Play the right tees

 By Steve Gordon

I see it every time I go to play golf; players playing from the wrong set of tees. I am 74 and even as I hit the ball further than most in the group of seniors I play with, I play the forward gold/senior tees. Depending on the course they can range anywhere from 5200 to 5700 yards generally.

Here is a chart I copied that was published in a national golf magazine:

5-iron Distance	Ideal Course Yardage
100	3600
110	3960
120	4320
130	4680
140	5040
150	5400
160	5760
170	6120
180	6480
190	6840
200	7200

It's not about being macho or playing the whole course. On a good day my 5 iron goes 160-170. My general rule is to play tees set at 6000 yards or less. Think about it. Why do you think there are different sets of tees on golf courses?

Let's say you are playing a 370 yard hole (not considered a long hole by today's standards). What can you do to make the hole playable and fun? In my case with a 5 iron that goes 170, I'd have to hit a 200 plus yard drive (which I do) to have a reasonable chance to reach the green and hope to par the hole. I have friends who only hit their drives maybe 180 yards. How much fun is it hitting a hybrid or a fairway wood into the green and know you have no chance to get on it?

Here is a story I will relate to you. I was probably 5 or 6 years ago when a friend and I were at a local course and playing the 6100 yard tees. We were paired with a single player who stepped up to the back 7000 yard tees. From the first hole it was evident he didn't hit the ball as well as we did yet he was playing a course almost 1000 yards longer than we were.

The bottom line is that when he hit good shots there were par 4's he couldn't reach and a couple par 3's he had to hit a fairway wood or driver because he couldn't reach the green. Several times during the opening holes we "invited" him to play up with us but he said no. We pretty much played the course as a twosome and only saw him on the green. I estimate he lost a minimum of a dozen balls and who knows what he actual score was over 100.

My point is how in the world can that be fun, enjoyable, relaxing, or whatever a casual round of golf should be?

I'd like to interject that I wish there was some way courses could get players to tee off from tees suited for their games but I don't know how they could do that generally at public courses.

When I play courses with my buddies from the gold tees, if I feel a hole is too short I will step back to the next tee. Conversely, my buddy and I will move up a tee if we feel a hole might be too long. Many courses are developing what you might call hybrid or combo tees mixing up the tee boxes to make the course playable for all players. It is a trend I would like to see expanded to all courses.

I recently almost shot my age for the first time from the 5748 yard tees. I'm not breaking par or any scoring records and it is so much fun to play well and post a nice score. Why would I, or anyone, want to make a game that is already hard more difficult?