Multi Tee Medals

[peld]

After years of playing all my comps "off the whites", my new club this year operates its monthly medals as multi-tee comps, so you can choose to play off blues (red), yellow or whites, which i suppose is the whole object of the WHS system.

At my current/old club, if i had that option i probably would have picked the yellows, as although i lost a shot it was probably 300 yards shorter and made a few tee shots easier.
- Whites are Par 73, 6,956 yards with CR/Slope as 73.9/131
- Yellows are Par 73, 6,684 yards with CR/Slope as 72.7/127

At my new club, at the moment i get two extra shots on the whites vs yellows (3 vs blues), but i dont think it makes the holes particularly harder (beyond length) :
- Whites are Par 71, 6,466 yards with CR/Slope as 72.0/126
- Yellows are Par 71, 6,132 yards with CR/Slope as 70.5/124
- Blues are are Par 69, 5,499 yards with CR/Slope as 67.6/118

FYI im 8.1 HCI, and length is a stronger part of my game (off the tee at least). The new club is tighter and more penal off the tee so dispersion needs to be tighter, and has a lot more strategic bunkering.

So the question to everyone - what tees do you play if your club allows multi-tee? and why?
Has there been any research on this? Do you take the shots or the shorter course?

 

[Slab]

Take the shorter course and reduced h/cap shots every time if I could. 3 shots difference for me (9/12) between tees and 400yards in distance. However, my average scoring difference between these two sets of tees is nearer 8 shots

So for me its a no brainer, as a shorter hitter with driver the longer course kills my scoring chances

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Whites Par 72, 6,781yds, 73.4 / 127
Yellows Par 72, 6,390yds, 71.3, 123

I don't think men are rated for the reds, nor would we be allowed to use those tees.

Ours rarely offers this but it does do comps off yellows on Saturday, whites on Sundays. I and my group play on the Saturday, do not touch Sundays off whites.

The course is long enough off yellows, whites just make it a slog. I might get an extra shot or two off whites but that doesn't really cover the difference, nor does it make up for the less pleasure that I get from a course that long.

I follow the same logic when I play socially at other courses. Yellows are the tees of preference, they are generally more enjoyable for me. I should add, I am not a long hitter so distance is the enemy.

 

[hairball_89]

not a member anywhere, but my instinct would be the tees where the course rating is nearest to par. I've nothing to back this up in terms of science(!) but the numbers above and respective preferences go along with this thought process!

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

Whites Par 72, 6,781yds, 73.4 / 127
Yellows Par 72, 6,390yds, 71.3, 123

I don't think men are rated for the reds, nor would we be allowed to use those tees.

Ours rarely offers this but it does do comps off yellows on Saturday, whites on Sundays. I and my group play on the Saturday, do not touch Sundays off whites.

The course is long enough off yellows, whites just make it a slog. I might get an extra shot or two off whites but that doesn't really cover the difference, nor does it make for the less pleasure that I get from a course that long.

I follow the same logic when I play socially at other courses. Yellows are the tees of preference, they are generally more enjoyable for me. I should add, I am not a long hitter so distance is the enemy.

I'm confused shouldn't all tees at the course be rated for both men and women under WHS. Every course I've played has ratings across all tees for men and women.

As to the OP point I'd always suggest using the shortest tee possible in this instance as shorter approaches gives more chances at GIR and birdies which can only inspire confidence.

 

[Imurg]

I'd pick our Yellows over the others, even the Reds.....
Playing off the Reds, on some holes, brings more danger into play meaning you'd often take less club from the tee and end up in the same place as you would off the Yellows.
The Yellows don't make any hole harder but they do make several easier.
It's only about 200 yards difference but, from my experience, the Whites play 2 or 3 shots harder even if the CR is only 1.1 higher than the Yellows.

 

[Neilds]

These answers have (pleasantly) surprised me - I thought that testosterone would come in to play and most would say that playing off the whites was the only real golf and yellow was for wimps and seniors.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

Guess you can play off whatever you feel most comfortable playing off

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I'm confused shouldn't all tees at the course be rated for both men and women under WHS. Every course I've played has ratings across all tees for men and women.

I am pretty doubtful that ours has been rated for women off the yellows or whites, same as red have not been for men. We have some raters on here who can confirm why but I suspect it is a combination of relevance and demand.

Ideally, you would be right and all tees would be rated equally.

 

[D-S]

We have had for over a year now 5 sets of tees, which in quite a few comps are all available. 53 (66.5/112), 57 (68.6/117), 60 (70.0/124) ), 63 (71.2/127) and 65 (72.0/131) - all are par 70, these are the men’s ratings.
There is no set move that people make, obviously dependent on your exact index some people gain 1 shot moving from one tee set to another whereas others may gain 2 in the comp - this influences some people’s choice.
Mainly people just play the tees they like or normally play off. There has been little or no fuss about which tees winners have played off, the ready acceptance of this new competition format (as well as the fact that most are for both genders, although this has been the case for quite a long time now) is surprising in an old traditional club.
If you believed the ‘rating just favours length’ and shorter courses are discriminated against, then everyone would play off the 65s - this is certainly not the case as it is the least used set. If anything this has encouraged more people to tee off further forward.

 

[Neilds]

I am pretty doubtful that ours has been rated for women off the yellows or whites, same as red have not been for men. We have some raters on here who can confirm why but I suspect it is a combination of relevance and demand.

Ideally, you would be right and all tees would be rated equally.

We have all 3 rated for men and Red/Yellow for women - guess where everyone plays from?

 

[D-S]

I am pretty doubtful that ours has been rated for women off the yellows or whites, same as red have not been for men. We have some raters on here who can confirm why but I suspect it is a combination of relevance and demand.

