What approximate yardage do you prefer to play?

[Rob_Waldron]

As I have gotten older (And shorter off the tee) I have put pride aside and attempt to play courses at a maximum of  6,800 - 6,900 yards.

For the newer courses which can stretch to 7,500+ I typically rely upon the caddie to assist me "design" a course where I will be comfortable without sacrificing the integrity of any given hole. We do this by identifying which tee markers to play on each hole. Typically the greatest editing occurs on the 465+ yard par 4  holes.

This summer I did this at Erin Hills which can be extended to over 8,000 yards. At the end of the day we added the yardage from the tees we decided upon and we ended up playing the course at 6,945 yards which was very comfortable for the entire group. The only problem is that I am not quite sure how to post a score from these "Composite Course" rounds.

[Paul Stephenson]

As a near-to-scratch...

Par 72...7000 max

par 70....6600-6700 max

I know I generally should be playing the back tees everywhere I go, but its not as fun hitting 6 or 7 4-irons into greens.  Not to mention the fact that I do not posess tour length.

I tend to look at the rating.  My goal is to go out and shoot par every time, so a rating of around par or just over is the right tee for me.

That pretty much sums my game up as well.  So I'll steal your answer too Brad.

[Chris_Clouser]

I usually play the 6400-6600 yard tees.  This might sound silly but for some reason I like to play the course at that distance as the bunkers seem to be about where my drives would land.  So I have to think my way around the course more.  

If I go back a set of tees, I usually don't have to worry about fairway hazards at all and actually shoot better scores for some reason.    Maybe I should go back to the 7000 yard tees more often.  

[Greg Krueger]

6,800-7,000 for Sea level.

[cary lichtenstein]

I am a 60 year old with a 5 handicap.  I prefer a course between 6600 and 6800.  If I go to a new course and the back tees are at that number I will play there if the back tees are 7400 and the next set is 7000 I will play the 7000.  My ego won't let me go up any farther.

I am a 64 year old with a 6 handicap. On flat courses in Florida, my yardage prefenrences are the same as Tommy's.

When I played the Ritz at 6850, I was an 7 or 8, as soon as I moved to the 6625 teees, my handicap went back to 5 or 6.

[Phil Benedict]

I play the back tees at home which are 6550 par-69.  Add 300-yards for par 72, so 6800 is probably about right.  I always play the next to back tees at resorts, which are usually around 6600 and invariably par 72.  This leaves quite a few wedge approaches to par 4's.

[archie_struthers]

 


6750 is a nice number...on firm and fast links

[Ted Kramer]

6600 probably gives me the best chance to score well, but I'd choose 7k. I like to hit driver, I like to "need" to hit driver during a round of golf. I'd get bored at 6600, unless it was a VERY good golf course.

-Ted

[Garland Bayley]

I usually play what others choose in either the 6300 and 6600 range. On my own, I would choose the 6600 range. These numbers are at sea level. Don't let Pete P fool you. I have played 6600 with him both times I have played with him and he does just fine.

I doubt his pessimistic carry distance statement as I have trouble getting it out past him much if any. I also hope his back quickly gets better and he is back on the links soon.

[tlavin]

6800

[Mike Mosely]

I like to play between 6400 and 6700...I can play courses that are a little longer, but they become driver-fairway wood-pitch and that gets a little repetitious after a while.

[Mike Nuzzo]

The tees I designed for myself were around 6600 yards...
I was playing with a persimmon for much of the time though.
I might be at the 6800 tees more often since I switched back to my "new" 7 year old driver for the Dixie cup...

[paul cowley]

".....but I don't mind going farther back if my playing partners want to."

Heh, Paul, will you arrange for me to play off the tips with Davis one of these days so I can feel like the tiny turd of an even tinier tit-mouse?

Sure Tom if you want...Newark would be a good opportunity.

When I play with Davis, I just hit and try to stay out of the way.
At the opening of one of our courses, he played from the tips....7600 yds, and it was his first time playing.
He shot a 65 with a bogey....wow.

[Tony Petersen]

Ryan -

Outlaw kicks the s**t out of Apache Stronghold, both in design and condition. Winters it plays brown & firm with greens running between 12-13. I'm telling you that you have not played a course like Outlaw in you're entire life. You will fall in love with it (and Yes, I will get you out here in the next couple of months).

Andy -

Same goes for Pa-Ko, Pinon and Black Mesa. All GREAT courses, but not in the same league as Desert Mountain Outlaw. Outlaw is simply the best course in AZ (IMHO)

That's all that I have to say about that!!!

[Matt_Ward]

TonyP:

I too enjoy Outlaw at DM -- but have to ask if the club ever fixed / modified the par-4 10th and the narrow nature of that green.

I really like what Team Nicklaus did there -- but the layout has gotten very little attention -- some of that may be due to the fact that membership at DM doesn't really like Outlaw as others do.

Outlaw offers a solid array of holes although the routing of a few of the par-5's does go in the same general direction -- don't know the exact numbers so you can likely fill in the blanks.

[Steve Kline]

7,000 for me - plus handicap that drives the ball about 265 in normal conditions. I can get it out there 290-300 on a slightly firm course if I'm really playing well.

More important than total yardage is a course with a mix of lengths in the holes. I played Bandon Dunes at 6,900 but not one par 5 was reachable for me. It is really rare I play a course where I can't reach at least one par five in two. The other problem with 7,000 yard courses is that almost every par 3 ends up between 180-210 yards. So, I hit between a 3 and 5 iron on every one - which is extremely boring. There really are very few courses that are set up where you will hit every iron in the bag during a round. Years ago when Pinehurst #2 had 3 sets of tees and the back tees were 7,000 yards or so it was one of those courses. Now that they've added length for the Open I either have to it at 7,300 yards - too long, usually hitting 3 or 4 iron into every par 4 and a couple of 3 woods into some - or 6,700 yards which is too short and results in a lot of short, medium irons.

