and women but, as a second choice, women's championship tees would be great!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Orikoru
What are you hitting here?
2
Replies
27
Views
4K
Imurg
Imurg
A
First time with stranger.......
2
Replies
37
Views
3K
AndrewK
A
Yeomanterry
Fairness between Genders in a golf competition.
2
Replies
34
Views
2K
Mel Smooth
Mel Smooth
F
23.4 how bad am I?
2
Replies
26
Views
869
Imurg
Imurg
Rlburnside
Gleneagles Kings or Queens?
Replies
19
Views
482
kp17
kp17
Top