Ideally, you would be right and all tees would be rated equally.

They can be rated but only if the club wants them to be and, equally as importantly, that the club has the firm intention of running competitions off the tees.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

They can be rated but only if the club wants them to be and, equally as importantly, that the club has the firm intention of running competitions off the tees.

There is certainly no desire from the current ladies to play yellows or whites, not to say that won't change in the future. The ladies are a small section at my club, nice bunch though. I speak to enough of them to be aware of the demand, or lack of, for a longer course.

The issue with the reds for the mens is likely to be tee box related. The red tees are often smaller areas and the ladies are understandably reluctant to increase the footfall on those. They would be very vocal in opposing the expansion of any use of them.

 

[HampshireHog]

We have had for over a year now 5 sets of tees, which in quite a few comps are all available. 53 (66.5/112), 57 (68.6/117), 60 (70.0/124) ), 63 (71.2/127) and 65 (72.0/131) - all are par 70, these are the men’s ratings.
There is no set move that people make, obviously dependent on your exact index some people gain 1 shot moving from one tee set to another whereas others may gain 2 in the comp - this influences some people’s choice.
Mainly people just play the tees they like or normally play off. There has been little or no fuss about which tees winners have played off, the ready acceptance of this new competition format (as well as the fact that most are for both genders, although this has been the case for quite a long time now) is surprising in an old traditional club.
If you believed the ‘rating just favours length’ and shorter courses are discriminated against, then everyone would play off the 65s - this is certainly not the case as it is the least used set. If anything this has encouraged more people to tee off further forward.

We changed to 4 tees last year, it’s noticeable that there has been plenty of men, typically older members using our forward tees over the winter. They always could have but changing the colours from the original red to green seems to have encouraged this change by ther not being a gender connection.

 

[jamielaing]

At my course I would lose around 1 shot.

It's never been a thought for me as there is only 2 or 3 holes that the additional difference will make any difference. And all of them are actually easier off the backs. No brainer.

If yours are the courses in your signature and you are moving to Bruntsfield there is absolutely no reason to lose two shots playing front tees.

 

[D-S]

We changed to 4 tees last year, it’s noticeable that there has been plenty of men, typically older members using our forward tees over the winter. They always could have but changing the colours from the original red to green seems to have encouraged this change by ther not being a gender connection.

Yes, the reason we moved away from colours was to disassociate them from any connection to genders.
Also locally there have been some odd colour choices. One club has chrome which just looks like a slightly dirty white (we noticed a group in front in an Open there play off the wrong tees as the difference between chrome and white was minimal). Another club has Magenta tees, we were told that these were the tees of the day, there ensued a discussion about what colour magenta was with our ignorance of the colour spectrum being on display - they were actually bright pink both on the tee markers and the scorecard but obviously someone didn’t want to play off the ‘pinks’.
Numbering is quite good as players normally quite like playing course yardages they are used to - it is gradually creeping in.

 

[HampshireHog]

Yes, the reason we moved away from colours was to disassociate them from any connection to genders.
Also locally there have been some odd colour choices. One club has chrome which just looks like a slightly dirty white (we noticed a group in front in an Open there play off the wrong tees as the difference between chrome and white was minimal). Another club has Magenta tees, we were told that these were the tees of the day, there ensued a discussion about what colour magenta was with our ignorance of the colour spectrum being on display - they were actually bright pink both on the tee markers and the scorecard but obviously someone didn’t want to play off the ‘pinks’.
Numbering is quite good as players normally quite like playing course yardages they are used to - it is gradually creeping in.

We also use the course yardages. But everyone I know just refers to the colours Blue, Green, Silver, Black only issue I have is that they are all dark colours and they all look the same to me in winter.

 

[D-S]

We also use the course yardages. But everyone I know just refers to the colours Blue, Green, Silver, Black only issue I have is that they are all dark colours and they all look the same to me in winter.

We had a chat with East Devon GC, they use numbers / yardages but they have different background colours on the scorecards and markers etc. for each tee ste.
They advised that when making the move just never to mention the colours in any communication just the numbers, so we never did and it has worked.
Everyone just refers to the numbers “so let’s play off the 63s today” or in the diary “Midweek Stableford (1P, Q, 53/57/60/63)” i.e. 1 person, qualifying, use either 53, 57, 60 or 63, I couldn’t tell you what the background colour for each tee set is.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

There is certainly no desire from the current ladies to play yellows or whites, not to say that won't change in the future. The ladies are a small section at my club, nice bunch though. I speak to enough of them to be aware of the demand, or lack of, for a longer course.

The issue with the reds for the mens is likely to be tee box related. The red tees are often smaller areas and the ladies are understandably reluctant to increase the footfall on those. They would be very vocal in opposing the expansion of any use of them.

That’s the same with our ladies as well

The perception that there is “ladies tees”

There isn’t any more - we have the three colours and all are rated for both male and female so you can play off any tee you wish

For our winter course which will be rated we are using a good number of the red tee boxes

 

[wjemather]

Our red tees weren't rated for men until October last year, so this year we are looking at giving the option of tee in comps for the first time: White, Yellow & Red for our 'alternate medals' (maximum score format) and Yellow & Red for Stablefords; we may even offer the Blue tees (previously reserved for winter) as an option for both men and women, although they play the same as or very similarly to the reds on most holes. 'Monthly Medals' and trophy comps will remain White tee only for men (for now at least).

I'm also hoping to convince the senior section to play their comps from a choice of Yellow & Red (& maybe Blue) as the latter will be much more suitable for the shorter hitters, but just getting a few of them to play their casual golf from the reds/blues is probably a more realistic goal.