A brief postulate regarding tee boxes

[Matt_Cohn]

If on a certain tee box, (virtually) everyone chooses to tee up on the extreme left or extreme right, day after day, there is something wrong with the hole, or at least with the tee box placement. Agree or disagree?[/size]Obviously it becomes a maintenance issue too, but does this in automatic indicator of something architecturally problematic?

[Jeff_Brauer]

It's usually overgrown trees blocking the tee shot.  I have noted it on a few of my designs and mentioned it to the super or pro, but not much got done.  I don't know if they just don't care, or get no complaints, but one side of a particular tee is always bare.


I suppose any hole with OB on one side might encourage players to play closer to the outside edge to increase the angle to OB.  Leaving it wide might tempt some to use the inside though if they aren't doing the math.  Not sure I ever studied that situation as to whether a tee in such a situation should be narrowed to confine the options and better use tee space by making it longer.


I can't think of any holes off hand without OB or maybe water where I can remember one side being tremendously favored at all times.  Did you have any examples?

[John Kirk]

  Cohn's first postulate:

If on a certain tee box, (virtually) everyone chooses to tee up on the extreme left or extreme right, day after day, there is something wrong with the hole, or at least with the tee box placement. Agree or disagree? Obviously it becomes a maintenance issue too, but does this in automatic indicator of something architecturally problematic?
 

[Kyle Harris]

Might be overthinking it a bit.


One would need a series of especially busy days to even make such a conclusion, I feel.


Right-handed golfers tend to stand in the middle of the teeing ground, putting the ball on the right side of it. On lighter play days, the wear pattern is far more likely to be on the right side of the teeing ground that day.


How far apart are the tee markers?


et. al.

[Matt_Cohn]

Pretty much every example I’m thinking of does involve trees, like 13 at Augusta. Several holes at Olympic Lake are probably like that too; I can’t imagine many folks teeing up on the left side of 4 or the right side of 5.

[Tom_Doak]

Pretty much every example I’m thinking of does involve trees, like 13 at Augusta. Several holes at Olympic Lake are probably like that too; I can’t imagine many folks teeing up on the left side of 4 or the right side of 5.

Well, exactly, which is why your postulate is impossible to fix.  No matter how far right you put the tee on the 4th at Olympic, people are always going to prefer to play from the right side of it, to get the best angle they can against the left-to-right slope of the fairway.