COMMUNITY

For a woman to play from the whites would be, in most cases the same a the men playing from the tips. The hazards; water, bunkers are where they are for the typical regular person that SHOULD be playing those tees. So when you play reds the bunkers, water, etc. will be a lot closer to your landing areas. When you play whites my guess would be that you come up well short of these areas, thus keeping you out of trouble and saving strokes.

Why go back to the Red Tees if you play better from the White Tees? You should play from whatever set of tees offer you a challenge and if playing those tees also reduces your handicap, enjoy! After all shouldn't that be your goal, to enjoy playing. If you were to move back to the tips and your handicap jumped from say 18 to 26, then you could assume that the tips are too long for you. But if you play better from the Whites and you happen to shoot lower scores, why not stay there? It's not my intention to pick a set of tees that minimize my handicap but a set of tees that offer me a reasonable chance to be successful and provide me a level of enjoyment. It wouldn't be any fun to shoot nothing but high scores every time I played. It's no fun having 3-woods into par-4's all day long. That's why I rarely play the longest set of tees. I can play back there but I won't always have a lot of fun. I usually try to play a set of tees that are about 6,500 yards. Lately I have been playing shorter tees and discovering that I am not overpowering the shorter tees. I must be losing some distance with age.

Man, after I posted I noticed that it has been six years since I went to St. Andrews and played The Old Course! I need to lay a plan to go back again.................

yeah I get what you are saying I guess what I meant was that my scores aren't lower though - I'm still a mid-90's golfer since like Mongo said I stay out of trouble but might need an extra shot to get to the green. So I was just trying to figure out for me should I shoot for lower scores by possibly going back to the red where I have the length for GIR or stick with the whites since they keep me out of trouble and work on maybe getting more distance. Either way my handicap should go down either lower scores or higher slopes/ratings so that's fine. I just felt like to drop that much my scores should be much better LOL!

I see, I would pick whichever tees you get the most enjoyment out of since that ought to be your primary goal. At least as I see it. As you develop more distance you can move back a set and challenge yourself that way. Good luck.

Mmmm. A couple of your comments made me think, and since I haven't played the courses you play, or played with you, about all I can offer are things to explore.

- At many courses the red tees are set off to the side. Is that the case where you play? If so, this could be the reason you get "in more trouble" from the reds. It can force you to aim on an angle to the fairway, where from the whites the tee box may be more in line with the fairway. If so, pay more attention to your alignment and aiming point when playing from the reds.

- Yes missing more fairways from the reds could be mental too. There may be a difference in your concentration level. If so, you need to work on that when playing from the reds.

- Here's another mental side possibility, because a 1,000 yard difference SHOULD matter. When moving back to the white tees it's natural to 'try' to get as good or better results than when playing the reds. This means your body responds well to goal setting, and if you move up to the red tees you should set concrete goals for improvement vs. the white tees. E.g. Identify which holes you should be able to reach in regulation that you can't from the whites and make it your goal to do so. Make it your goal to have shorter approach shots, but not just shorter. Be specific. Use the distance between the white and red tees to establish your goal for each hole. Make it your goal to get closer to the hole on your approach shots. You should have an acceptable distance to the hole for you 7 iron that is closer to the hole than for your 5 iron. So now, if you are getting closer approach shots, you also have a goal to improve your approach shots and give yourself more 1-putts.

Yes actually they are and alignment has been an issue for me. Good point! Lots of great things to think about next time I head out....no idea when that will be but looking forward to trying out some new mind sets. Thanks for the thoughts!

You do have to re-focus your game when playing from shorter tees.

I'm still a mid-90's golfer since like Mongo said I stay out of trouble but might need an extra shot to get to the green.

Putting, along side with control, is the king of the game. Anyone can take an extra shot and still make par.

I love this chart! It comes from the Tee It Forward movement endorsed by Natalie Gulbis and Jack Nicklaus. The number on the far left is the distance you hit your driver. The numbers to the right of that are the recommended course length you should play. Although I play to a six hdcp, I only hit my driver about 230-250. Thus, I should play from tees that are between 6,000 and 6,400 yards. This should take the guess work out of which tees to play.

275 6,700 - 6,900
250 6,200 - 6,400
225 5,800 - 6,000
200 5,200 - 5,400
175 4,400 - 4,600
150 3,500 - 3,700
125 2,800 - 3,000
100 2,100 - 2,300