Does your club allow non medal play from the whites?

[0]

I put this question up for a couple of reasons..........

Firstly it used to frustrate me no end in a club that I used to play for their team, we were never allowed to set foot on the medal tees except in an actual medal and they weren't every week, so when a rival team came to play us on our own turf we lost that home advantage as the medal tees made it a different course for the home members who knew the yardages and hazard distances backwards from the yellows but rarely from the whites................

Secondly when visiting other clubs on an outing or just with friends and paying their quite high green fees I want to experience the 'proper' course and not the forward tees designed to keep the midweek members games moving along, I always ask if we can play the whites and by the reaction and looks I get you'd think I'd just said "is it okay to dig up all your greens with my wedge?"

The main exceptions to this seem to be the well known expensive clubs like turnberry, Carnoustie, gleneagles, the belfry who don't mind you playing from the whites or even the championship tees if you think your 'ard enough............quite right too as I've paid prob £120+ to play there...
Unfortunately some of the really famous venues are still living in a draconian era and not only can I not play off the whites, but I must arrive in a jacket, use the visitors changing area to change my shoes (after asking numerous people how to I get in) and sit in a separate bar to the real members and in one club a separate bar to my wife!!!!!!!!!!


Just a view of mine that I wanted to share and hear anyone else's opinions and experiences..

 

[brendy]

Yea We play a few points competitions from our back tees. I guess for visitors it is a balancing act between value for money and speed of play.

 

[Region3]

Whites at ours are only for competitions, and yes it frustrates the heck out of me. Why would I want to practice on a shorter course than I play for my handicap on?

 

[Marko77]

I don't think there is any rule as such preventing members using the medal tee's I just don't think it is the done thing. We are a club attached to a hotel so I can see it causing confusion amongst visiting parties if they saw people using the medal tees when it wasn't a known member competition day.

When going up in evenings for a few holes I'll use the medal tee's though.

 

[fundy]

technically not supposed to at ours but no one bats an eyelid, that said it only makes a big difference on one hole realy

i always ask when booking a tee if playing at a different course, and will either argue or ask for cheaper green fee if not allowed

 

[hangover]

I honestly believe a lot of golf clubs need to relax a lot of their rules to encourage younger people to join. As much as I love golf I despise a lot of the outdated rules a lot of courses seem to have.

 

[Robobum]

Play off the whites all the time at our place. Most members choose to play from the yellows as they just want to be out enjoying a knock.

 

[Fyldewhite]

We play from the whites in competitions (and team matches) only.... but we do run two a week over the whole summer. Tees of the day (yellows) are exactly that, the tees that get the most hammer and playing off them protects the whites to some extent. If we allowed play from the whites all the time then the yellows wouldn't even be needed. All that said there isn't a massive difference on 3/4 of the holes anyway.

 

[HRC99]

Play off the whites all the time at our place. Most members choose to play from the yellows as they just want to be out enjoying a knock.

Ditto. I'll only play from the whites once they're out after a winter's rest.

 

[FourPutt]

We play off the whites whites quite regularly, with non-members playing from the yellows. (unless guests of a member)

The blue championship tees aren't even put out on the tee box unless there's a blue-tee competition though, so we rarely get practice off those and that's an extra 500 yards or so.

 

[Smiffy]

The main exceptions to this seem to be the well known expensive clubs like turnberry, Carnoustie, gleneagles, the belfry who don't mind you playing from the whites or even the championship tees if you think your 'ard enough...........

Have Carnoustie changed their "policy" then??
Whenver I've played it in the past (which admittedly was some time ago now) you had to play from their alloted tees, which varied from week to week.
We used to book well in advance and didn't know until we arrived what tees we were actaully playing off. One year we played it right off the tips.

 

[PNWokingham]

Anyone - member or visitor - at our place can play from any tee any time

 

[drawboy]

NO, and I've seen committee members tell players off for doing so when not in club comps.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

We always play off the whites, it's not always right at the back but within 10 yards.

 

[Imurg]

I don't think there's a rule at my place but as it only makes 80 yards difference over the whole course it's largely irrelevent.

 

[USER1999]

This always annoys the heck out of me when I have paid a green fee. Green fees effectively buy you membership for the day, so why can't I play off the members tees? (or park in the members car park?).

 

[Doh]

We have been playing of whites at any time for a number of years now. Also if visitors ask to play off them they also are allowed.

Beats me why other clubs dont do this.

 

[FG_HOOR]

i play off the medal tees all the time bar some occasions when i play the shop sweep our club pro has some weekends. we have 3 'tiger' tees which my friends and i play off at times. i think some of the other members don't approve but i think the club should be happy that we are willing to play the longer course off the medals.

 

[chrisd]

We can play off the whites at any time



Chris

 

[USER1999]

We as members always play off the whites. However, the whites are very very rarely the 'whites' we use for comps.

We even paid a fortune to expand some of the tiger tees, so we could use them more often, but somehow never do.