[Walt_Cutshall]

TonyP-

I agree with you about Outlaw. That is a terrific course--my favorite at DM (and I don't mind the 10th green a bit ).

[Doug Siebert]

Does anyone here really just decide based on yardage?  You don't look at the scorecard and see the actual lengths for the holes?  Sometimes a course can look shorter or longer than it really is based on the total yardage.

All it takes to make a long total yardage play short is an absence of driveable par 4s and reachable par 5s.  There won't be so many yards left to create brutal par 4s with.

If the longest 3 or 4 par 4s are barely reachable for you, you'd probably want to move up.  But if those longest par 4s wouldn't be more than a 7 iron or so, you probably want to move back.  If neither is true, you've likely found the correct tees.

[Jim_Coleman]

    I'm a 6/7, and prefer 6,600.  I'm fighting for this now at my club.  With new tees for added length, our choice now is 6,250 or 6,850.  I'm trying (so far without success) to put in a set of tees at 6,600 (essentially our old back tees pre lengthening) for us mid level players.

[JSPayne]

Mike Cirba....

Sounds like Sevillano Links is just the course you're looking for!

"With the average golfer in mind, Sevillano Links offers a unique golfing experience for players of all abilities. The tees open up the course to a multitude of possibilities, ranging from 5,500 to 7,800 yards. The unprecedented design of the John Daly Signature Course allows each hole to play as a par-5 as well. The par-5 course measures over 10,000 yards, with a par of 90..."  

http://www.sevillanolinks.com/index2.html

[George Pazin]

I usually seek tees around 6500 yards, though I will generally play whatever my playing partners want to play.

I also mix and match quite a bit, if I'm not playing in any sort of match.

[Doug Wright]

Jeff,

I'd say my sweet spot would be 6500-6900 though of course conditions and location have much to do with it. 6900 here in Denver isn't 6900 on the RTJ Trail... On most courses it's the 2d from back tees. I can and will go to the back tees but many times it just isn't as pleasant a round, more of a slog. My index ranged from 5-7 this year.

Others I regularly play with prefer the same tees as me (Indexes ranging from 9-18).  One member of our group is not a long hitter (about a 20 handicapper, he refers to himself as "sneaky short"), and he will play one set of tees up from the rest of us. So his preference would probably be something like 6000-6400.

[Doug Siebert]

   I'm a 6/7, and prefer 6,600.  I'm fighting for this now at my club.  With new tees for added length, our choice now is 6,250 or 6,850.  I'm trying (so far without success) to put in a set of tees at 6,600 (essentially our old back tees pre lengthening) for us mid level players.

 
Jim,

Is that extra 250 yards really a big deal?  I think it is silly how close together some courses have their different sets, because they decide they want to have 5 sets like newer courses do, and you end up with two sets on the women's tee (front and back) and two sets on the men's tee (front and back) plus the back tees which sometimes are just 10 yards back and a bit offset from the set in front.  Such courses don't want to just stick with the two sets they were built with and still really have in practice, because seniors won't play from the women's tees and good players think a course is a toy if it doesn't have some "tips", but somehow think that it is more worthy if it does have tips that at 6400 yards are only 300 yards longer than the regular men's tees.

What would be wrong with playing the 6850 tees when you want a bit more challenge, or perhaps the conditions are favorable (warm, F&F maybe a bit of breeze coming from the right direction to help you on the longer holes)  Then play the 6250 yard tees when you wake up stiff and hung over, see it is only 59 degrees when you tee off, and it just rained an inch and a half overnight.

[Jim_Coleman]

Doug:
   Yes, I believe it's a big deal.  It's the difference between hiting 9 iron/wedge on most pat fours vs. 6-7 iron (or more).  6,250 is just too short, while 6,850 is pretty tough for routine play by many mid-level players.  Understand, on many holes the 6,600 yard course will share tees with the 6,850 course.  The only holes where there will be "five sets of tees" (as you would say) are where the tees are already there and not being used due to the addition of new tees.

[Doug Siebert]

Jim,

So basically you have decided what you think is a comfortable distance for you and are trying to get the course to add another set of tees.  If on the 6250 yard tees you are hitting 9 irons and wedges on the par 4s then definitely I agree those are too short for you.  But if you are hitting 6 or 7 iron or more on the 6850 yard tees those sound just right to me.  I don't see the problem.  I play the tips almost everywhere precisely because I don't want to be hitting 9 irons and wedges to all the par 4s.  I like a few of those, but I also like some where I'm hitting 6 or 7 iron and a few long ones where I will need more than that.

If you told someone from 60 years ago about a course where on the par 4s you had a few 9 irons and wedges, a lot of middle irons in the 5-7 range and a few long irons, they'd probably think the course sounds a bit short, as most amateurs and even pros of the day wouldn't blink at being required to hit fairway woods to reach par 4s.

Golf isn't about having the course conform to one's game, but the other way around.  If the layout of your course is such that the 600 yard difference isn't evenly distributed but concentrated on a smaller number of holes that go from way too short to way too long for you, you could always create a set of composite tees where you play the 6250 yard tees on some holes and the 6850 yard tees on others.  The handicapping system provides a way to adjust the course rating to account for doing stuff like that (22 yards = 0.1 strokes)